As the demands of IT infrastructure associated with healthcare organizations continue to grow, so too does the need to securely store vast amounts of data in a flexible and cost-effective manner. For healthcare organizations looking to adopt a new approach for storing and accessing digital assets, cloud migration can be a great option.
Cloud migration, which typically involves the movement of data from on-site data storage onto a cloud-based storage solution, present many enticing benefits for growing organizations. Within the healthcare field, cloud migration is becoming increasingly popular, especially as electronic health records (EHR) continue to grow in popularity throughout the industry.
However, deciding how to move all of the data utilized by a healthcare organization from onsite storage to the cloud, or from one cloud provider to another, is no small undertaking. Due in large part to the strict data privacy regulations surrounding healthcare-related data (i.e. HIPAA) and the realities of today’s computing resources, all of a firm’s data cannot be moved from one place to another instantaneously.
With such realities in mind, planning and executing a healthcare cloud migration requires lots of due diligence. To help your organization effectively implement its next healthcare cloud migration, we’ve prepared the following three steps to help guide your organization’s cloud migration process.
1- Determine Why Your Organization Wants To Move To The Cloud
Whenever a firm is contemplating a large-scale healthcare cloud migration, the first question to ask is why your data needs to move to the cloud. Believe it or not, in many instances a company’s on-site data storage infrastructure is sufficient and will continue to be for years to come.
2- Select The Right Cloud Service Provider Partnership
While some healthcare organizations have the in-house technical expertise required to execute a cloud migration, most will have to look towards outside partners to facilitate this highly demanding transition. When searching for the right cloud partner, consider their past experience on similar projects, which clients they have worked with in the past, and their willingness to address questions or concerns specific to your cloud migration.
3- Execute Your Company’s Plan
Assuming that your organization already has a plan in place, expecting it in concert with your cloud service provider is the real key to successful cloud migration. However, before executing your plan, it is of paramount importance to backup all of the data that will be transferred to the cloud. While they are rare, mistakes happen, and catastrophic data loss has occurred. Ensuring that your organization’s data is backed up will allow for the process to be tested and tweaked as needed, which in turn will allow for a more effective migration.
Once your organization’s healthcare cloud migration is completed successfully, it is essential to continually monitor your cloud to ensure that critical data is both readily available and highly secure. At the end of the day, cloud migration offers healthcare organizations the opportunity to offload intensive IT tasks to a third-party, which in turn allows for your team to focus on delivering the highest possible quality of care to patients.