The Challenge

Data Expanding at an Unprecedented Scale

As Foresight expanded its global reach and product offerings, it faced several operational hurdles in managing the massive data it generated:

• Skyrocketing Data Volume: Each whole-genome ctDNA sequencing file can exceed 250 GB, far too large for email or typical file-sharing tools. Managing and transferring these immense files quickly and securely became a significant challenge.
• Multi-Cloud Complexity: The lab was migrating workloads from Google Cloud to AWS, while some partners still relied on Google buckets or on-prem storage. This created a fragmented environment where maintaining multiple transfer methods and access keys drained IT bandwidth.
• Security and Compliance: As an oncology diagnostics provider handling HIPAA-covered data for certain projects and highly confidential pharmaceutical trial data for others, Foresight needed a solution that could provide airtight security, provable audit trails, SIEM integration, and SSO.
• Unreliable Notifications: Missed or delayed “your results are ready” alerts risked slowing down trial timelines and frustrating clinicians, creating a potential bottleneck in urgent treatment decision-making.
• Growth Pressure: New pharma partnerships required the IT team to rapidly scale external user accounts and set up dozens of new Managed File Transfer connections, putting pressure on the existing infrastructure.

Foresight’s previous approach of granting partners direct access to S3 or GCS buckets was inefficient - it didn’t provide granular permissions, lacked robust audit logs, and was not intuitive for non-technical users.

The Files.com Solution

Foresight Diagnostics turned to Files.com to address these challenges and streamline its file transfer operations. Key elements of the solution included:

• Unified Portal: Files.com provided a single branded portal, integrated with Okta for seamless SSO, where investigators, CROs, and hospital staff could access data with granular folder permissions—without exposing S3 keys or bucket paths.
• Cloud-Native Connectors: Direct, agent-based mounts to both AWS and GCS allowed Foresight to migrate workloads to or from the hyperscaler cloud platforms at its own pace. Partners, regardless of their cloud preference, saw a unified interface, simplifying collaboration across multiple cloud platforms.
• SIEM-Ready Logging: Real-time log streaming to Rapid7 enabled Foresight’s security team to continuously monitor file access and activity, while automated alerting kept them informed of any potential security concerns.
• Resilient Notifications: Files.com’s built-in retry logic and webhook-to-Mailgun workflows ensured that critical “results ready” emails were never delayed, even during high-volume transfer periods. Clinicians received timely notifications, keeping decision-making on track.

The Results

Immediate improvements unlocked

The transition to Files.com brought immediate and lasting benefits for Foresight Diagnostics:

• Faster Patient Impact: Clinicians now receive MRD results within minutes of posting, shaving days off decision cycles for relapse-risk patients and speeding up pharma trial timelines, ultimately saving lives.
• 70% Less IT Overhead: By replacing ad-hoc bucket sharing and manual log pulls, Foresight freed its lean IT team from troubleshooting file transfers and allowed them to focus on more strategic tasks like cloud migration and optimizing the lab’s capabilities.
• Audit-Ready Compliance: With centralized permissions, immutable logs, and SIEM dashboards, Foresight’s security team can now provide immediate evidence for HIPAA, and partner audits—eliminating last-minute scrambles and making compliance audits seamless.
• Seamless Partner Onboarding: New trial sites and CROs can now be provisioned in hours, not weeks, enabling Foresight to capitalize on global growth opportunities like their QIAGEN partnership without delays.
• Future-Proof Flexibility: Whether the lab expands to new cloud regions, adopts additional cloud platforms, or brings compute in-house, Files.com’s Agent and multi-cloud connectors ensure smooth operations and scalability. Foresight is now poised for continued growth without the need for re-architecting their workflows.