Modern IT tendencies and the experience of dealing with healthtech companies allow us to draw the conclusion that cloud migration will remain among the most popular technical optimizations during the next couple of years. Expert surveys prove the trend. Gartner predicts that 70% of enterprises will move to cloud platforms by 2027.
Just imagine the figure was less than 15% in 2023. In this post, I will outline the main benefits of cloud technologies for healthtech businesses and discuss several cloud migration strategies.
What is cloud migration?
Cloud migration is transferring the data partially or completely to the cloud. For a medical provider, it means keeping patients’ sensitive data in a secure digital environment that does not require servers or hardware maintenance. Users access the data through the applications built by IT specialists that ensure its safety and easy operability.
According to the McKinsey report, cloud transformations require steady investments during a period of eighteen to thirty-six months. The funds will pay off in the long run, as cloud transformation is not a short-term IT initiative. It is vital to agree on the business leadership support and find competent IT partners. A team of skilled professionals, such as full-stack developers and cloud engineers, will guide the modernisation process and customise solutions. In this case, cloud migration brings companies a bunch of benefits.
A healthtech provider has approached the Belitsoft software development company because they wanted to attract more customers to their EHR software. The client’s solution was built on the .NET framework. However, it could only satisfy users of Windows OS. That is why they decided to migrate .NET to .NET core and increase the target audience. As a result of the migration, the company received a product suitable for Windows OS and macOS. They managed to broaden their customer base and received a team of Belitsoft experts to help them further customise their products.
What are the benefits of cloud technologies?
Cloud migration is the moving of datasets, applications, resources, and other corporate data to the cloud. When legacy programs are no longer efficient, businesses decide to exploit cloud computing. I would mention the following points as the most appealing opportunities of cloud technologies for healthcare:
Easy access to data
With cloud-based healthcare, patient medical and billing data becomes more accessible to authorised users. Therefore, clinics and doctors can share the information, ensuring a personalized approach for every patient. Physicians can work on different devices and find the information needed in the electronic health records (EHRs) from any location. For example, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust has finished moving its electronic records system to Microsoft Azure. The hospital initially planned to achieve “robustness, resilience, and scalability of its IT infrastructure.” As the hospital’s officials emphasised, patient records are the most important thing in the healthcare environment. Migrating the data to Azure enables better cooperation in the medical domain, which leads to streamlined services and satisfied patients.
Scalability and flexibility
This feature of cloud technologies allows healthcare providers to turn to some opportunities like additional storage, networking, and computing powers only when needed. Such an on-request capability allows IT teams to adapt resources to workflows and avoid system failures. On-premises architecture requires additional servers and other infrastructure to cope with load peaks. It leads to further expenses. Relevantly set cloud applications automatically roll out additional resources to handle maximum loads. With the decrease in demand, resources return to the initially set parameters. Such a flexible approach allows for saving costs.
Cost savings
Adjusting the internal system to new environments is a strategic goal. That is why it will pay off in the long run. Cost savings come as an additional bonus to improved and scalable cloud-based software. For example, when addressing a healthtech provider, medical centres and hospitals do not have to bother about hiring expert IT specialists. This way, medical providers save their resources.
The pay-per-use pricing model allows customers to pay cloud providers only for the actual cloud usage. But in this case, customers should be attentive to switch the resources off and turn scalability down so as not to overpay.
What are the migration strategies?
There are several ways of migrating to the cloud.
- Lift and shift (rehosting)
This strategy is considered to be the easiest. From my experience, for many companies, it becomes the first step of their transformation. The process includes a shift from on-premises hosters to the cloud without internal changes. On the backside of this approach is insufficient usage of the cloud possibilities and ignorance of an opportunity to modernise infrastructure according to the demands.
- Refactoring
This approach involves modernising the infrastructure and code to make applications adapt better to new environments and be able to scale depending on the appearance of the peak loadings. Therefore, the system will scale if, for example, there is a seasonal peak of infections and more users visit the platform. When the load is minimal, fewer resources will be used, leading to cost cuts. The troubles with this migration strategy may result from the multiple optimisations and updates of the internal structure.
- Re-architecting
Developers choose this method if some parts of the legacy system are not compatible with new environments. Therefore, the application is redesigned to a cloud-native architecture. The process is challenging and might include bugs and service disruptions.
- Rebuilding
This strategy requires building applications from scratch. In the end, medical providers receive an entirely modernised system that will leverage the possibilities of cloud hosting. Rebuilding provides clients with responsive, flexible, and scalable solutions. However, the migration process is complicated and difficult to manage without competent support.
Every migration strategy has its pluses and minuses. Aside from that, companies must evaluate expenses, risks, and time resources. From my experience, the best approach is finding the golden middle between less effort and more results.
Conclusion
Cloud migration is not a walk in the park. It may bring some troubles alongside obvious benefits. Companies may fail to achieve performance improvements after moving to the cloud due to outdated internal systems, a lack of competent specialists, and weak change management approaches. Best results come with a tailored strategy, compliance with best practices, and skilled partners.
