by: John H. Jones, President – LabLynx, Inc.

Here at LabLynx, we have been providing our webLIMS.com product as a SaaS/Cloud based LIMS for the past 2 years.  This has been a highly successful product offering for not only new customers but long time existing customers have started switching to our Cloud services over hosting the LIMS in their own internal IT infrastructure.

As part of our continued R&D efforts in Cloud Computing, I have decided to use my LIMS Journal Blog to chronicle a new experiment in Cloud Computing.  It will be called “DIY (do-it-yourself) Cloud-in-a-Box”.  The research in this area has already been going on for the past 6 months and there has been tons of failures and false starts with this experiment and so I want to spare everyone that pain by documenting our successes and failures from this point forward. 

While we have had a Hosting Grade Cloud Infrastructure for the past 2 years, it is not a packaged system in a box.  Let’s put it this way…  Far from a box it is a good sized section of a SAS 70 II data center.  What we have currently is far from being a DIY Cloud-in-a-Box.  This new experiment is to take all that we know about Cloud Computing for the regulated industries and create a packaged appliance that can scale out without limits.  We intend to use this to evolve our current Cloud Infrastructure into a new and more efficient system.

What is a Cloud-in-a-Box and why have one?

Well, let’s start by saying why a Cloud-in-a-Box is actually needed and what problems it solves.  Folks in the regulated industries such as Life Sciences, Pharmaceuticals, Environmental and Food Testing, Healthcare, etc. fall under a number of regulations such as SOX, CLIA, HIPAA, HITECH, 21 CFR part 11, NELAC, CAP, ISO 17025, and the list goes on and on.  There is a common thread across all of these regulations and it centers around the security and integrity of the data.

Since we have been providing our webLIMS for customers that fall under these regulations, we have had to provide an infrastructure that complies fully with each and every one of these regulations.  We are audited constantly and have had no significant notices and all of them have been immediately addressed to the satisfaction of all auditors.  All of this has served to evolve our Cloud Infrastructure to the point that meeting these regulations has become relatively easy these days.  However, it has come at a huge cost to LabLynx in developing our production Cloud Infrastructure.  I will not provide an exact cost figure but our Cloud Infrastructure is well into the multi-hundreds of thousands of dollars to build out and it continues to grow as our Cloud Hosting business grows.

So you may ask… Why didn’t you just use one of the large Cloud Providers to build on?  That is a good question but there are two very good answers.  First, it is control over our environment down to every detail.  This single reason alone is a deal breaker when it comes to outsourcing to one of the large Cloud Providers.  They simply do not and cannot comply with all of the regulations and audit requirements that we fall under and if we had hosted in those environments, we would have failed the first audits without anyway to address it.  So that makes outsourcing for us impossible and we would contend for anyone trying to do what we are doing.  The second reason is the cost.  In order for us to provide the same level of computing capabilities, redundancy, High Availability, Disaster Recovery, performance, etc., the costs would have been several times more expensive than building out our own infrastructure when you factor it on a per customer, per month basis.  So in summary, we chose to build our own Cloud Infrastructure in order to be compliant with all regulations our clients fall under and to provide it in such a way that it is cost effective to the customer.

So what is the key to being able to comply with all regulations and being able to do it cost effectively?  Simple…  It is the “Private Cloud”.  We decided long ago to provide our Cloud Computing environment in two different ways.  We provide a Public Cloud for our non-regulated customers and a Private Cloud for our regulated customers.  The cost structure and technical requirements for the Public Cloud versus the Private Cloud are similar but different enough that it is generally worth having both offerings.

This is now a great lead into “What is a Cloud-in-a-Box”…  It is a packaging of all the hardware and software needed to provide both a Pubic and Private Cloud but I feel that it should not stop there.  It should provide all of the technical design, user, administrator, maintenance and validation documentation within the framework of a Quality Manual.

So where is this all going?

Well, the purpose of this series of blog postings will be to take the reader from the concept of a “Cloud-in-a-box” to actually having one that can serve as a Public Cloud or Private Cloud platform.  In the end, we hope to have a working, fully functional appliance along with a complete Quality Manual on the system.  Since LabLynx is a for-profit organization, this series of articles is not being done out of the goodness of my heart, it is being done to make a buck.  There, how’s that for openness? 

When I get this “Cloud-in-a-box” done, you can build your own without sending LabLynx a dime but if you want to save yourself the aggravation of dealing with all the details, trials and errors, then you can simply order a finished box from LabLynx and put it in your own datacenter or we will host it for you in ours and maintain it as part of the hosting service.  You can choose whether to DIY or get it packaged from LabLynx based upon what is best value for you.  You can’t say fairer than that!

What’s Next?

