Advantages: Perform technology maintenance and upgrades without downtime
Clinical trials are 24/7 global operations. Any downtime, at any site, can lead to lost time and filing delays. However all technology will eventually requires maintenance or upgrade. To counter this, Timaeus enables performance maintenance and upgrade without incurring downtime.
Enabling “in-flight” maintenance and upgrade
Utility information providers have employed distributed architecture techniques to enable “in-flight” (i.e., zero-downtime) maintenance of systems. As a result, they can improve their technology without interrupting their customers. Timaeus provides these same capabilities for electronic capture and management (EDC/CDM).
Timaeus achieves this by using a “drain and upgrade” model only available in highly-distributed architectures. Not only does this enable zero-downtime maintenance, it also allows teams to "steer" maintenance around clinical trials in the midst of critical activities, such as database lock.
Applying this across the technology stack
Teams operating Timaeus can perform maintenance and upgrade to any portion of the technology stack without incurring down-time. Teams can update the Timaeus application, patch the underlying operating system, replace hardware or even switch entire data centre hosting locations.
Managing capacity on-demand, without interruption
Timaeus’ capability to perform systems engineering without downtime extends beyond upgrade and maintenance activities. Operations teams can scale capacity upwards or downwards based on need using an “on-demand” model:
- Add capacity to launch new studies or to prepare for high usage periods, such as database lock activities
- Later remove this when these activities are completed
This model enables operations teams to better match technology investments with user demand, improving cost efficiency and avoiding wasted capital investments.
Performing maintenance and upgrade in an efficient, compliant manner
Cmed Technology built Timaeus to be an EDC/CDM “utility” to support many trials worldwide on a 24/7 basis. As a result, it created tools to automate many steps in the maintenance process. This helps assure regulatory compliance and avoid manual errors.
