By all accounts, the cloud is becoming the platform of choice for healthcare providers. Cloud adoption rose from just 25 percent in 2014 to 41 percent in 2015, according to Dell's Global Technology Adoption Index.
This impressive jump underscores just how broadly the healthcare community has embraced the cloud — and the momentum is not slowing anytime soon.
But what factors have spurred this industrywide transition to cloud networks?
A push to the cloud
First and foremost are the financial pressures associated with traditional hardware networks. As IT budgets are expanding, they are also transitioning from Capex to Opex, meaning healthcare organizations must do more with less. Furthermore, securing proper financing from the capital market remains a steep challenge for providers.
As a result, they are not investing in data centers — choosing, instead, to dedicate capital to activities that generate cash flow and enable them to home in on their biggest priority: quality care. Because the cloud is based around operating expenses, providers can make planned investments quickly without putting a strain on their liquidity.
Furthermore, as regulations, technologies, and business priorities evolve, providers will need a platform that is agile enough to keep pace. By 2018, an estimated 80 percent of patient interactions will rely on big data or IoT to improve their overall quality.
Providers anticipating the sea of change such technologies will usher in are preparing by moving to the cloud early. According to the HIMSS Analytics 2016 Cloud Survey, although only about 6 percent of healthcare leaders are currently using the cloud to analyze big data, 53.3 percent are planning on doing so in the upcoming year.
The question of security
Despite the widespread enthusiasm for the cloud, though, the misconception remains that it is less secure. Although that concern is important, it is largely unfounded. Both objective and anecdotal evidence have shown that the cloud does not create a greater degree of risk.
In fact, the cloud is a powerful tool to increase data security and stay ahead of advanced, persistent threats. The cloud provides:
1. Enhanced physical security.
In many cases, the only thing standing between traditional hardware networks and hackers is a locked door, or at most a firewall. Particularly in a healthcare setting, where patients' health data is increasingly at risk, heightened security is critical. Unfortunately, hardware installation and maintenance is expensive and possibly prohibitive in the open environment of a healthcare setting.
Cloud service providers, by contrast, operate from facilities with multilayered security in place — which helps to keep mission-critical assets safe. Furthermore, it deflects the urgency of an attack away from the hospital itself so patients are not put at risk.
2. Simplified security management.
Managing IT security can be an overwhelming endeavor, even in a small- to mid-size healthcare setting. The cloud is the simple solution because it offers overarching tools for managing and monitoring security. The centralized model the cloud relies on allows healthcare providers to reduce their security management burden while simultaneously expanding the scope of their efforts, as cloud service providers have increased purview over multiple customers and the internet as a whole.
3. Security expertise on staff.
Adding security experts to an IT team is an expensive, time-consuming process, and qualified security engineers are very difficult to retain. The cloud allows providers to enlist the help of world-class security experts and tools at a fraction of the cost. And because they are monitoring an entire threat landscape, rather than a single network, they are in a better position to eliminate threats proactively.
4. Agile security spending.
The Capex versus Opex debate applies to security spending as well. Implementing on-site security measures is a slow, expensive process. Additionally, this approach simply cannot keep up with the ever-evolving threat landscape. The cloud introduces a level of liquidity in the security-spending process that is absolutely essential for providers that want to stay proactive.
Vetting a cloud service provider
The cloud undoubtedly provides opportunities for enhanced security. However, it is important to acknowledge that the depth and breadth of those opportunities is directly linked to the quality of the cloud service providers that organizations choose to partner with.
To find a partner that offers the ironclad protections necessary in the changing healthcare IT landscape, look for a long history in the space, a global perspective on the threat landscape, and the ability to manage during every hour of every year.
In 2004, Dell estimated cloud spending among healthcare providers was around $4 billion. That figure has steadily grown by 20 percent every year, and by 2020, it is expected to reach $12.6 billion. As leaders, doctors, and patients demand easy, cost-effective, and secure access to health records, the industry's push to the cloud will only accelerate.
Karin Ratchinsky, the director of healthcare vertical strategy at Level 3 Communications, is highly motivated, competitive, and collaborative. At Level 3 Communications, Karin has been instrumental in accelerating sales, generating and deploying effective market strategies, and growing brand equity within the company's healthcare vertical ecosystem.