We're living through an age of digital transformation. It would be quicker to say which industries haven't adopted cloud technologies – none, as far as we know.

What began as a necessity under lockdown measures to enable remote working has mushroomed into the new normal.

So it won't come as a big surprise to find out that healthcare organisations worldwide are beginning to embrace cloud solutions. But what might surprise you is the sheer scale of the transformation.

One reason for this is that many people have a limited notion of what "the cloud" is. While we don't have the stats to prove it, we reckon that if you went around a busy pub in Dublin and asked people "What is the cloud?" most of them would either say "file storage" or pretend they didn't hear.

To understand the full scope of cloud solutions, you first need to understand how it differs from traditional solutions.

Let's say you run a clinic. It's the year 2000. "Say My Name" is on the radio in reception. The Millennium Bug is fading into memory.

Chances are that you would run your software and keep all your data in a private data centre. This could be anything from a single server to a larger facility.

The server or servers were yours. You weren't renting them off a third-party vendor. That meant your IT team was responsible for maintenance.

Cloud technology changed the game by outsourcing software and data storage to third-party facilities. Instead of keeping money under your mattress, you were entrusting it to the bank.

In practice, we experience the cloud in all sorts of ways. In healthcare, it exists both at the professional end and at the patient end.

For professionals, it's a way of storing and managing patient data. For the patient, it can be experienced in the form of virtual appointments or health tracker apps.

What are the benefits of the cloud for healthcare?

Healthcare organisations are complex. This is true whether it's a GP with a team of five, a specialist clinic or a publicly owned hospital.

These organisations deal with reams of data. Trying to imagine the amount of data that a healthcare provider holds is like counting blades of grass. And before the cloud revolution, this data would be split between desktop computers, on-premise servers and box files.

Cloud storage centralises data. This isn't useful only because it puts all your ducks in a row. It also provides new opportunities for data analytics that can, it's argued, improve outcomes for patients.

It can save healthcare providers money. They don't have to patch, upgrade and polish their servers anymore – that's now the job of the third-party vendor.

Cloud solutions are also scalable. That means they change shape and size according to the user's needs. With an on-premise data centre, this isn't really possible.

And, of course, cloud-based data and software are available anywhere. Just as you can watch Netflix on the sofa, on a train or on a rollercoaster, so healthcare professionals can access patient data from any facility on any permitted device.

Trends

As in every industry, the cloud computing market in healthcare is ballooning. One estimate says that the global market is likely to reach $25.54 billion by 2024.

Another study suggests that healthcare organisations intend to put more and more workloads in the cloud – from 38% to 54% by 2024.

This is the most prevalent trend – the increasing use of cloud solutions to run software and manage data. It's argued that this will make care more patient-centred as data analytics provide more granular records.

Another development is virtual health or telehealth. The pandemic forced healthcare providers to innovate. Video calls became more common as a way of reducing strain.

Now that the pandemic is officially over, virtual appointments remain a way of streamlining patient flow into healthcare settings.

As well as this, there's an ever-increasing number of apps that share data with healthcare providers. These range from medicine reminders to heart-rate trackers.

Challenges

Of course, not all is rosy in cloud land. There are several issues that industries face – and healthcare is no exception.

One is the question of downtime. If a haberdasher experiences downtime, they might lose money – but in a healthcare setting, it could be literally a matter of life and death.

While many providers are heading towards the cloud, some are concerned about what migration would mean for continuity of care.

Similarly, if 73% of healthcare organisations are storing sensitive data in the cloud, what does that mean for cyber security?

No system is perfect, and the cloud is not a silver bullet. But there are two things to say.

First, downtime can be mitigated during the implementation phase if you work with a reputable cloud consultant. And second, it can be mitigated once implemented by leveraging your third-party vendor's disaster recovery procedures.

Major cloud providers offer built-in redundancy. This means that the cloud runs on multiple servers – so if one goes down, operations switch to another. This doesn't eliminate downtime entirely – but it does massively reduce it as an issue.

Opportunities

It's still early days for cloud computing in healthcare. But, as in other sectors, the sky seems to be the limit.

Are we entering an age when patient flow can be more accurately forecasted as a way to manage capacity? Could we have MRI scanners with cloud functionality? Will doctors be able to make better decisions based on detailed, cloud-synthesised patient records?

As the tech improves, we're likely to see more and more cloud technologies rolled out in healthcare settings of all shapes and sizes. It's an exciting time and we'll be sure to let you know what happens next.

At Ascend Cloud Solutions, we're experts in cloud migration, with more than 400 successful migrations under our belts. If you're looking for managed cloud migration services, don't hesitate to get in touch.