Example Of Essay On Cloud Computing

Cloud computing refers to a kind of virtualization that shares data storage and server hardware infrastructure located remotely at the data center of the service provider. Cloud computing is constituted of three primary services, namely, Software as a service (SaaS), server platform, and data storage (White, 2010). All of these services are provided with a subscription model with a variety of price offerings. Since Information Technology plays an important role in the area of healthcare, healthcare organizations are fast adopting cloud computing services to reduce the IT maintenance cost, enhance the speed of deployment and solve the problem of inadequate number of internal staff to support on-premise alternatives. The survey conducted by HIMSS Analytics’ has come up with the finding that 83% IT healthcare organizations are already using the services of cloud computing in the USA (Columbus, 2014).
Ever since the use of cloud computing has entered the healthcare arena, there has been a growing debate on the utility of its services. There is no doubt that the installation of cloud computing helps the healthcare organizations meet with many challenges, but it cannot be denied, however, that there are also some risks associated with the use of cloud computing.
One of the benefits of installing cloud computing services is the reduction of IT maintenance cost. The CDW survey results show that 88% of healthcare organizations that have installed cloud computing have benefitted by reducing the IT maintenance cost by 20% annually on an average (White, 2010). Besides, the initial up-front capital required for switching to cloud computing is minimal, because of which more than 50% healthcare organizations have found cost savings (White, 2010). Cloud computing solutions also provide the flexibility to the authorized healthcare providers to access electronic health records, medical test results, and other important information from a number of locations, such as office, hospital and home, and this helps in accessing the life-saving information in a timely manner, reducing the requirement for duplicate testing (CSCC, 2012).
Aside from advantages, cloud computing also involves an array of challenges. The first challenge is the privacy and security challenges. Since the information stored in a cloud may be private, personal and confidential in nature, which needs to be properly safeguarded from disclosure, misuse and compromise, there is a growing concern globally about the security and privacy risks the cloud computing involves (White, 2010). As any IT infrastructure faces the challenge of hacking, the confidential information can be leaked if the cloud data storage is hacked or if any of the healthcare providers misuses the information to his or her advantage.
In the USA, Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandates the healthcare organizations to maintain the privacy and security of the personal health information (PHI) of the patients. The PHI of a patient can only be disclosed to other medical service providers upon the permission of the individual patient. In order to do that, it becomes the responsibility of the healthcare organizations to enter into a contract with the cloud service provider to maintain PHI in compliance with HIPAA standards (CSCC, 2012). However, often the healthcare entities do not have any control over how the PHI is handled, moved, and stored. Since there are a number of technological procedures involved in the proper maintenance of PHI in accordance with HIPAA standards while moving the date from one network operator to another in a cloud, the lack of technical knowledge regarding the process of data sharing and communication processes may put the healthcare organizations in jeopardy of violating the HIPAA rules (CSCC, 2012).
One major reason for healthcare organizations to adopt cloud computing is the easy data recovery upon a disaster. However, it is seen that the current cloud service-level agreement (SLA) provides insufficient guarantees for the disaster recovery. Since the dependence on the reliability and availability of information is a matter of life and death in the healthcare industry, such inadequate guarantees put the healthcare organizations at unease with the cloud computing solutions (CSCC, 2012).
Taking into account the above information, it seems that all is not hunky-dory with cloud computing and that healthcare organizations need to have proper technical expertise related to data sharing and the operational processes of cloud computing before deciding on its use.

References

Cloud Standards Customer Council (CSCC). (2012). Impact of Cloud Computing on Healthcare. Retrieved on 2nd February 2015 from <http://www.cloudstandardscustomercouncil.org/cscchealthcare110512.pdf>
Columbus, L. (2014). 83% Of Healthcare Organizations Are Using Cloud-Based Apps Today. Forbes. Retrieved on 2nd February 2015 from <http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2014/07/17/83-of-healthcare-organizations-are-using-cloud-based-apps-today/>
White, J. (2010). Cloud Computing in Healthcare: Is there a Silver Lining?. Aspen Advisors. Retrieved on 2nd February 2015 from <http://www.aspenadvisors.net/results/whitepaper/cloud-computing-healthcare-there-silver-lining>