News Feature | March 5, 2015

One Third Of HIT Services Delivered Through The Cloud

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Government IT News For VARs — January 28, 2015

A CDW report finds cloud computing and cloud services are becoming increasingly popular in healthcare.

Just over 34 percent of healthcare IT services are delivered through the cloud, either entirely or partially, according to CDW. This finding can be found in the recently released Cloud 401 Report which asked more than 1,200 IT professionals about their experience with the cloud.

According to the report, these IT decision makers identified migration and integration as top challenges. The perceived complexity of working around legacy systems and integrating workloads has many holding back from adopting the cloud. In fact, 59 percent of respondents said they would use cloud services more if they didn’t fear integrating them with their current systems.

The report’s accompanying infographic shows first implementations of cloud services averaged 14 weeks. Implementation of subsequent cloud services took roughly 10 weeks and more than half of organizations reported that it now takes them just 6 weeks to implement new cloud services.

Of healthcare IT decision makers, 28.7 percent said security is the largest source of problems for current cloud services. Six percent of providers in a survey from HIMSS refused to adopt the cloud because of security concerns, however 27 percent actually saw it as a way to boost security.

“This study provides a clear understanding of where cloud computing is most widely adopted along with the hurdles organizations encounter in adding cloud to their IT mix,” said Stephen Braat, VP, cloud and managed solutions at CDW in a press release. “Cloud services have such great appeal that departments outside IT are often sourcing them independently, but rather than diminishing IT’s role, the data suggests that IT has a more critical role than ever: integrating cloud with traditional services and architecting for reliability and continuity of service, regardless of delivery mode.”

A study from Dell in December found 96 percent of mid-size healthcare organizations are either using or seriously considering the cloud. “By providing the flexibility and scalability that enables small and mid-size healthcare organizations to be more nimble in the face of constant change, the cloud can help speed and ease the transformation as other newer technologies are adopted,” said Cliff Bleustein, M.D., CMO, Dell Healthcare and Life Sciences.