Public cloud capabilities have dramatically expanded in recent years.
What was once a source of less expensive infrastructure has erupted into rich platforms for everything from on-demand computing and massive scale data engines to deep learning frameworks. Coupled with advances in security and compliance, the case for healthcare organizations to migrate out of their private data centers has become not only more attractive, but in many cases a business imperative to support the next generation of technology for precision medicine and population health.
As healthcare organizations plan their journey to the cloud, it is important to remember that it’s a multifaceted, iterative process that takes time, planning, and new operational models. The cloud fundamentally changes the way technology is deployed, delivered and consumed.
New levels of infrastructure agility and scale provide multiple options for continuous delivery, rapid experimentation, and enhanced lifecycle management. The timeline for deploying new applications happens much faster in the cloud compared to on-prem. The cloud makes it much easier to interoperate with the digital healthcare ecosystem, including care partners and consumers.
As organizations move to the cloud, it’s important that they take time to evaluate their technology operations in light of the capabilities offered by the cloud. From my perspective there are three key areas to consider when migrating to the cloud:
- Evaluate your success criteria: What do you want to accomplish related to cost savings, technology agility, and enhanced organization capabilities? Do you understand the financial impacts – both during and post migration? Can you measure the total value of your migration in terms of key drivers to your business? Understanding what success looks like is critical to ensure you’re on-track throughout the journey.
- Understand your capability: Do you have the necessary experience on staff? What’s the status of your existing technology contracts? What systems or applications can be moved quickly to the cloud? What resources can you devote to the journey? I often recommend looking at secondary, tertiary, or even end-of-life systems to start your migration. You can often gain efficiencies early in the migration by removing non-core systems from your data center environments.
- Identify timing and approach: When should you start new initiatives in the cloud? How do you get executive buy-in for the duration of the project? Do you start with a one-cloud or multi-cloud approach? Maintaining executive and organizational buy-in usually requires meeting interim milestones that show real value. I recommend simplifying your migration approach or working with a partner who can help you get there.
- Moving healthcare integrations to the cloud
- Guide: Moving health data integrations to the cloud
- Blog: The Price Is Right: How Moving to the Cloud Can Save You Money
- Blog: Why Are Tech Giants Moving to the Cloud?
- Blog: How migrating your healthcare data integrations to the cloud supports cloud infrastructure modernization
