Discovering the potential of cloud computing in accelerating the search for curing serious illnesses

Derided, when it emerged in 2007 as a fad, cloud computing has proved to be a viable business model for remotely delivering IT services through the Web (and other media) on a pay-as-you-go basis. The flexibility of this emerging computing service has opened many possibilities for organizations. Drug companies and medical research centers are among those organizations that are likely to benefit from this new IT service model. As well as providing massive cost-savings, cloud computing could offer these organizations the opportunity to greatly enhance the efficiency of their operations. For cloud providers, this is a new field to expand their reach. The aim of this article is to explore this new development and the potential of cloud computing in contributing to the advancement of research in life science and explain why this IT service model (despite many of its problems) could be game-changer for companies engaged in this business. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.