Overview

Perceptive is a global company specializing in clinical research and regulatory support across the full lifecycle of drug development. From discovery and early-stage trials to late-phase studies, regulatory approval, and post-market follow-up, the organization is known for its dependable, detail-oriented approach. With a strong commitment to excellence and collaboration, Perceptive supports pharmaceutical and biotech clients in navigating complex clinical and compliance landscapes. The company partnered with Santex to redesign its cloud governance and infrastructure management.

The goal is to streamline account provisioning, strengthen the security posture, and evolve from a monolithic architecture to a modular, cloud-native environment.

AWS Control Tower Account Factory for Terraform (AFT) employs a GitOps approach to automate the provisioning and lifecycle management of AWS accounts, enabling a secure, scalable, and governed multi-account environment.

Through a strategic combination of DevOps practices, cloud-native architecture, and infrastructure automation, the solution positioned Perceptive to scale confidently, without sacrificing visibility, compliance, or delivery speed.

The Challenge

Evolving from Monolith to Modular

Perceptive was facing three interconnected challenges:

• A centralized, monolithic architecture that slowed deployment and limited scalability.

• Complex, manual processes for managing accounts and environments.

• Gaps in infrastructure observability, backup automation, and identity control.

With more teams working in parallel and expanding workloads across regions, the company needed a secure, automated, and policy-driven platform where cloud environments could be spun up quickly, safely, and in alignment with business requirements.

The Solution

AWS Control Tower + Terraform + DevOps Alignment

To address these needs, the Santex team designed and implemented a full cloud governance solution built on AWS Control Tower, powered by Terraform’s Account Factory.

Key implementations included:

• Account Factory Automation: Terraform pipelines automatically manage account creation across organizational units, including sandbox and production environments.

• Backup & Auditing Policies: Service control policies and SDLC-aware backup strategies were embedded from day one.

• Identity & Access Management: A secure identity provider was integrated, enforcing fine-grained control policies and simplifying domain access.

• Architecture Evolution: Monolith separation was initiated, with platform improvements focused on enabling modular deployments and service isolation.

• Infrastructure Security & Observability: Cloud infrastructure was secured with monitoring, backup policies, and automated deployment tracking.

• DevOps & Platform Integration: Application deployments were fully automated through the platform layer, reducing friction between DevOps and engineering teams.

Key Outcomes: From Framework to Functionality

• 70% faster deployment cycles

Thanks to Control Tower and Terraform automation, new cloud accounts can now be spun up in minutes with governance and policies built in.

• 50% gain in development team efficiency

Less time spent on firefighting and manual tasks, more focus on value delivery and product quality.

• 30% cost savings in cloud operations

Improved resource utilization and FinOps practices reduced unnecessary infrastructure expenses.

• Security-first infrastructure

Identity and access management is enforced through centralized policies, reducing risk across the environment.

• Improved architecture foundation

Transition from a monolithic setup to a modular platform is underway, unlocking better scalability and team independence.

• Streamlined Deployments: 60% Fewer Production Incidents

Automated deployments, integrated into DevOps workflows, reduced manual intervention and improved delivery reliability.