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The hybrid cloud model allows organizations to use both public and private cloud services where they make the most sense. Typically, databases and applications with protected health information and other sensitive information will remain on-premises, while applications that may require additional storage or computing capacity on short notice (such as analytics) can run in the public cloud.

The hybrid cloud is popular in healthcare as a best of both worlds approach. However, it does require organizations to take the time to develop a hybrid cloud strategy that identifies which services will be hosted where, and how they will be managed. Organizations also need the infrastructure and technical know-how to move data and applications from the public to the private cloud without incurring significant downtime or expense. Small organizations that lack this expertise may find it difficult to address these needs.

Finally, the multicloud approach includes services from multiple public and/or private cloud vendors. This model reduces an organizations reliance on a single cloud service provider, minimizes the impact of latency by using data centers that are geographically closer, and lets organizations choose the right cloud provider for the right service one for backup, one for testing, one for disaster recovery, and so on.

On the other hand, security and governance become more complicated with multicloud use, and clouds from competing vendors are unlikely to be interoperable. Even the act of choosing which vendor to use for which purpose and then managing multiple contracts with CSPs can be a complicated process. Again, organizations with limited expertise in-house may struggle to address these operational challenges.

Given the limitations of local resources, smaller IT budgets and talent recruitment, rural hospitals and health systems would be wise to consider what an outside partner could do for them.

For example, the add-ons available from public CSPs for cloud security and management are likely to provide a level of protection that smaller organizations could not achieve on their own. Using the cloud also helps organizations get out of the data center business, lowering the cost of running and maintaining applications while freeing up physical space onsite for revenue-generating activities.

If thats not enough, working with a remote managed services partner can help a rural organization offload some cloud security and management responsibilities. This will let the onsite IT team focus on supporting the needs of patient care and hospital operations areas where they have unique expertise that others cannot match.

Another option for small, rural healthcare organizations is to tap government programs that can facilitate connections to the cloud. One example is the Iowa Communications Network. In addition to providing a fiber optic network connection for healthcare (along with education, government and public safety) it offers access to several public cloud services, firewall protection, distributed denial of service mitigation and redundancy.

We want to give everyone the ability to connect to the cloud. We want smaller organizations to have the same opportunities as everybody else, says Scott Pappan, ICNs CTO. Our goal as an organization is to make a shared computing infrastructure available. That way, everyone in rural Iowa wins.

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How to Find the Right Cloud Solution for Small Healthcare Organizations - HealthTech Magazine