Chippenham, Wiltshire: 22 November 2012 - Arkivum, the archiving specialist, has launched A-Stor Pharma, a digital data archiving service developed specifically to meet the needs of the healthcare and life sciences industries. A-Stor Pharma is a managed and entirely scalable cloud storage service that integrates with the customer’s existing infrastructure and allows them to keep valuable data 100 per cent secure for the long term.

A-Stor Pharma enables life sciences companies to become fully compliant with industry regulations, such as the 21CFR Part 11 and GMP Annex 11 guidelines. It is particularly suited to bio-technology, clinical trial management and pharmacovigilance businesses, where records need to be stored for extended periods of time, but remain accessible at short notice.

Jim Cook, CEO at Arkivum, explained: “Life sciences and large pharmaceutical organisations are experiencing explosive growth in data volumes. This data, typically generated from Trial Master Files (TMF), Next Generation Sequencing, LIMS, GMP, Microarrays and CTMS systems often needs to be stored for up to three generations. This means the cost of primary storage is becoming an ever increasing management challenge. A digital archiving service such as A-Stor Pharma provides a viable and cost-effective alternative while guaranteeing the integrity of the data should it need to be accessed in the future.”

FDA regulation 21 CFR Part 11 and EU GMP Annex 11 require all electronic records to be protected and offer proven authenticity, while remaining easy to retrieve throughout the mandatory data retention period. Arkivum offers complete transparency in the processes, technologies and facilities it uses to store data. A-Stor Pharma operates as an open system and by integrating end-to-end checksum technologies, is able guarantee authenticity, confidentiality and data integrity.

Daniel Watkins, Head of Operations and Infrastructure at Institute of Reproductive Sciences —Oxford Fertility Unit said: “Security is of key importance to our business, Arkivum’s A-Stor Pharma service allows us to store our encrypted data for the long term in a cost efficient way that is entirely scalable and reduces pressure on our internal IT infrastructure. Moreover, using electronic records allows us to work much more efficiently, and the A-Stor service ensures we can access that data at short notice, as and when it is required.”

A-Stor Pharma uses LTO/LTFS data tape technology, which costs less than half the price of keeping data on in-house SAN solutions. It also dramatically reduces a customer’s power consumption and heat generation. Arkivum offers the only archiving solution to guarantee 100 per cent data integrity; three copies of the data are maintained at all times – two in Arkivum’s data centres and one held offline in a third party escrow service. This low-risk approach offers a greater level of security to customers, yet does not impact upon accessibility. An A-Stor gateway appliance featuring drag and drop functionality is available on the customer’s own network, enabling quick and simple search and retrieval of data within five minutes.

For organisations required by law or regulation to store all information onsite, Arkivum offers OSCAR (On-Site Cloud Archive), a revolutionary cloud archiving solution. The remotely managed, all-in-one pod solution provides the same 100% data integrity promise and level of service as A-Stor Pharma, but within a corporate firewall.

For more information about Arkivum, please visit www.arkivum.com.

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About Arkivum

Founded in 2011, Arkivum specialises in the management and storage of an organisation's information assets. Arkivum delivers systems that can intelligently manage content to efficiently store and retrieve data over the long term while offering a highly cost effective solution, with low up-front investment and zero risk.

Arkivum was formed as a spin-out from the University of Southampton.  With a world-class reputation in the field of digital preservation, the University has been working for over a decade to develop best practice for the safe keeping of digital data over the long term. With on-going links to the University, Arkivum has direct access to state-of-the-art research and this is complemented with a team that has in-depth experience in datacentre operations and storage system implementation.

Arkivum provides a completely transparent data archiving service and its approach to data safety and security is simple; it keeps multiple copies of customers’ data in secure UK data centres and actively manages its integrity to ensure it remains in bit-perfect condition all the time. Arkivum relies on proven storage technology and open standards to deliver fast and efficient online access. The company’s unique solution is the only system available on the market which guarantees 100% data integrity.

More information can be found at http://www.arkivum.com/