Drug discovery and development rely on the availability of good information and collaboration among teams, often working remotely. IT R&D has evolved piecemeal over time, especially in big pharma seeking to support multiple locations, large science staffs, and numerous experimental technologies. Compounding these challenges are other pressures like flat IT spending, evolving research technologies and the quest for speed to market. These factors demand a network infrastructure that can maximize outsourcing for data exchange and external collaboration, include access to leading labs and HPC centers, provide the capacity to mine data across disciplines or unite multiple legacy discovery systems.