Is cloud computing needed in healthcare?

Cloud computing becomes a very common technology nowadays. You wouldn’t be surprised if someone said: “I’ll upload photos to the cloud and send you a link”. Your phone works with cloud computing services, your laptop works with cloud computing, even your watch does it. Maybe, all of your devices are connected via the cloud. Maybe, devices of all your family are connected via the cloud. Thus said, we use it really every day and even don’t notice.

But there still are some questions like: “Do we need cloud computing in the banking?” or: “Do we need cloud computing in healthcare?”. Such questions are more related to data safety than with convenience because in these areas safety is one of the main reasons to use or not to use some technologies.

Why cloud computing?

Healthcare area needs to store huge amounts of data. You can remember a big number of shelves with all the cards of all the patients in your local hospital. The bigger the hospital, the bigger the file-cabinet is. It is hard to store all these files. It is hard to find the necessary one. It is easy to lose something between all the documents.

Digitalization helps organize the storage, search and structuring data. But the issue is with the on-prem equipment. We remember that the more data, the more storage we need. That’s why the hospital might require ever more servers and computers for storing and processing patients’ data.

Cloud computing allows to store and process a lot of data without huge numbers of on-prem hardware in the hospital. One of the greatest benefits of cloud computing is scalability. This feature allows using more resources when you need it. For example, you need to process a lot of data for an hour. With on-prem hardware, you’ll need more hardware for bigger capacity. Instead, cloud computing can give the necessary resources for a while and then return to the usual state.

Also, cloud computing allows processing data very fast. It is not only about storing and finding something in the database. For example, there are technologies based on cloud computing and Big Data that allows defining some diagnoses by analyzing a lot of data of different patients.

In everyday life, you can use cloud computing in healthcare too. For example, if you wear a fitness band or smartwatch that can measure some health parameters, you use cloud computing in healthcare. Such bands can alert you if your pulse becomes very high or low. It is possible because of real-time data processing in the cloud.

Is it safe?

When we talk about some personal data, people usually worry about safety. Well, with the right approach, cloud computing is quite a safe tool for storing and processing data. If you use it for some personal needs, choose the reliable cloud provider and set a strong password. Data is stored in encrypted form in the cloud, so you shouldn’t worry about leaks or loss of data.

You actually already use cloud computing in some form and store data somewhere in the cloud even if you don’t notice it. This is the nowadays reality and we shouldn’t be afraid of it and refuse the new technologies.

Wrapping up: does cloud computing help healthcare?

Totally yes. It helps a lot. We mentioned the system that can diagnose some diseases using cloud computing and Big Data. It can recognize the cancerous tumor using a CT scan. The computer does it better with some tumors that human eyes. So, such technologies can save somebody’s life because of a timely established diagnosis.

Thus, don’t be afraid of technologies. The future is already here and we can use all the benefits from in right now.

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