10 Things to Know About

Cloud in Healthcare

Information technology (IT) plays a vital role in healthcare, from the back office to clinical

applications. And where IT goes, cloud is sure to follow. As you consider the role of cloud in

healthcare, here are ten things to look at...

QUICK TIPS:

1 http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/article/embracing-cloud2 http://www.himss.org/ResourceLibrary/genResourceDetailPDF.aspx?ItemNumber=41958

1 A survey conducted by the research firm IDC found nearly 42 percent of respondents more comfortable with cloud in 2015 than they were just a year before. While 50 percent of software spending growth is still directed into on-premises investments, much more is now heading into projects that involve Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and managed hosting.1

More Budget for Cloud

2 Lower IT costs and speed-of-deployment are two of the biggest factors behind the growing acceptance of cloud in healthcare, according to a HIMSS Analytics Cloud Survey.2 The challenge of finding qualified IT staff is also a big factor. Given that healthcare as an industry was not traditionally IT focused—but is now under pressure to quickly pick up the pace—relying on the expertise of cloud providers is likely to remain a favored strategy.

Cost, Agility, Talent

3 With the initial phase of Electronic Health Record (EHR) adoption now complete, many experts see healthcare IT entering a “post-EHR era” in which there is a greater focus on modernizing the overall IT infrastructure. Cloud has a central role to play in this new era: moving IT into managed cloud centers allows for redeployment of resources previously devoted to administration, support, patches, etc.

Cloud and the “Post-EHR Era”

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3 http://www.navisite.com/resource-center/market-insight/clouds-are-secure-are-you-using-them-securely

6 It’s unlikely you are going to move all your applications and services to a cloud environment.—you will likely leverage a “hybrid” approach, with some applications still on-premises and others in a public or private cloud. As a result, you need to work out where your provider’s responsibility ends and yours begins.

Going Hybrid

7 Concern over theft of healthcare data has made many wary of moving to the cloud. Cloud providers argue that they are better able to address security problems because they can amortize the cost of extensive security measures over so many clients. Technology analyst Gartner agrees, using words such as “naive,” “unwarranted” and “unsubstantiated” to describe the fears over cloud security.3

Security Concerns: Real or Imagined?

8 Cloud-based virtual desktop solutions can help address security issues. When a device is managed as part of a virtual desktop solution—such as Navisite’s Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS)—the data and apps are in the cloud, not on the device itself. If a device is lost or stolen—or if it is determined that an employee should no longer have access to the network—the service for that particular device can be terminated remotely, eliminating access to all cloud-based resources.

Secure Mobility

9 Healthcare storage needs are skyrocketing—all of the data from those EHRs and radiology scans need to go somewhere. And HIPAA has dramatically increased the archival requirements. When it comes to data that is not used on a regular basis, and in fact may never be used again, the economics of cloud storage become compelling.

Storage

10 Building and maintaining redundant capabilities for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) is a must in healthcare. Cloud-based BCDR solutions are making BCDR strategies easier to implement and less expensive. Look for a provider that has designed its core cloud services to provide BCDR that can meet your different continuity and recovery objectives. Also, see how easy/cost-effective it will be to add new services and locations later on.

Flexible BCDR

5 The expanding cloud market in healthcare is opening the door to thousands of providers—from public cloud services to shrink-wrapped, SaaS-based clinical apps, and beyond to fully managed cloud services providers, like Navisite®. When choosing a provider, be sure to get a clear understanding of the level of management and support that’s provided as part of the cloud service—this will have a major impact on the specific internal resources you will be expected to provide.

Managing a Cloud Relationship

4 Yesterday’s “hospital” is today’s “healthcare system.” An IT department that once might have been focused on the needs of a single building is now supporting a network of clinics, imaging centers, physicians’ offices, remote patient monitoring devices and potentially much more. To make this new environment work successfully, data needs to be shared, user experiences need to be consistent, system administration needs to be streamlined, support has to be there 24/7/365—moving to cloud helps enable all of this and more.

Beyond the Hospital Data Center

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