How to Mine Scientific Business Intelligence in the Cloud

Simplify data loading and reporting

The "virtual" lunch table will only be a success if collaborating in the cloud is as easy as, well, sitting down to lunch. And forcing cumbersome information management processes on researchers is the single fastest way to stifle innovation. Loading and reporting on data needs to be simple for users—either through a forms-based application run on a thin client or through a basic Web-based extraction, transformation and loading (ETL) service that allows collaborators to just click to deploy.

A flexible approach to information delivery is also required—one that empowers collaborators to view data in a format that best suits their research methods. These formats may range from a simple Web portal to sophisticated three-dimensional visualization, but the important thing is that the reporting is capable of integrating both the structured and unstructured content so that it can be easily analyzed via a single view.

A combination of scientifically-aware search and a global, service-oriented architecture (SOA) architecture that brings together the intelligence previously marooned in isolated systems such as ELNs makes this integration possible.

Frank Brown, PhD, has served as Senior Vice President and Chief Science Officer for Accelrys since October 2006. Frank has extensive experience in the areas of computational chemistry and chemoinformatics. He is responsible for both the scientific direction of the company and all collaborative research with academic, government and industrial partners. Prior to joining Accelrys, Frank held positions of increasing responsibility at Johnson & Johnson, most recently as senior research fellow within the Office of the CIO. In this position, Frank oversaw the development of architecture for all R&D in the organization's pharma sector. Before Johnson & Johnson, Frank started the first chemoinformatics group in the industry at Glaxo Research Institute, and launched software products targeted to the pharmaceutical industry as vice president for product and business development at Oxford Molecular Group.

Frank has also served as an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has also served as a chair for the American Chemical Society (ACS), Computers in Chemistry section, and on an NIH Special Study. Frank holds a PhD in physical organic chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh and a post-doctoral studies degree in bio physics from the University of California at San Francisco. He can be reached at fbrown@accelrys.com.