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3 Best Practices for Cloud Data Security in Healthcare

With health information exchanges becoming a vital part of the healthcare system, cloud computing is the perfect way to integrate and store a wide range of data that includes patient records, lab reports and diagnostic images. Cloud computing capabilities can give health practitioners more tools to make effective decisions, but with it comes the concerns for security of patient information.

Gary Palgon, VP of project management and strategy for Liaison Technologies talked to Becker’s Hospital Review about the challenges ahead for integrating patient data and offered some ideas on best practices to consider. He began with a discussion of why the cloud is the next logical step for any patient data integration and also why the planning and roll-out needs to come from somewhere other than the IT Department.

He discusses how to define expectations and what needs to happen to ensure access control is included as the integration of patient data is set in place. For more insights into best practices and planning for security for cloud data services, be sure to read more here.

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SMBs to Drive Cloud Adaptation in 2012

We have been seeing how larger enterprise businesses have been taking on virtual servers as part of their overall business strategy for growth. In the shuffle for cloud adaptation many SMBs have struggled to gain the same benefits. A recent look by IT specialist CompTIA at the SpiceWorks’ Voice of IT: State of SMB IT report shows how SMB organizations are quickly adapting as well.

By using channel companies to gain the needed virtual servers technology that will help them to adapt to expanding cloud technology they have become as competitive as their big brothers. The article sites two major areas where the adaptation of virtual servers is most evident:

• The Explosive Growth of Virtualization in SMBs
• The Growth of Opportunities for Channel Solution Providers

For a more detailed look at this topic and links to the reports cited, please continue reading here.

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Is Your Data Management Strategy in Place for 2012?

As we begin to look to the coming year, one of the focus points for many SMBs will be data management and how they can strategize making the most of their new cloud vps servers capabilities. Informatica’s Darren Cunningham takes a look at a few articles that have popped up lately regarding trends in cloud data management, as well as a look at some questions SMBs should be asking for the coming year about how they will be able to best use the cloud vps servers they now access. Here are a few of the questions that every SMB should be considering as they plan the coming year’s cloud strategy:

1. How does Data as a Service fit in your plans? – The cloud is changing how we give and get data. Is your B2B plan including this strategy?
2. The Growth of Master Data Management – As the need to be consumer centric grows, so does the need for MDM. Are you ready?
3. Will the consumerization of IT change your plans? – It is one of the big trends. How can you evolve yours to be a profit center instead of a cost center?

For a look at more of Cunningham’s ideas and some great links to even more data management and cloud vps servers ideas, be sure to read here.

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Friday Cloud News Roundup

ZDNet Looks to the Year Ahead for Cloud Technology

While it is almost impossible to scan the net without tripping over a top ten list of what to expect in the coming year, ZDNet has often proven to be accurate in their predictions for technology. In this column, cloud technologist Joe McKendrick says that the next year will see big developments with more of everything including Big Data, larger and more data center power, even more when it comes to user power and lots of opportunities to use this expansion to create more cloud computing across business.

Cloud Convergence Council Expands its Mission and Name

In 2010 the Cloud Convergence Council was formed by the 2112 Group and Channel Partners Magazine to study cloud convergence of IT and telephony in the market. They recently made the decision to change the name of the organization to Cloud & Technology Transformation Alliance to reflect an expansion of its mission. For more information on what the new alliance will embrace, as well as where the organization sees this new mission leading them, read more here.

Independent Cloud Certification – Is It In the Works?

This week eWeek took a look at the development of independent cloud certification, something that has been discussed at length in the cloud computing industry for some time now. Because the business of cloud services is still relatively new, there is no real litmus test to give businesses an ability to find one that suits their needs. The best way to determine this is to bring in an independent company to test them.

But how secure is your company’s data in the cloud and how can you find out? Gartner is predicting that more businesses will use independent security testing to decide if a cloud service provider does a good enough job to be trusted with their data. But how that testing looks and even how to find a reliable security testing company continues to make the problem of certification a troublesome one for many businesses. For a closer look at how many business will make the leap to find the best possible cloud service provider, read more here.

Gartner sees Cloud Computing Top Story for 2012 in Technology

When it comes to keeping a pulse on the world of technology, Gartner is one research group that everyone pays attention to for information and trends. Looking at the technology trends for next year, the highly-respected research company looked at cloud computing and security as the two biggest trends to play a starring role in the economic climate for 2012.

They see channels in cloud computing as being avenues for opportunity for the forthcoming year and predicted that the security market, in particular when it comes to the cloud, will continue to be a focus for the next year. Bring your own device consumerism is a new trend that they see continuing to grow, along with the need for bigger and better data storage.

Cloud Based Call Centers Return to the US

Changes in the technology of cloud based call centers are now making it possible for many businesses to have call centers manned by operators working out of their home. 3CLogic, a leading cloud-based call center provider sees this leap in the cloud technology as a way to bring those jobs back from overseas.

They point to a reversal in the trend of outsourcing call centers to foreign countries and see this new technological ability as having a positive effect on the unemployment rate for the U.S. For a closer look at how this new approach to cloud based call centers may be impacting many SMBs, read more here.

Six Ways that Cloud Can Help SMBs

Although cloud computing is no longer a new concept, many smaller businesses still think that only larger enterprise companies can benefit from how cloud computing works. In the latest Fox Business report, Renee Schmidt from Madison Technology illustrates how SMBs in particular can benefit from the latest innovations that cloud computing has to offer. From a short lesson on cloud servers to checking out business tools in the cloud Schmidt shows many SMBs that one of the best things to come out of the cloud computing revolution is that it gives many smaller businesses a level playing field against their larger enterprise competitors.

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Virtual Servers Aids Cleaning Service Grow into Successful Franchise

How do you make virtual servers work for you to help your business grow? MaidPro CEO Mark Kushinsky knew that to grow a business you need to find a way to have the people who really know how to service your business not get bogged down in the daily tasks all businesses need to do. So he decided to take his tech background and grow his one-man office that supplied home cleaning services into a franchise that would support new branches with software to run scheduling, customer data and lead management. The only problem was the software didn’t exist so he had to create it himself. As his business grew to the current 120 locations nationwide, he adapted his business software to the emerging cloud technology by utilizing virtual servers to host his in-house software.

In Information Week’s SMB Technology section, they take a look at how this one person business used virtual servers and the new cloud technology to grow and made it the core strength that separates him from his competitors. Among other things the interview with Kushinsky looks at how he uses virtual servers to run a host of vital services such as:

• Training – Speeds up adaptation and gives consistency across offices
• Internal IT – Minimizes IT needs by centralizing it
• Management – Allows owners to manage services remotely
• Costs – Keeps fuel costs in check with virtual server based routing and scheduling

For a closer look at how these and other cloud server ideas were implemented to make a small business more competitive, and how other SMBs can learn from these ideas to make their own business more cloud-centric, be sure to follow our link to the story.

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