In the next blog posting, I will provide an outline of the Quality Manual for this “Cloud-in-a-Box”.  We will give it a product name and logo.  After that, the series will continue until we reach the end and there is a product ready for you to build yourself or buy or rent.  What is great about all this is that you will learn the inside details of the system and how it complies with regulatory requirements that your lab may be operating under.  So when it comes to the audit, you are getting a first hand look at how the system is designed, documented, constructed, operated and maintained.  This will take the mystery out of Cloud Computing and provide a nuts and bolts view that anyone can appreciate.

At the very least, you will know a tremendous amount about Cloud Computing and you will be able to intelligently evaluate Cloud Hosting providers and know what questions to ask or how to audit them for your own purposes.

The DIY, Cloud-in-a-Box Series:

DIY, Cloud-in-a-Box, Part 1

DIY, Cloud-in-a-Box, Part 2

posted by:  John H. Jones, President of the Laboratory Informatics Institute

I want to thank all of the members of the Laboratory Informatics Institute who have helped spread the word about www.limsforum.com to help drive the membership in this Internationally based user’s group.  Our membership is now at over 10,000 and we are gaining over 1,000 new members per month.

What makes this member driven group unique is its diversification beyond simply the traditional LIMS (Laboratory Information Management Systems) user.  As with any healthy ecosystem, diversification of members is an absolute necessity in order to drive innovation.  This diversity has lead to interesting discussions that directly impact how LIMS are developed, deployed and what functionality makes up the next generation of LIMS.  Members from Information Technology, business, government, laboratories, healthcare and not to mention the large and diverse areas of physical sciences and life sciences make up this unique professional group.  What’s more, these same members are spreading the success of the LIMSforum by word-of-mouth.

If you are not currently a member of the group, www.limsforum.com, you will want to be sure and join it today and check out the numerous special interest subgroups.  Membership is free and open to everyone who is also a member of www.linkedin.com.

posted by: John H. Jones

If you have ever had to purchase a LIMS, you know what a chore it can be.  First there are over 100 LIMS vendors and products to choose from; you have to sort through all those vendors and products and try to find a small, manageable group that can meet your functional and business needs and if that is not hard enough, the fun really begins when you ask…  “How much is that LIMS in the window?”

This seems like a simple enough question doesn’t it?  Well, I hear from all to many customers that getting a price list is like pulling hen’s teeth.  Have you ever seen a hen with teeth?  Getting a LIMS vendor price list is about as rare.  Have you ever heard the saying: “If you have to ask how much it costs, then you cannot afford it”.  All of these cliché’s apply nicely to today’s LIMS industry.

Before we get into how to deal with this problem, let’s start with something completely different and entertaining.  Watch this short video to get into a good mood:

 

So how to deal with the license and pricing issues:

There are a series of questions that you need to ask the LIMS vendor early on in the search stage when choosing a LIMS.  Licensing and pricing is one of the easiest (for you anyway) ways to immediately screen any LIMS.  What good does it do for you to search for a LIMS that you cannot afford.  You may really like a particular LIMS but if it does not fit your budget you may as well walk on by.  Many LIMS vendors will say that pricing should be the LAST thing you should look at.  They say, Why would you buy a LIMS that won’t meet your functional needs and requirements?  I agree with those vendors, the only thing is, you are not buying a LIMS at this stage, you are screening LIMS vendors and products.  So you may as well start with the easiest part and get licensing and pricing information very early.

Now here is where the fun begins.  The LIMS salesman is on commission / bonus or otherwise has a big stake in getting a LIMS sold.  The more you spend the more money he makes.  Don’t let anyone fool you.  The LIMS industry is no different business than any other.  It’s a business for profit and profit is driven by higher revenues.   So here is how the game works.  The salesman really wants to focus on your needs and requirements.  Now that sounds logical and good.  In his pursuit of requirements he starts building value.  As with any good salesman, he will find your pain points and then focus on how his product addresses those pain points.  This will be done through various iterations without once getting into the cost aspect.  Finally you will be getting a proposal from the LIMS vendor along with a demonstration that will make you feel really good.  Voila, the salesman has built value and you acknowledge that value.  This makes it easy for the salesman to now price his proposal based on value to you rather than on a price list.  This allows him or her to maximize the revenue potential of the LIMS sale.  This is a fundamental reason it is next to impossible to get a retail price list from a LIMS vendor.

Now all of that is fine and good.  However, by the time that entire process is done, you have many hours of many people invested in the LIMS purchasing process and that is with just one of up to five LIMS vendors you are looking at.  You can see why the purchasing process for a LIMS takes months in many cases and prices can vary wildly.

So where does this leave us?  Well, it leaves us with the million dollar question:  “How much is that LIMS in the window?”  Granted, the window in this case is probably a Microsoft Window.

It is all fine and good for the LIMS salesman to build value but let that happen after he has given you a price list and plain English explanations in writing of how the product is licensed.  Some of the more paranoid vendors will want you to sign an NDA so that you do not share their price list.  That is fine.  Just remember that as you proceed through the LIMS purchasing process.  All those sorts of little things should add up.

