You have finally decided to move your organization over to the cloud. You’ve carefully gone over all of your old systems to figure out how they can transfer over or if they should. You’ve poured countless hours into looking at the financial stakes of your organization during this move. You’ve met up with security experts to see how to keep everything secure during the move and how to keep it secure on the cloud. You did it, countless hours poured into this project. Then, you discover there are different levels of clouds to choose from and you have to figure out which is best for each system in your organization.
So let’s talk about them! Public cloud, private cloud, and multi-cloud – what are the benefits and challenges of each one? To get the scoop on all three we reached out to our incredibly wise Healthcare IT Today Community and this is what they have to say on the three types of clouds.
Anish Patankar, GM Healthcare Software Business at Elekta
Not everyone is ready for the cloud, so it’s important to weigh the organization’s threshold for risk and scalability against the benefits and challenges of the different cloud models. We like to look at factors such as the organization’s ability to mitigate risk in data security and network reliability or handle the maintenance and scaling of a private or hybrid cloud approach. One factor holds true for all organizations: having 24/7/365 access to patient data, especially across disparate systems, allows providers to shorten time to care, make better decisions, and elevate their level of care.
Bryan Halda, Director, Solutions Architect at Calian IT & Cyber Solutions
Most environments today are hybrid cloud of some sort. There is a mixture of on-premises infrastructure for workloads with cloud-based messaging such as Exchange Online or Google Mail. This is a common scenario in nearly every marketplace and IT organizations seem to be doing a decent job managing it. The challenge begins when they start to consider other services such as file sharing, collaboration, and converting applications.
You achieve a balance by properly evaluating applications and services for cloud readiness and only moving cloud-ready workloads where the benefits outweigh the cost. An increase in cost may be worth it if there is a reduction in administrative overhead, infrastructure complexity, and an increase in overall business productivity.
I would generally recommend avoiding multi-cloud scenarios due to the complexity. Most IT departments run lean and multi-cloud means more expertise and day-to-day IT operations in healthcare are already time consuming. Moreover, simple and efficient infrastructures are more easily secured.
Chris Arsenault, Principal Solutions Architect at Excella
I would challenge the belief that a hybrid environment is inevitable. Organizations should take a serious look at going all cloud. Security is often an “excuse” to not use cloud but the reality is that it is easier to secure cloud than on prem. If you do have a mix of clouds (private and public) and on-prem it is critical to have a single group that understands the whole network topology. They need to have an understanding of how data flows and traffic gets routed.
Vickey Chen, Senior Data Architect at Excella
Facilitating user adaption to a cloud environment is key to cloud migration. You need to train users on how each system should be used so they are using the resources in the way that best meets their needs.
Kevin Day, Chief Technology Officer at Rhapsody
Balancing public cloud, private cloud and multi-cloud can be challenging for healthcare organizations. To evaluate the benefits and challenges of each deployment scenario, healthcare organizations should consider risk factors around management, governance, security, and cost to ensure that the right applications move to the cloud at the right time.
Many healthcare leaders are currently balancing cloud priorities by moving infrastructure to the cloud on a solution-by-solution basis. This often includes a hybrid cloud strategy that aims to maximize the benefits of the cloud while continuing to rely on on-premises infrastructure for critical workflows and use cases where network latency presents an issue.
Data interoperability is a critical component of a hybrid adoption strategy. I advise healthcare organizations to seek an interoperability partner who meets them where they are today and into the future, offering multiple deployment options including the ability to deploy on-premises, in a private cloud or in a public cloud. Many cloud-native applications bring the unanticipated risk of locking organizations into a model that later requires them to navigate multiple vendors or become disrupted when the vendor is acquired. Because most healthcare organizations will require a hybrid approach, flexible interoperability solutions that meet healthcare organizations where they are now— whether on-premises, public cloud, or private cloud—are necessary for better handling the cloud in healthcare.
Scott Pross, Vice President of Technology at Monalytic, a SolarWinds Company
As healthcare organizations grapple with how to manage and secure their increasingly complex and ever-growing multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud environments, visibility is a key challenge. As such, Observability must be a part of the solution. Observability drastically simplifies IT monitoring and management, giving IT managers a single pane of glass view into the entire multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud environment.
Observability empowers healthcare organizations to analyze interdependencies across their digital ecosystems, proactively monitor network security, and help quickly identify and mitigate cyber threats while freeing up the personnel and resources needed for other elements of the multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud strategy. As a result, healthcare organizations can stay ahead of cyber threats, fraud, and compliance requirements—efficiently, effectively, and at scale.
Pawan Jindal, CEO at Darena Solutions
In healthcare, the cloud decision isn’t just about storage and compute; it’s about how we facilitate the continuous, compliant, and secure flow of patient data. Public clouds bring scalability and are ideal for many applications, but the sensitive nature of health data often demands the security depth of private clouds. Multi-cloud strategies offer the best of both worlds, ensuring resilience and redundancy. As the healthcare sector gravitates towards interoperability with standards like FHIR, it’s imperative to opt for a cloud strategy that accommodates these integrations smoothly. A well-considered hybrid approach might be the key, leveraging the scalability of public clouds and the security of private setups to support FHIR-driven data exchanges effectively.
So much to think about here! Thank you to everyone who took the time out of your day to submit a quote and thank you to everyone reading this article! We could not do this without your support. Let us know your thoughts on public vs private vs multi-cloud either in the comments down below or on social media. We’d love to hear from all of you!
