Not so long ago, the implementation of cloud storage for basic data such as emails and other back-office needs proved a reliable, safe, and secure solution to data storage in massive quantities.
Fast forward a couple of years and these needs have risen to $3.7 billion in the healthcare sector alone. The expectation is that this investment will be nearly $10 billion by 2020.
What use could the healthcare industry have for cloud solutions besides back office needs?
In the time it took for the cloud to earn credibility, healthcare professionals realized that data beyond administrative needs could also be stored in a cloud. Data that would be easier AND safer to share with fellows in the industry. In addition to basic data sharing, big data for research has become a solution by the cloud. Researchers at Mount Sinai for example, are taking data from a cloud service to study and target breast and ovarian cancer in unbelievable amounts of data (over 100 terabytes) that would be time consuming, and not cost effective without the efficiency of the cloud.
According to Ricky Delgado, writer for CloudTech, the benefits in healthcare for the cloud include better collaboration, greater reach and better storage at lower cost, better use of big data to treat patients, improved medical research, and accessibility to remote patient care.
In the opinion of Michael Williams, CEO at Global Healthcare IT, the case for cloud services in healthcare environment is obvious. A great many hospitals have no idea how old some of their hardware is in their server farms. This leaves them open to potentially catastrophic crashes at any time. Transitioning to the cloud makes complete sense for healthcare organizations that want to modernize their technology, increase their process capability, and digitize all their healthcare records. Similarly, security and compliance are far better left to dedicated cloud based services than to relatively small hospital IT departments. Add into this the infrastructure cost saving achievable via use of the cloud and likely potential of this being a win/win for cloud services providers and healthcare organizations becomes transparent.
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