Cloud Computing in Healthcare: Benefits, Challenges, and Solutions

This report explores the implementation of cloud computing within the healthcare sector. It begins by highlighting the industry's slow adoption of innovation and then delves into the advantages of cloud technology, such as reduced costs and improved data accessibility. The report also acknowledges the disadvantages, including security vulnerabilities and initial implementation expenses. Furthermore, it offers recommendations for healthcare organizations, emphasizing the need for rigorous security measures and addressing challenges related to scalability and capacity. The report concludes by stressing the importance of understanding and mitigating the risks associated with cloud technology to ensure its effective and secure integration into healthcare practices.

Running head: IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD COMPUTING AT HEALTHCARE
Implementation of Cloud Computing at Healthcare
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1IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD COMPUTING AT HEALTHCARE
Use of cloud in healthcare, its pros and cons and recommendations for the
organization:
The healthcare industry is conventionally considered to be a slower adopter of innovations.
In a cloud, on the other hand, various IT services and resources are abstracted from underpinning
infrastructure in a multi-tenant environment. The following study demonstrates the possibility to use
a cloud for storing health information.
Some of the pros of cloud computing are discussed hereafter. First of all, cost per head is
considered. In a cloud, overhead technology costs are kept to a minimum with various cloud hosting
services. This enables a business to utilize additional resources and time to improve healthcare
infrastructure (Sultan, 2014). Moving to the “Resource-as-a-Service” model, irrespective of
infrastructure and software changes eradicates high capital expenditure. Moreover, it decreases
downsizing and scaling costs. Regarding performance, cloud delivers accurate and faster retrieval of
data and application. Cloud helps in accessing data anywhere anytime (Chen et al., 2015). It
maximizes enterprise efficiency and productivity assuring that forms are accessible every time.
However, like other technologies, it has various cons also. First of all its security must be
maintained since it is vulnerable to external infiltration. Incidents like iCloud hacks are a big
concern. Although there are advancements in firewall systems and encryption, privacy is still a
legitimate threat to a cloud. Unfortunately, cloud implementation is relatively costly to begin with.
Further ongoing IT maintenance expenses are also considered (Zhang et al., 2017). In performance,
as any of cloud-based service providers lose connection or ISP goes through outrage, the healthcare
organization can go out of business. Apart from all these, there are bandwidth issues. Here clients

2IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD COMPUTING AT HEALTHCARE
plan accordingly and never pack a huge amount of servers and storage devices to a small set of data
centers (Botta et al., 2016).
Now a brief recommendation justifying cloud as sound practice at the healthcare institution is
assessed. First one is escalation of consumerism that would re-focus healthcare to provide a value-
based market from a volume based one. Cloud computing gives an IT infrastructure allowing entities
in healthcare ecosystem to leverage developed computing capabilities. This is done at lower initial
capital outlays that prior needed long-term licensing. Wearable technologies supported by cloud
applications are turning to be more commonplace. Hence, healthcare delivery has become more
decentralized and supplying broader scopes for patients to get treatment. However, it must be
reminded that cloud needs a rigorous approach to legal and technical security. The customers of
cloud computing services as data controllers should assure that they can fulfill their obligations.
Since cloud usage for critical sectors has been rising, there is a necessity for extensive
security measures for the healthcare. The report shows that the organization must face higher
implementation costs and IT integration challenges as use of cloud service increases. They must
understand that most of the issues arising before their aim are related to fundamental primary aspects
like scalability, capacity and availability of cloud technology.

3IMPLEMENTATION OF CLOUD COMPUTING AT HEALTHCARE
References:
Botta, A., De Donato, W., Persico, V., & Pescapé, A. (2016). Integration of cloud computing and
internet of things: a survey. Future Generation Computer Systems, 56, 684-700.
Chen, M., Zhang, Y., Li, Y., Hassan, M. M., & Alamri, A. (2015). AIWAC: Affective interaction
through wearable computing and cloud technology. IEEE Wireless Communications, 22(1),
20-27.
Sultan, N. (2014). Making use of cloud computing for healthcare provision: Opportunities and
challenges. International Journal of Information Management, 34(2), 177-184.
Zhang, Y., Qiu, M., Tsai, C. W., Hassan, M. M., & Alamri, A. (2017). Health-CPS: Healthcare
cyber-physical system assisted by cloud and big data. IEEE Systems Journal, 11(1), 88-95.