Cloud computing has been revolutionising the way organisations use and manage IT systems for several years now. However, although more and more organisations are recognising the benefits of moving to the cloud, many still struggle to navigate that journey. This is even more of a challenge in the health sector, where we’ve seen examples of organisations wanting to adopt the cloud but deciding against doing so due to the fog of information that lies ahead of them. But what is this information that stands in the way of adopting true cloud?
CIOs in health organisations will relate to the fact that there are masses of standards, guidelines and principles that dictate the way cloud services should be adopted. This is both a positive and a negative. On the one hand, having these standards published provides direction and ensures that IT systems (operational services and data) are safe in the cloud. On the flip side however, reading and understanding all that information is challenging and time consuming. When health providers are faced with shrinking budgets and time constraints on adopting new systems or migrating existing IT infrastructure to the cloud, the last thing they want to do is try and understand this technical and legal jargon, which is often not clear and to the point. To add to this challenge, new standards are being added regularly and existing standards are being made tougher. For example, the Minimum Cyber Security Standard will be progressively incremented over time, to ensure that the standards rise as the cyber threat landscape continues to evolve. Other standards such as the NHS digital, data and technology standards framework, introduced by Matt Hancock, will become more and more crucial as they are pushed forward. This framework covers a multitude of aspects from the use of data to design interactions that affect suppliers of cloud services. This shows that understanding and adhering to the standards is not only the responsibility of health organisations but can expand to include cloud service providers. In many cases, the steps required are not clear, making this task daunting. But it doesn’t have to be; UKCloud Health have assisted many organisations through this journey.
The first task is to break down the migration or design of cloud applications into manageable steps. It’s important to first understand the purpose behind cloud adoption: it could be as part of a data centre modernisation strategy, or to design new systems that help facilitate patient-oriented healthcare. The next step is to read and comprehend the information outlined within these standards. As a public sector specialist with experience in the health sector, UKCloud Health can help organisations with this aspect. As part of our service offering, we provide clear and concise information relating to the standards to ensure health organisations know what they need to do to achieve them when adopting cloud and designing applications. We do this is because we passionately believe in making transformation happen, which starts with enabling organisations and providing them with the information they need, making that journey to cloud easier. Our cloud platform has achieved a range of ISO accreditations and is subject to regular independent validation by government accreditors, sector auditors and management system assessors. Additionally, the platform is supported by Security Cleared personnel, processes and an ecosystem of partners that can help support health organisations when starting their journey to cloud. Our experts in cloud are more than happy to support and assist throughout this journey.
We’ve created a page specifically to help explain these standards in an easy to understand format and have provided evidence information on how UKCloud can assist organisations in complying. This interactive page also includes useful resources providing further assurance information to make the way ahead clearer. To visit this page and find out why UKCloud Health is the right place for health services and data, click here.