The Bottom Line:

Narrow down a group of LIMS products and vendors by asking for their retail price list and licensing terms.  Don’t immediately disqualify a vendor based upon their retail price list.  They will all compete for your business.  You need this so that you can at least know how to build your budget or determine whether or not the product can even come close to your budget.

There are many, many factors that make up the cost of a LIMS such as the license price, recurring maintenance and support charges and finally, not least of which is the cost of implementation, validation, training and IT infrastructure.

There is a free resource to help you get through this entire process and there is a user’s group on-line that has real world users to help you.  Fill out this form to download your free copy of the LIMSpec 1.0 LIMS User Requirements Specification: http://www.jotform.com/form/72235958005  and be sure to go to http://www.limspec.com to join a user’s group on Linkedin that addresses these specific topics.  These tools have been used by thousands of labs to successfully select a LIMS to meet their needs. 

Give it a whirl.

Well this blog post has nothing to do with LIMS but is simply a tribute to an individual that I have admired for years and have had the pleasure of viewing most every week on PBS stations.  I speak of none other than the late Jack Horkheimer.  I am sure that many of you know of the late night PBS program that usually ran just around the sign-off time each night on PBS.  I for one, watched Jack throughout all of the 80’s and 90’s and then kind of lost track in the 2000’s.  I now regret that since Jack recently passed away.  I wished that I had continued to watch his short clips every night.

If you have ever watched Star Gazer (formerly Star Hustler) you would know what a great guy Jack was and how he influenced so many young science enthusiasts.  This is truly a loss.

Star Gazer is a five-minute astronomy show on public television hosted by Jack Foley Horkheimer (born Foley Arthur Horkheimer, June 11, 1938 – August 20, 2010)^[1] executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium.^[2] On the weekly program, Horkheimer informed the viewer of significant astronomical events for the upcoming week, including key constellations, stars and planets, lunar eclipses and conjunctions, as well as historical and scientific information about these events. Episodes usually feature Horkheimer in front of a green screen, where he appears to sit on top of a planetary ring on one side of the screen. Horkheimer then uses the screen to illustrate starfields and diagrams appropriate to his subject. Star Gazer has been in weekly production since 1976, and has produced over 1,500 episodes.

Now for one final treat…  The following is Jack’s last and final video recording of the Star Gazer.  Watch and enjoy!

 

So remember Star Fans, Keep Looking Up!

Revenues for the SaaS market on the whole are projected to grow from $13.1 billion in 2009 to more than $40 billion in 2014

Today I read an interesting article at Infoworld “IDC: SaaS momentum skyrocketing”.

Interest in the SaaS (software as a service) delivery model is growing to the point that by 2012, almost 85 percent of new vendors will be focused on SaaS services, according to new research from analyst firm IDC.

Also by 2012, some two-thirds of new offerings from established vendors will be sold as SaaS, IDC said.

At LabLynx, our SaaS / Cloud Based LIMS offering, http://www.webLIMS.com has exploded the growth of our company.  We introduced the new Cloud based version of our LIMS in 2008 and in 2009 our revenues were double that of 2008 and now in 2010 our revenues have already exceeded by 25% all of our revenues for 2009 and we are only half way through the year.  The reason for this explosive growth is SaaS / Cloud Computing and our wide variety of product offerings for Laboratory, Scientific and Health Informatics that are offered exclusively as Cloud Applications.  In fact our traditional license sales are down 10% while the SaaS (webLIMS) sales are at almost triple digit growth.

The IDC report supports this observation saying “License revenues for traditional on-premises applications will drop roughly $7 billion this year and are likely in permanent decline, since SaaS is generally sold via subscription, the report adds.”

The large, legacy software companies that depend upon licensed software sales will have challenges in moving to SaaS/Cloud based applications.  The simple reason is that they will be loosing the bulk of their revenues (license fees) as they start offering SaaS alternatives.  Some of those legacy software companies have started to rethink their move into Cloud Computing because of the negative revenue impacts.  Read “Why some vendors regret becoming cloud providers”. The larger issue here is that large enterprise software companies that move into cloud computing could find themselves cannibalizing their existing market. Thus, they might end up selling cloud services to replace their more lucrative software solutions.

I think it is safe to say that SaaS / Cloud Computing is here to stay and the growth for these technologies and business models in the area of LIMS and Laboratory Informatics is going to continue to grow rapidly.  I think we can expect a fundamental market shift in the software market as a result.  While providing a cloud service will indeed conflict with the license revenue requirements of legacy software vendors and reduce margins in many instances, not providing a cloud service could cause a vendor to lose its market altogether to another provider. Thus, it makes much better sense that vendors focus on providing the most innovative solutions, including the use of lower-cost and lower-margin cloud computing solutions, or end up offering no solutions at all.