I'm serious. Between government data retention regulations and hyper-paranoid client pharmaco company execs the odds of a CRO putting their data out on the cloud are functionally nil. This may change one day but that's the reality today. We're talking the kinds of shops that are still signing million dollar deals with IBM reps to provide in-house server infrastructure.
There's a world of difference between hiring contractors to come in and develop in-house systems and betting the farm on a 3rd party vendor.
Point taken, but you shouldn't be so quick with the 'never gonna happen' proclamations. Technology moves fast. There are many undisputed benefits to the cloud model. Yes, there are serious drawbacks too, especially for certain industries, but where you see insurmountable obstacles, others will see business opportunities.
There's a world of difference between hiring contractors to come in and develop in-house systems and betting the farm on a 3rd party vendor.