AWS → Azure mapping
| Category | AWS | Azure |
|---|
| Compute | EC2 | Virtual Machines |
| Serverless | Lambda | Azure Functions |
| Containers | EKS / ECS | AKS — I've run K8s, Kubeflow |
| Storage | S3 | Blob Storage |
| Database | RDS PostgreSQL | Azure Database for PostgreSQL |
| NoSQL | DynamoDB | Cosmos DB |
| Warehouse | Redshift | Synapse / Fabric |
| ETL / big data | Glue / EMR | Data Factory / HDInsight |
| Streaming | Kinesis | Event Hubs |
| Category | AWS | Azure |
|---|
| Messaging | SQS / SNS | Service Bus / Event Grid |
| ML platform | SageMaker | Azure Machine Learning |
| Managed LLMs | Bedrock | Azure OpenAI / Foundry — SKAI layer |
| Identity | IAM | Entra ID + RBAC |
| Networking | VPC | Virtual Network (VNet) |
| Monitoring | CloudWatch | Azure Monitor |
| Secrets / keys | KMS / Secrets | Key Vault |
| IaC | CloudFormation | ARM / Bicep |
| BI | QuickSight | Power BI — UCB runs it |
"AWS-heavy? We're Azure." "The mapping is direct — RDS PostgreSQL is Azure Database for PostgreSQL, S3 is Blob Storage, Redshift is Synapse, SageMaker is Azure ML, managed LLMs run through Azure OpenAI and Foundry. Identity is Entra ID and RBAC instead of IAM; AKS instead of EKS — I've run Kubernetes and Kubeflow. What I'd need is the SKAI-specific tour. The cloud translation I'd have done before day one."
UCB stack
| Layer | Tool |
|---|
| Agentic | SKAI — Azure + Azure OpenAI + Foundry ("DT AI") · Microsoft 365 Copilot |
| Veeva | Medical CRM · RIM · Safety Suite (live 2026); commercial: legacy Salesforce-based → Vault CRM, Veeva AI agents, PromoMats, Approved Email · EOS Dec 31, 2029 |
| Data | Azure (off AWS), Power BI, Synapse/Fabric · Not there: Palantir, Databricks, Agentforce |
"Foundry hands-on?" Not hands-on — model-agnostic: selection, evaluation, orchestration; Foundry is the surface I'd design into, patterns from Amgen. "Your Veeva is regulatory?" Correct — Vault, RIM; Vault CRM/PromoMats I'm coming up to speed on; regulated content and audit trails I've lived my whole career. "Copilots?" Both readings: assistant interfaces AND coding copilots — my daily tooling is Claude Code, Codex, Kimi Code; NewsRx SOW scoped for four, delivered solo.
Vocabulary + rules
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| HCP | Healthcare professional — I am one |
| MLR | Medical-Legal-Regulatory content approval gate |
| Omnichannel | One customer, many touchpoints, one record |
| System of record | CRM stays authoritative; agents orchestrate around it |
| Next-best-action | Recommended touchpoint/channel/time; rules '16 → models '26 |
| Patient journey | Awareness → diagnosis → initiation → access → adherence |
| Patient Impact / SKAI | UCB's Commercial org / internal agentic platform on Azure |
| Rule | Detail |
|---|
| Q1 opener | Word commercial + a dollar figure |
| Attribution | $23M/7 states → Syncor ("acquired by Cardinal 2003") · $13M → say truthfully |
| Never claim | Vault CRM (commercial), PromoMats, Agentforce, Einstein, SKAI |
| Delivery | Numbers slow, with a pause · end on closer, then stop |
Veeva split — dates & the tension
| Date | Event |
|---|
| Dec 2022 | Veeva announces non-renewal of Salesforce pact (2014 deal) |
| Dec 2023 | Last functional release of legacy Veeva CRM — stability mode |
| Apr 2024 | Vault CRM GA — only CRM sold to new customers |
| Sept 2025 | Salesforce agreement expires; wind-down |
| Dec 2025 | Veeva AI Agents GA: Pre-call, Voice, Free Text (CRM) — on Anthropic/Amazon via Bedrock (AWS); PromoMats: Quick Check, Content |
| Mar 2026 | End-of-support accelerated Sept 2030 → Dec 31, 2029; 125+ live on Vault CRM; Veeva: "agentic CRM" |
| Jun 2026 | UCB live on Veeva Safety Suite; calls Veeva "strategic partnership" |
| 2026 peers | Novo (Jan), Lilly (Aug), Regeneron, Biogen (Aug) commit; 190+ live |
The tension: Veeva's agents run on AWS Bedrock — UCB exited AWS for Azure; SKAI governs. Veeva's carve-out: custom agents may run customer models on Azure AI Foundry — the seam. The job = decide the agent layer: Veeva-native vs SKAI-orchestrated vs hybrid, with Vault CRM as system of record.