In the healthcare sector in particular, we can see a similar picture. Statistics show that the healthcare Cloud computing market is expected to grow at CAGR of 18.1%, from USD 28.1 billion in 2020 to USD 64.7 billion by 2025.
Yet despite these numbers, many healthcare providers still have some concerns about the applicability of Cloud computing in the healthcare sector. In this article, we will shed the light on 3 of the most pressing concerns and provide a definitive answer for each them.
1. How secure is Cloud-computing for the healthcare sector?
This is one of the most popular and widely-asked questions about the utilization of Cloud computing in general, but more specifically in the healthcare sector, and rightly so. However, people who have this concern can rest assured that taking their healthcare services into the Cloud is in fact a major step for security on several bases. Let’s mention three of them for the sake of brevity.
For one thing, Cloud-computing solutions are known for their good deal of flexibility. A good Cloud-computing service enables you to choose the capacity you need, allowing you to scale up and down as needed. At the same time, it also provides you with the level of security that your business truly requires. This feature enables you to scale up during high-traffic periods, thus increasing security levels, and the scale back down to reduce costs. And without compromising the security of your information!
Secondly, another important aspect is that moving your healthcare facility into the Cloud saves you the burden of maintaining your data on a local server.
Keep in mind that hackers can use a wide set of tools including malware, ransomware, and phishing emails to gain access to the information stored on your local devices. This makes keeping your local system safe and secure around the clock a highly challenging task. A high-quality Cloud computing solution, on the other hand, relieves you of this concern to be handled by Cloud service providers. Large companies, specialized in Cloud-computing services, take up huge measures to ensure top-notch security of their Cloud services.
Thirdly, the files and information on the Cloud become encrypted, leaving it far more difficult for cybercriminals to access them. The main thing is to choose a reputable Cloud service provider to leave your security concerns and measures up to the experts.
2. Isn’t system downtime a major drawback to Cloud-computing?
The second most popular concern when talking about Cloud computing in general, but especially in healthcare, is the risk of system downtime. This concern is quite justified as healthcare providers must have non-stop access to their patients’ files and data whenever they need them. The last thing a healthcare staffer wants is to be denied access to certain information that they need urgently only because the system is not running at that moment.
However, one merit about Cloud computing is that Cloud service providers tend to implement state-of-the-art measures of reliability assurance. One of the most important of these measures is the concept of redundancy.
How does redundancy help?
In Cloud computing, the purpose of redundancy as an implementation measure is to make sure that there is always a fallback for any failure within the architecture. In other words, in the incident of failure in IT operation such as a natural disaster or a power outage, the system will continue to operate normally nonetheless.
Without going into too much detail about redundancy in Cloud computing, one thing we can say is that it is implemented on 4 core levels: hardware redundancy, process redundancy, network redundancy and geographic redundancy.
In short, we can say that, for Cloud service providers, eliminating Cloud outages and reducing their occurrence to the minimum goes hand-in-hand with maintaining a high level of cybersecurity of their Cloud services.
3. Can the Cloud be too cumbersome to implement?
There’s been this long-held perception that Cloud computing, as a hot topic as it is, is too difficult to adopt in that it needs specialists to design, implement, and deploy services for end users on top of it. An while it is true that designing and implementing a Cloud system does require a great deal of IT knowledge and craftsmanship, there’s hardly any need for customers to be concerned.
As a Cloud system user, one of the great advantages of Cloud computing is that it saves you the hassle of having to spend a lot of money on hardware, software, and manpower in building the system by yourself. Instead, it gives you a fully-fledged system on a silver platter, ready for you to use at once.
Conclusion
In short, as Cloud computing technology continues to advance, much of the concerns about it are expected to fade away as people become more familiar with it. Moreover, most Cloud providers have built a great deal of knowledge over the years about how to build Cloud systems that serve people’s needs without compromising their security and privacy. All of this leaves virtually no need to fear the adoption of Cloud computing, especially in vital sectors such as healthcare.
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