Advantages and disadvantages of medical cloud storage technology

Beth Israeli woman Deacon Medical Center storage architect Michaelpasse said BIDMC decided to use EMC's Atmos private cloud storage to complement their traditional SAN and NAS systems. Glasshousetechnologies Senior Consultant Ronscruggs also makes a detailed comparison of cloud and archive storage.
　　

They show how the cloud offers a cheaper option, although hospitals may give up performance and functionality in some cases, but the concerns remain focused on reliability, security, and vendor commitment to the cloud model. But Passe says the benefits to hospitals may be more than just cost savings.
　　

"A lot of people will ask, is this really a cloud, or is it just a cheap store?" says Passe. At first it was a cheap store, but its long-term value might be to provide a multi-tenant, strategy-driven storage that could be combined internally, externally, and even both. ”
　　

He said: "Now the cloud is suitable for everyone, but it is worth your attention." ”
　　

Passe says the need to keep data for decades for regulatory reasons and to preserve large images of medical tests prompted him to look for cheaper storage media. "Every day I get calls from different departments who want to save a lot of scanned images," he said. They asked us to keep these images permanently. ”
　　

Passe divides cloud vendors into three categories: private cloud software and hardware vendors, public cloud service providers, and public cloud storage application providers.
　　

Public cloud providers include AmazonS3, Nirvanix, and Rackspace. Public cloud applications vendors include data backup vendors Carbonite and mozy, desktop and device synchronization vendors MobileMe, save and share image application providers Flickr and Snapfish. Private cloud vendors include Bycast, Caringo, Datadirectnetworks, EMC, Parascale, and Permabit.
　　

The advantage of a private cloud, he says, is that it is internally controllable; it can better control security, policy-driven protection, and lower costs. Concerns about private clouds are focused on vendor lock-in, limited NAS protocol support, and vendor commitment to the cloud model.
　　

He predicts that BIMDC will eventually adopt a hybrid model of private cloud and public cloud that will retain patient personal records on private clouds for security and compliance reasons. Public clouds can be used to replicate research data that BIMDC want to share.
　　

Build a cloud, or lease a cloud?
　　

Scruggs compares the two options of internal filing and cloud adoption as "Am I building a warehouse or renting someone else's site?"
　　

He says the cloud is a lower-cost option than an in-station archive and avoids concerns about management and technology upgrades, but reliability, security, and access time are still likely to be affected.
　　

In many ways he is consistent with Passe's views, such as the need to evaluate vendors and the difficulty of defining the cloud.
Detailed review
　　

All key issues must be identified before the hospital decides to choose a cloud provider.
　　

Scruggs and Passe said it was important to read the service-level agreements carefully.
　　

"If there is any problem with the data, who is responsible? If the data is lost, whose fault is it?" said Scruggs.
　　

Passe said: "There are some major providers of service-level agreements on certain provisions of the description is very vague, such as the commitment to restore and determine data damage." Hospitals should go through the fog and see the nature of things. ”
Look at the nature through the surface
　　

If you think that a lot of cloud computing looks similar, then that's right. Experts advise against too much wording in the definition.
　　

Passe said: "This is a term for old technology." Ultimately it's up to you to define what the cloud means to you and to your hospital. ”
　　

"Essentially, a cloud is a distributed computation," says Sruggs. It's not a new technology. ”