The client

Oxford Cancer Analytics (OXcan) is a diagnostics company headquartered in Oxford, UK, with additional offices in Toronto and Denver.

They combine expertise in clinical medicine, proteomics, machine learning and business, supporting earlier, evidence-based detection of lung diseases, beginning with lung cancer.

The challenge

Early-stage healthcare technology companies move quickly: teams expand, data volumes grow and research collaboration often stretches across borders. OXcan’s IT environment needed to support both growth and security whilst working with sensitive medical and scientific data, meaning strong protection was essential from the outset.

OXcan enlisted Arc to build a secure, high-performance IT foundation that could support demanding machine learning workloads while giving their team the confidence that their systems, data and communications were protected by expert oversight. Their systems, policies and security posture had to be robust from the outset.

The solution

Working with specialist partner, Sophos, we provided a secure and scalable IT environment tailored to the needs of OXcan’s research-driven organisation. Our support covered both day-to-day operations and strategic security improvements.

Key elements included:

  • Secure user environment: we supported 19 users with a fully managed environment, combining endpoint protection with advanced monitoring. Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR) was deployed across the team to provide continuous threat monitoring and rapid incident response.
  • Network and infrastructure support: Sophos XGS firewalls were deployed to protect the network environment, alongside support for six network devices to ensure reliable connectivity across offices and research systems.
  • High performance hardware: our team delivered powerful servers with strong graphical processing capability to support demanding computational workloads used in machine learning and proteomic analysis.
  • Email and threat protection: we strengthened OXcan’s email security and authentication posture by migrating to Mimecast services, alongside DMARC improvements. This enhanced protection against phishing and malicious communications, while improving email resilience, visibility and deliverability.
  • Security governance improvements: we supported the organisation with structured policy reviews and practical security guidance to strengthen its overall security posture as it grows.

“Handling sensitive medical and scientific data requires absolute trust and, from day one, the Arc team provided the infrastructure and expertise we could rely on”

Luke Hankey, Head of IT and Software at OXcan

The results

With a secure and carefully designed IT environment in place, OXcan now has the stability and performance it needs to continue developing its diagnostic platform. The infrastructure we implemented provides strong protection for sensitive research data while supporting seamless collaboration between transatlantic teams.

Luke Hankey, Head of IT and Software at OXcan, said: “Handling sensitive medical and scientific data requires absolute trust and, from day one, the Arc team provided the infrastructure and expertise we could rely on. Their proactive approach and well-designed solutions have played a key role in strengthening our overall security posture.”

The high-performance servers enable OXcan to run complex machine learning workloads efficiently, allowing researchers to work without technical limitations slowing progress. At the same time, improved security controls and proactive monitoring mean their systems are continuously protected as the business evolves.

Our role extends beyond day-to-day support, providing ongoing guidance and infrastructure that can scale with the company as it grows in this highly specialised and important field. Technology challenges are no longer a distraction from the team’s core work.