Cloud vs In-House Servers for Healthcare

This assignment delves into the debate surrounding cloud-based versus in-house server solutions for healthcare organizations. It analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, focusing on aspects such as data accessibility, security, scalability, and cost implications. The discussion highlights the suitability of cloud servers for healthcare due to their ability to provide remote access to patient information while emphasizing the risks associated with internet dependency during emergencies.

Running Head: Masters of Health Informatics
Masters of Health Informatics

Masters of Health Informatics 1
Table of Contents
Answer to question no-1: WAN............................................................................................................2
Answer to question no-2: Types of WAN..........................................................................................3
Answer to question no-3: Radio-frequency identification (RFID).....................................................3
Answer to question no-4: Body Area Network (BAN)......................................................................4
Answer to question no-5: In-house vs. cloud-based solution.............................................................5
References.............................................................................................................................................7

Masters of Health Informatics 2
Answer to question no-1: WAN
Wide Area network is a large network which connects various local area networks.
High speed of data transmission take place via WAN, speed of transmission is dependent on
the cost of connection and distance between the routers. There is no single entity that is
managing wide area network. Hence, it is maintained by distributed ownership.
It is used in health care system, educational system or banking system. Like in health
care system, different branches are remotely connected to each other over a network, so that
the official data can be accessed by doctors or patients from anywhere on the internet. WAN
allows the users to share the resources remotely instead of downloading the resources
separately (Jiang, Fang & Chion, 2011).
Some WAN networks that are available are:
Circuit and Packet Switching – Circuit switching is mostly used for supporting
synchronous connection between end points of dialup connections. Bit delay is constant in
circuit switching network and offers no overhead thus, can be used for optical mesh network
or cellular network for continuous data transfer. Packet Switching is used for transferring the
data at high speed by dividing the data in smaller data units.
ATM- It is used for Asynchronous data transfer and provides the functionality of both circuit
switching and packet switching. Before actually exchanging the data packets ATM
establishes the virtual circuit. It is globally available and provides high security by using
VPN (Virtual private network) technology.
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)- It is used for synchronous data transfer, it is
used for video conferencing for transmitting digital signals over network. ISDN is used to
integrate data on the same lines by providing additional.

Masters of Health Informatics 3
Answer to question no-2: Types of WAN
WAN allows the client to access the services as they are centrally located. It ensures
in providing secure data transmission between data packets over the network (Dietrich,
Putterman, Peter & Bullwinkle, 2016).
Several Types of WAN and their basic structure
Frame Relay: It is kind of wide area network which handles the communication between
various LANs and supports data transfer at very fast speed. It is less expensive and very
simple to use. The cost is calculated once the packet reaches the destination via virtual circuit
and it is charged according to the usage. It put data packet in different size frames and sends
the important packets leaving behind the less important packets. Frame relay is widely used
in health care services as it is cost effective approach and helps in creating private health
network which helps in retrieving patient reports through internet as all the informationis
available within the state-wide network.
ISDN- Integrated Services Digital Network delivers high speed network for communication
over phone lines. It permits the access to packet-switched networks by meeting the standard
in telecommunication network. It provides alternative approach. It is widely used for voice
calls and is used are faster alternative to dial up internet access. It is useful as it allows all
type of service to operate in a common network (NFON, 2017). ISDN helps in health care as
it offers health service in remote location so that care can be provided at home for those how
are not in very critical conditions.
Data Link Connection Identifiers- It provides the path for communication from one device
to another. It is also used in health care industry as the transfer of data occurs over

Masters of Health Informatics 4
multiplexed channels. Rate of Data Transfer is very also high. Data Link Connection
Identifiers used for ensuring that data reach at proper destination, even in frame relay system
DLCI identifies virtual circuit. It allows quick access of information that can help in the
analysis of health situations or can be beneficial in the development of suitable action plans.
It can be used to access test results or to practice the strategies for patient’s health from
anywhere.
Answer to question no-3: Radio-frequency identification (RFID)
Radio Frequency Identification is a wireless communication which uses radio waves
for communication provides unique identification code is read only by scanning device. It is
basically used for tracking the identity. RIFD has replaced the barcode technology and they
can automatically scan tags through plastic, wood. Use of RIFD has increased in various
industries from defence, food, healthcare and transport. In health care system using RIFD
technology helps in tracking patient’s value and patient’s safety. This system helps in
reducing patient time as all the process are automatic and quality time can be used in patients
treatment rather than completing billing process.
Advantage of RIFD
It allows scanning of multiple goods at the same time and scans the tags in milliseconds. It
helps in providing location by using their ID. It is used for security purpose and is versatile. It
is used in many payment methods and tracking of goods and services. This is majorly used in
identification of product. Active Wave uses RIFS to transmit the information without wires.
In RIFD no line of sight is required. It supports portable database and there multiple tags that
can be read/write. Basically used for tracking people, items, and equipment in real-time.
Disadvantage of RIFD

