Driving Digital Transformation in Healthcare With Industry Clouds

Healthcare Cloud Adoption on the Rise

Cloud adoption in healthcare has steadily increased in recent years. According to Vantage Market Research, the healthcare cloud computing market will reach $128.19 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 18.74 percent from 2021 to 2028.

"There are a couple of things that play into cloud adoption. One is COVID," Campbell explained.

Another is the recent drive toward digital transformation, which spurred increased investments in technology and a focus on cybersecurity. Campbell explained that the influx of patients, shortage of employees, and the shake-up of workforce models during the pandemic accelerated digital transformation in a way that was unexpectedly fast, but not entirely surprising.

"The early adopters paved the way for a lot of others to follow in their footsteps," Campbell said. "That groundwork, even prior to COVID, created a ripe environment for cloud adoption."

A report conducted by market research firm Vanson Bourne on behalf of Barracuda Networks found that organizations that host all their applications in the public cloud were less likely to experience a data breach or ransomware attack. The benefits of cloud technology in today's cyber climate are clear, but it does not come without challenges.

There are significant security risks in using general-purpose public cloud solutions. The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) released guidance warning healthcare organizations about the growing threat of ransomware in the healthcare cloud.

"Due to the nature of public cloud, where the underlying infrastructure is secured and managed by the cloud service provider, many customers incorrectly assume that the threat of ransomware in the cloud is less than in a private data center," the report stated.

"However, cloud services rely on the synchronization of data, and if ransomware encrypted data enters the synchronization process, data will run the risk of being propagated in the cloud. At this point, cloud applications become complicit in spreading the malware."

Public cloud offerings are easily scalable and have low starting costs. But that flexibility potentially comes at the expense of security. The built-in security features that public cloud providers use are often not enough to keep sensitive data wholly protected.

Especially in healthcare, organizations must implement additional encryption and cybersecurity methods in conjunction with public cloud technologies to satisfy HIPAA requirements. For that reason, more customizable private clouds may be more appealing to healthcare IT decision-makers.

Hybrid cloud environments take advantage of both public and private cloud technologies by leveraging the public cloud's scalability and the private cloud's security. A multi-cloud environment implies that a business uses multiple public clouds rather than mixing private and public clouds. Typically, organizations use this strategy if they have various needs that cannot be satisfied by a single public cloud provider.

IBM's global study on cloud adoption saw c-suite executives shifting away from a single public or private cloud in favor of a hybrid or multi-cloud architecture. The multitude of cloud architectures available demonstrates that there is no one-size-fits-all cloud solution.

Industry clouds are different from the rest because they are focused on enabling better business processes and digital transformation all under one umbrella, along with storing data in a secure and scalable way. Industry clouds can still incorporate elements of public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud architectures, but with the bonus of improving business processes.

Industry Clouds For Healthcare

Experts typically build industry clouds upon the foundational cloud elements present in traditional cloud architectures. But industry clouds take digital transformation into account throughout development, giving them an edge over traditional public or private cloud architectures.

"When we talk about industry cloud specifically, the focus is more on business process redesign and digital transformation," Campbell explained.  

Cloud vendors, system integrators, and software providers often join forces to build industry clouds. With continually evolving core technologies, organizations can focus their efforts on building differentiated capabilities and spearheading digital transformation.

"It means you enter the race with the best possible car and make modifications to prebuilt equipment with an expert crew, rather than building your car and team from scratch," a Deloitte report suggested.

"Such solutions are emerging in every industry and are continuously evolving to address new sector challenges and incorporate the latest digital capabilities."

Industry clouds are an excellent option for healthcare organizations looking to reinvent business processes and keep pace with the changing digital landscape. Campbell emphasized that the pandemic fast-tracked digital transformation in the healthcare sector. Now, organizations have to find solutions to keep that momentum going.

"This is also one of the tightest talent markets that we've ever experienced collectively, and that tends to span most industries today in terms of that shortage. There are a lot of organizations that are having to think differently about what may have been a human-oriented process previously," Campbell noted.

Along with the ongoing clinician shortage in healthcare, organizations must address the significant cybersecurity workforce gap.

"It has created a perfect storm of all of those different macro trends that have gotten us past the tipping point of cloud adoption," Campbell continued.

"There has been a move to embrace all of the different aspects of the industry cloud that we can build upon versus starting from scratch."

Essentially, industry clouds serve as business accelerators rather than just computing and data storage solutions. It is crucial to consider an organization's business and IT needs to determine what cloud computing methods make sense for each use case.

Cloud Considerations

"It goes quite a bit beyond the IT organization and really into the heart of the business and the strategy that they're trying to drive," Campbell said of industry clouds.

"There needs to be close collaboration between the business and the technology groups within an organization, whether it be healthcare or otherwise, that actually dictates where some of the investment ends up happening."

Industry cloud adoption requires collaboration across the enterprise and effective communication between IT teams and the c-suite.

"The other piece is to make sure that you have an understanding of what that menu looks like before you start making decisions because it's broader than most people expect," Campbell continued.

Creating and implementing industry clouds will look different for every organization. Organizations must consider the array of tools at their disposal along with the needs of various stakeholders. Procurement decision-makers should keep in mind that industry clouds are more than an IT decision—they are an investment in digital transformation.