More Healthcare Organizations Plan to Adopt Cloud-First Approach

By Fred Donovan

July 10, 2019 - A majority of healthcare organizations are ready to adopt a cloud-first approach for their health IT infrastructure, compared with only 23 percent of healthcare organizations last year, according to the annual Cloud Data Security Report by Netwrix.

In addition, 34 percent of more than 750 healthcare organizations surveyed by Netwrix this year are ready to move their entire health IT infrastructure to the cloud, compared with only 22 percent in last year’s survey.

At the same time, 18 percent of respondents said they would consider moving data back on premises due to security concerns, reliability and performance concerns, and/or high costs.

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The survey found that one-third of organizations store a range of sensitive data in the cloud, including healthcare data and personally identifiable information of customers and employees.

One-quarter of healthcare organizations had at least one security incident in the cloud during the past 12 months.

A majority of IT teams at healthcare organizations plan to strengthen data security in the cloud by encrypting data and monitoring activities around data. However, 85 percent said they did not see an increase in their cloud security budgets in 2019, and one-third said they did not receive any financial support for cloud security from their management.

"Prioritizing security efforts is the key to ensuring data security in the cloud, especially if budgets are tight, as is common at healthcare organizations. When organizations know exactly what data they have in the cloud and have classified it according to its value and level of sensitivity, they are in a better position to choose appropriate controls within their budgetary constraints and protect sensitive data more effectively," said Netwrix CEO Steve Dickson.

Gartner estimates that by 2022, more than 30 percent of hospital data centers will be based in the cloud. Forces moving healthcare organizations in that direction include cost pressures and the need to reduce capital expenditures.

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More Healthcare Organizations Plan to Adopt Cloud-First Approach

A majority of healthcare organizations are ready to adopt a cloud-first approach for their health IT infrastructure, compared with only 23 percent of healthcare organizations last year, according to the annual Cloud Data Security Report by Netwrix.

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