Masters of Health Informatics 5
It has various disadvantage has it has high cost of implementation and implementation of
hardware and software is difficult. Sometimes the problem of RIFD is tag collision it occurs
when tags overlap. It is majorly used in healthcare sector as it helps in using the resources
effectively by spending more time in patients care rather than spending in medical
procedures.
Answer to question no-4: Body Area Network (BAN)
Body Area Network is a wireless network which is placed in human body with main
purpose to transmit data and used for monitoring the disease in the body. It was used in health
care application for monitoring the patient continuously on behalf of certain parameters.
BAN helps in alerting about the patient’s condition by measuring the changes in vital signs
and for diabetes patient in automatically injects insulin (Techopedia, 2015). BAN includes
smart phone that is close to person’s body. BAN is widely used in medical sector to make
decisions based on the data (Zhou, Cao, Dong, Xiong, & Vasilakos, 2015). BAN permits
cheap and continuous monitoring of health records via internet. BAN devices rapidly
transmit all the information of patient to the doctors so that any emergency situation can be
handled properly. Therefore, it is used in medical field for detecting medical disease so that it
can be controlled and also used in security departments or networking (Majumder & Gupta,
2018).
Some issues with BAN is that coordination between different BAN is impossible. While
during communication BAN devices produce heat which is harmful for body parts. It saves
energy and time as patients do not need to connect to machine for monitoring.
BAN technology is used in health care to understand the potential health threats by using
digital information like x-rays and CT scans are very useful for monitoring the patients’
health. BAN technology is used observer the minute status of patient’s body as it is used for

Masters of Health Informatics 6
wearable services like smart watches, fitness bands and medical devices placed in the body. It
is used for short range and for low power communication.
Answer to question no-5: In-house vs. cloud-based solution
It is very difficult to decide between in house and cloud servers, many factors
contribute into this decision. Like uptime of the business, cloud computing offers more
benefit but is more expensive than in house servers (Xhafa, Li, Zhao, Li, Chen, & Wong,
2015). For an online business online transaction is considered as the uptime for the business
that is guarded by cloud based solution plus by using cloud servers no hardware or capital
expenses are required and help in growing the companies quickly. Cloud servers are easily
scale and can be used according to the demand. On the other hand, in house servers also offer
several benefits as in this one don’t need to rely on internet for accessing the data. It keeps all
the important data and is not accessed by any third party (Gharpu, Chen & Raman, 2018).
For the health care organisation it would be better to used cloud server as it will allow
accessing the data of patients without large expenditure and can be used for disaster recovery.
Cloud server is quick (ZionCloud, 2017). The only risk associated by using cloud server is
that certain cyber-attacks can occur which will cause loss to integrity and confidentiality of
the organization. If internet is down, cloud server can’t be used to access s the data as it
depends on internet which can be dangerous for patient’s health (SysGEn, 2017). If the
patient is going through critical solution, can unavailability of internet canto patient’s life can
cause to sever risk. For example, if the doctor is not available in the hospital currently and
patient has some emergency. So, via cloud server doctor can access the information and
provide instant treatment guidelines for the patient.

Masters of Health Informatics 7

Masters of Health Informatics 8
References
Jiang, J., Fang, Y., Bhalla, R., & Chion, M. (2011). U.S. Patent No. 7,965,693. Washington,
DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Majumder, A.B. & Gupta, S., (2018). An Energy-Efficient Congestion Avoidance Priority-
Based Routing Algorithm for Body Area Network. In Industry Interactive Innovations
in Science, Engineering and Technology (pp. 545-552). Springer, Singapore.
NFON, (2017), What is ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)? Retrieved on 13
February from <
https://www.nfon.com/en_de/cloud-telephone-system/resources/glossary/isdn/ >.
SysGEn, (2017), THE PROS AND CONS OF CLOUD VS IN HOUSE SERVERS, Retrieved
on 14 February from<https://sysgen.ca/cloud-vs-in-house-servers/>.
Techopedia, (2015), Body Area Network (BAN), Retrieved on 14 February from
<https://www.techopedia.com/definition/30083/body-area-network-ban>.
Xhafa, F., Li, J., Zhao, G., Li, J., Chen, X. & Wong, D.S., (2015). Designing cloud-based
electronic health record system with attribute-based encryption. Multimedia Tools
and Applications, 74(10), pp.3441-3458.
Zhou, J., Cao, Z., Dong, X., Xiong, N. & Vasilakos, A.V., (2015). 4S: A secure and privacy-
preserving key management scheme for cloud-assisted wireless body area network in
m-healthcare social networks. Information Sciences, 314, pp.255-276.
ZionCloud, (2017),Choosing between In house servers and cloud computing, Retrieved on 14
February from <http://zinoncloud.ie/2017/01/19/in-house-servers-and-cloud-
computing/>.

Masters of Health Informatics 9