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Inspection Readiness

An EMA or MHRA inspector is coming.
Are you ready to answer every question?

Regulatory inspections of cloud infrastructure and computerised systems are increasing across European life sciences. The organisations that answer confidently all made the same decision: they treated inspection readiness as a permanent operating state, not a pre-audit project. GxP-Cloud is built for that approach.

If your infrastructure runs on GxP-Cloud, you are already inspection-ready. Our environments are audit-ready by design. Documentation is current. Change control is active. Our QA team attends inspections alongside you. You do not scramble when the inspector arrives. You are ready before they announce the visit.

What inspection readiness means at GxP-Cloud
Alwaysdocumentation current, never assembled on demand
100+auditors have reviewed and approved our QMS
EMA, MHRA, FDAwe track what all three agencies examine
With youour QA team attends inspections alongside you
What inspectors examine

EMA and MHRA inspectors are asking specific questions about your cloud infrastructure. Here are the most common ones.

We track what regulatory agencies actually examine during inspections through our dedicated audit portal. The questions below are not theoretical. They are drawn from real inspection experience across EMA, MHRA, and FDA environments.

01

Is your cloud infrastructure GxP-qualified?

Inspectors expect documented qualification evidence for the infrastructure hosting your regulated systems — not just for the applications themselves.

On GxP-Cloud: IQ/OQ documentation delivered with the service and current at all times.
02

Who approves changes to your hosting environment?

Annex 11 requires formal change control for computerised systems. Infrastructure changes made without documented approval are findings.

On GxP-Cloud: every change requires a signed, QA-approved approval before execution. Full audit trail maintained.
03

Can you demonstrate data integrity through a system recovery?

Business continuity and disaster recovery procedures must demonstrate that data integrity is preserved — not just that systems come back online.

On GxP-Cloud: qualified DRaaS with annual testing, documented results, and data integrity preserved through every recovery.
04

Where does your regulated data physically reside?

EU data sovereignty and GDPR compliance are regulatory requirements for European organisations, not optional. Inspectors ask where data is stored and who has access.

On GxP-Cloud: EU data stays in Amsterdam or Dublin. GDPR-compliant access controls. Contractible through Validated Cloud BV, Netherlands.
05

How do you manage OS patching on validated systems?

OS updates in validated environments are change control events. Inspectors expect documented procedures for how patching is managed without disrupting validated applications.

On GxP-Cloud: OS patching managed by our team under formal QA-approved change control. Every patch is a documented, approved event.
06

Has your disaster recovery plan been tested and documented?

A DR plan without documented test evidence is not a compliant DR plan. Annex 11 expects periodic testing with results available on request.

On GxP-Cloud: annual DR testing with documented results reviewed by independent QA. Available to support your inspection activities.
07

Who is responsible for the compliance of your hosting environment?

This question has a complicated answer on public cloud. On GxP-Cloud it has a clean one: we are, and here is the documentation that proves it.

On GxP-Cloud: clear, documented accountability. Independent QA team. Our Quality team attends inspections alongside you.
08

Is your audit trail complete, attributable, and contemporaneous?

ALCOA+ principles apply to system access logs, change records, and backup activities — not just to scientific data. Inspectors look at the infrastructure audit trail too.

On GxP-Cloud: complete audit trail for every access event, every change, every backup activity. Maintained continuously in our Quality System.
What inspection-ready infrastructure looks like

Inspection readiness is not a project you run before an audit. It is a permanent operating state.

The organisations that perform best in EMA and MHRA inspections did not prepare for their last inspection. They have been prepared continuously. Documentation is always current. Change control is always active. The audit trail is always complete. When an inspector announces a visit, nothing changes operationally — because it was already ready.

That is exactly how GxP-Cloud environments operate. We do not assemble documentation when an inspection is announced. We maintain it continuously because continuous maintenance is what our Quality System requires. The inspection finds a steady state, not a scramble.

IQ/OQ documentation current and downloadable at any point
Complete change control records — every change, every approval
Full audit trail for all access, changes, and backup activities
Annual DR testing with documented results available
Independent QA team attends inspections alongside you
Regulatory update monitoring — we track what agencies examine
EU data sovereignty and GDPR compliance built in by design
Book an inspection readiness consultation
100+
Auditors have reviewed and approved our Quality Management System. We track what each agency focuses on during inspections through our dedicated audit portal. That institutional knowledge travels with you as our customer.
We track what inspectors actually examine

Dedicated audit portal

We monitor evolving EMA and MHRA inspection focus areas through our audit portal. When agency focus shifts — and it does — we act on it proactively. Your environment stays aligned to current expectations, not last year's.

