The Oft Forgotten Benefits of Multi-Cloud in Healthcare

I remember the days when cloud was almost a dirty word in healthcare.  Most healthcare CIOs probably saw the writing on the wall that cloud was the future, but there was a lot of fear going to the cloud.  Now every healthcare organization is not just in the cloud but is multi-cloud.  What’s interesting about healthcare’s move to the cloud is that we often forget the benefits of multi-cloud when it comes to things like patient outcomes and clinician experience.

This was the topic of discussion at the HIMSS 2023 annual conference in the session titled “CXO Spotlight: Improve Patient Outcomes and Clinician Experiences with a Consistent Multi-Cloud Strategy.”  This session included the following panel of experts:

We had a chance to live tweet the session and here are some of their key takeaways when it comes to the benefits and some challenges associated with multi-cloud in healthcare.

When you look at these top priorities for CXO, it’s easy to see why cloud in healthcare is so popular.  It makes all 3 things easier to do: scaling, data sharing, and innovation.

No doubt COVID shined a light on so many things in healthcare.  Some good and some bad.  One of the good things coming out of COVID was realizing how the cloud allowed an organization to scale up and down quickly based on the needs of the organization.  This was true as new testing sites was rolled out.  It applied to the need for staff to work from home.  The pandemic really forced an organization to understand how important it was for their IT infrastructure to be flexible and nimble.

No doubt costs are a concern for every healthcare organization.  Bill Wilson’s advice to keep a close eye on the costs associated with your cloud strategy are important.  This is particularly true when I think we all see that the future is going to require more data storage and more processing power.  Understanding these costs as these needs change is going to be key.  Plus, looking at how the cloud impacts capital and operating costs is an important decision for leaders.

This is an incredible view of multi-cloud.  Far too often we look at our legacy applications as something that ties us down and prevents us from taking advantage of the latest technology.  I love Jeff Thomas’ perspective that the move to the cloud is an opportunity to leave behind our past sins and chart a new path forward.

Ask any sys admin what it was like to provision servers and desktops in the past.  The efficiency of the cloud when it comes to provisioning is mind bending.  It completely changes the paradigm when it comes to rolling out new environments.  So much so that good governance is going to be even more important.  We don’t want to roll out orphan environments just because we can.

I always love the question of what keeps you up at night.  Bill Wilson provides an incredible paradox.  There are no easy answers to it either.  Maybe the one guiding light is doing what’s best for the patient.  Although, even that can be complicated.

Nimbleness is key.  However, it’s true that we’re also often dependent on other healthcare organizations who may not be as nimble.  That’s a real challenge for CXOs in healthcare.

Education really is the key to so many things in healthcare IT.  That’s definitely true when it comes to multi-cloud.  There’s a lot of misconceptions around it.  Plus, it’s come a long way as it has matured over the years.

Thanks to this panel led by Michael Robinson from VMware for the great insights on healthcare multi-cloud.  What else would you add to the conversation?  What has been your experience with the healthcare cloud?  What are you watching for in the future.  We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments and on social media using the hashtag #HITsm.

VMware is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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