Genentech
Genentech migrates its industrial data to AVEVA PI System without interruption
Genentech, one of the pioneers of the biotechnology industry founded in 1975, had more than twenty years of data accumulated in a legacy historian and wanted to migrate it to AVEVA PI System, the standard platform used by its parent company Roche. Two constraints shaped the project: the migration could not tolerate any service interruption, and billions of data points representing two decades of scientific history had to be transferred. With its partner RoviSys, Genentech deployed AVEVA PI System and AVEVA PI Vision to complete the operation with zero downtime. The results illustrate the scale of this successful project: 130 billion events were moved across 27,000 AVEVA PI System tags, and the new platform is proving more stable than the old system while using less storage. Genentech is thus securing the continuity of its biotech R&D activities and aligning its database with Roche's.
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FAQ
How can 20 years of biotech data be migrated without downtime using AVEVA PI System?
Genentech, a biotech pioneer founded in 1975, migrated more than twenty years of scientific history to AVEVA PI System without any downtime. The method relied on a phased migration, by tag and by time period, with systematic validation of the transferred data. With the support of RoviSys, a specialist integrator, Genentech transferred 130 billion events across 27,000 AVEVA PI System tags. This approach shows that a critical data migration can be carried out without service interruption, an essential condition in the regulated pharmaceutical industry.
Why has AVEVA PI System become the standard for biopharmaceutical data?
Roche, Genentech's parent company, has made AVEVA PI System its reference platform for process data. This harmonization across subsidiaries of the same biopharmaceutical group makes it easier to share R&D and manufacturing best practices, align quality standards and handle regulatory audits. PI System provides the traceability, high-frequency data acquisition and robustness required by the pharmaceutical industry. It has become a de facto standard in the life sciences sector, adopted by the leading global groups.
What technical advantages does AVEVA PI System offer over a legacy historian?
After migration, Genentech found that AVEVA PI System is more stable than the former historian while using less storage. PI System's high-performance compression, modern architecture and mature software ecosystem deliver measurable technical benefits: better query performance, greater reliability and virtually unlimited scalability. For a company handling billions of scientific events, these gains translate directly into operational availability and lower IT infrastructure costs.
How does AVEVA PI Vision make biotech data easier to use?
AVEVA PI Vision gives Genentech's scientists and operators an intuitive web interface to explore the billions of data points collected by PI System. Dashboards, trend charts and comparative analyses are instantly accessible without IT expertise. This democratization of data access speeds up R&D, supports quality investigations and improves collaboration between process, quality and regulatory teams. It is a major lever for getting value from a biopharmaceutical manufacturer's data assets.
Why migrate custom tools at the same time as historical data?
Genentech's migration was not limited to data: custom tools essential to the manufacturing process were also transferred to the AVEVA PI System ecosystem. This holistic approach preserves the company's in-house developments, avoids losing the know-how embedded in these tools and ensures operational continuity. To succeed with a large-scale biotech migration, it is essential to treat data and tools as inseparable assets, the prerequisite for a seamless platform change.