We attend with you

QA team inspection support

Our Quality team does not hand you documentation and step back. We attend regulatory inspections alongside our customers and defend the infrastructure we manage. You are never facing an inspector about your hosting environment alone.

For organisations not yet on GxP-Cloud

Standalone inspection readiness services

Pre-inspection gap analysis, documentation review, team preparation, and mock inspection support — available as standalone services regardless of your current infrastructure. Contact us to discuss your specific situation.

The questions your QA team is already asking

Before the inspector arrives, your own QA team will ask these questions about your infrastructure. Can you answer them today?

These are not hypothetical. They are the questions that surface in internal pre-inspection reviews, in QA assessments of new hosting arrangements, and in vendor qualification questionnaires from pharma customers. The organisations that answer them confidently all have one thing in common.

Do we have IQ/OQ documentation for our hosting infrastructure?

Not just for the application. For the servers, storage, networking, and platform layer underneath it.

On GxP-Cloud: yes. Delivered with the service. Always current.
Can we show who approved every change to our environment in the last 12 months?

Inspectors ask for a change log. The answer needs to be immediate and complete.

On GxP-Cloud: yes. Every change has a signed approval and a complete record.
Is our data stored in the EU and can we prove it?

GDPR and EMA data sovereignty requirements are procurement-level concerns for European organisations.

On GxP-Cloud: yes. EU data centres. EU contracting entity. Documented and contractual.
How do we manage OS patches without breaking validated applications?

In a GxP environment, patching is a change control event. Your QA team needs a documented answer.

On GxP-Cloud: formal change control process for every patch. QA-approved before execution.
When did we last test our disaster recovery plan and what were the results?

Annex 11 expects periodic testing. The answer needs a date and documented evidence.

On GxP-Cloud: annual DR testing with documented results reviewed by independent QA.
Who is responsible for the GxP compliance of our hosting environment?

This question needs a clear, documented answer — not a conversation between IT and QA.

On GxP-Cloud: we are. Documented, contractual, and defensible in an inspection.

If any of these questions does not have an immediate, documented answer today — that is the gap to close before the next inspection announcement.

Book an inspection readiness consultation
What keeps you ready

The four pillars of continuous inspection readiness on GxP-Cloud.

Inspection readiness on GxP-Cloud is not a feature you activate. It is the consequence of how we operate every day. These four elements make the difference between organisations that answer inspection questions confidently and those that scramble to assemble evidence.

Documentation that is always current

IQ/OQ documents, change records, qualification evidence, and audit trails are maintained continuously. Not compiled when an inspection is announced. Not assembled from scattered sources. Always ready, always current, always downloadable.

Independent QA oversight of all operations

Every engineering activity — every patch, every change, every configuration — is reviewed by our independent Quality team before it happens. The oversight is continuous, not periodic. When an inspector asks who reviewed a change, the answer is always documented.

Real-time inspection intelligence

We track what EMA, MHRA, and FDA inspectors focus on through our dedicated audit portal. When agency focus areas shift, we respond proactively. Your environment stays aligned to what inspectors are looking at now — not what they were looking at two years ago.

Our QA team attends with you

When an EMA or MHRA inspector asks about your hosting infrastructure, you are not on your own. Our Quality team attends inspections alongside our customers and defends the environments we manage. Decades of combined inspection experience, in the room with you.

Inspection readiness starts with the services underneath your systems.

Every GxP-Cloud service is designed with inspection readiness as a first-order requirement. The infrastructure is qualified, the platform is managed under QA oversight, and the storage is audit-ready from day one. Inspection readiness is the natural outcome.

Built for EMA and MHRA inspection expectations. From the ground up.

Our quality framework leads with EMA Annex 11 and MHRA guidance. We track what European regulatory agencies examine during inspections and align our environments to those expectations proactively. EU data sovereignty and GDPR compliance are built in — not configured on request.

EMA Annex 11 primary framework — not adapted from FDA
MHRA post-Brexit guidance addressed specifically
Real-time tracking of EMA and MHRA inspection focus areas
EU data centres in Amsterdam and Dublin
GDPR-compliant data residency and access control
Contract through Validated Cloud BV, Netherlands

Inspection readiness should not start when you get the announcement.

Book a 30-minute consultation with our EU team. We will assess your current inspection readiness posture, identify the gaps that would surface in an EMA or MHRA inspection today, and outline what needs to change. No commitment required.

EU +31 20 399 1018  •  US +1 617 849 8650  •  info01@validatedcloud.com