Have You Looked at Clouds from Both Sides Now?

Are we at an inflection point in the history of computing?  Are we entering a period of inevitable conversion from mainframe, client server and local network technologies, overwhelmingly the dominant models in clinical health care computing today, to the next generation of offsite, remotely hosted ad managed services via the "World Wide Computer" (otherwise known as 'cloud computing')?

Cloud Computing is already big business, expected to reach $56 billion this year up 21% from $46.5 billion in 2008 according to Gartner, a Stamford, CT based IT research firm.   According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology:

 

"Cloud computing deploys 'massive clusters of computers' linked by software that not only manages traffic between them, but also is capable of dividing computers into multiple 'virtual' machines.  It provides clients of the cloud services that can quickly expand and contract to a client's needs.  A cloud utility can 'elastically provide many servers or a single software as a service style application', or host

many such  applications on a few servers".

 

Cloud computing is likely to make its quickest inroads into smaller health care organizations which cannot afford the traditional, much costlier, server-based EMR technologies.  These smaller organizations (and half of the 5500 nonfederal hospitals are still under 100 beds and more than half of physician practices contain fewer than five physicians) can use these cloud based technologies to satisfy the government's "meaningful use" requirements to qualify for the $34 billion in federal incentive payments starting at the end of next year.  So why should they spend the extra money for traditional EMRs (especially since these have been pronounced "clunky and difficult to use" by most of the members of these smaller health care organizations anyhow)?

 

Larger organizations which have already made substantial investments in the traditional, costly, server based technologies will need to balance their already substantial financial outlays with the increasingly more attractive features of cloud computing.  Most should adopt a hybrid approach in coming years, supplying some hardware and software requirements themselves, and purchasing others over the grid.

 

Both traditional and newer age cloud computing companies making inroads into health care will be significantly impacted by this coming revolution.  These include:

 

1.  Google;

 

2.  Microsoft;

 

3.  IBM;

 

4.  GE; and

 

5. Siemens 

This author consults with leading institutions through GLG