How a leading U.S. academic medical center built a secure, self-service AWS research platform using AWS Landing Zone Accelerator and Research Gateway to accelerate medical research while maintaining enterprise-grade governance and compliance.
A leading U.S. academic medical centre sought to establish a secure, enterprise-grade cloud platform capable of accelerating medical research while maintaining the governance, security, and operational controls expected in a highly regulated healthcare environment.
The organization required a standardized AWS foundation that could support multiple research programs, integrate seamlessly with existing on-premises infrastructure, and enable researchers to provision cloud resources through a governed self-service platform.
To achieve these objectives, Relevance Lab implemented an enterprise AWS Landing Zone using AWS Landing Zone Accelerator (LZA) and deployed the Research Gateway platform, creating a scalable, secure, and automated research environment.
Business Challenges
As cloud adoption expanded across research departments, the institution encountered several challenges that limited agility and increased operational complexity.
Research teams required rapid access to cloud infrastructure, yet every new project demanded manual provisioning, network configuration, and security reviews. AWS accounts were being created independently, resulting in inconsistent governance, fragmented security controls, and operational overhead.
The institution also needed to integrate its AWS environment with existing on-premises identity services and network infrastructure without disrupting ongoing research activities. Managing IP address allocation across hybrid environments had become increasingly complex, making scalability difficult while increasing the risk of address conflicts.
The organization required a cloud foundation that would provide:
Solution
Relevance Lab designed and implemented a secure multi-account AWS platform built on AWS Landing Zone Accelerator (LZA), providing the enterprise foundation required to support large-scale research computing.
The deployment established dedicated Organizational Units for Security, Infrastructure, and Research workloads, enabling centralized governance while allowing research teams to operate independently within isolated AWS accounts.
To simplify hybrid networking, Relevance Lab integrated the AWS environment with the institution's on-premises infrastructure using AWS Transit Gateway and implemented AWS Network IP Address Manager (IPAM) to provide centralized IP planning and address allocation across cloud and on-premises networks. This eliminated manual IP management, simplified routing, and ensured future network scalability.
The solution also included deployment of Research Gateway, enabling researchers to securely provision compute resources, storage, AI/ML environments, and project workspaces through a centralized self-service portal while leveraging enterprise security and governance controls.
Enterprise Architecture
RG Enterprise Deployment enabled with Landing Zone Accelerator
Implementation Highlights
Business Outcomes
Research Gateway: Built for Modern Research Computing
Healthcare, life sciences, and research organizations trust Relevance Lab to build secure, cloud-native platforms that accelerate innovation without compromising governance. Our expertise spans AWS Landing Zone Accelerator (LZA), Research Gateway, Research & Engineering Studio (RES), high-performance computing (HPC), hybrid networking, and regulated cloud environments.
By combining deep AWS expertise with extensive experience in research computing, we help organizations modernize infrastructure, simplify operations, and empower researchers with secure, scalable cloud platforms.