Overcoming Healthcare’s Compliance Challenges With AWS

Mature and ready for a cloud, but limited by compliance requirements and challenged by data processing.

As discussed in the Benefits of AWS Hybrid Cloud Solutions for the Healthcare Industry, part one of this two-part blog series, the cloud has become an essential element of healthcare optimization and modernization strategies. However, implementation teams may be inexperienced, or time constraints may limit optimal approaches.

The business may have already begun the process with an educated development and operations teams ready to re-architect for the cloud. Healthcare specific data, related to cloud migration, must be carefully examined, including:

1. PHI or PII, data related to specific regulations that spread limitations on places and countries where this data can be stored.
2. PET Scans, MRI, CT, ultrasound and other scanning images and data sets

The first item supposes some limitations related to security and compliance, e.g., physical data location. The latter requires near real-time processing of vast amounts of data. It's quite sensitive to network characteristics—latency and network bandwidth.

To address these challenges, AWS proposes AWS Outposts. An Outpost is a physical 42U server rack that provides a pool of AWS compute and storage capacity deployed on-premise DC by AWS. An AWS Outposts is wholly installed, configured, and maintained by the AWS team. From a service perspective, it extends an Amazon VPC from a selected AWS Region to an Outpost rack hosted in your on-premises DC. An Outpost is tied to an Availability Zone in the selected Region and is an extension of this AZ for its resiliency.

As a result, businesses can:

• Use the same shared responsibility model as AWS proposes for the Cloud (with "security of the cloud" and "security in the cloud" concepts) and improve maintainability. AWS will install, configure, launch, monitor, and maintain AWS Outposts rack for the organization.
• Use benefits of AWS Cloud (managed services, AWS API for their configuration, IaC approach) but at the same guarantee that personal healthcare data will be stored and processed in specific DC in desired geographical locations. AWS Cloud allows users not to compromise security and not be out of compliance. It decreases latency for time-critical data and applications, literally can save someone's life in this particular case.

#ForTheFuture of Healthcare

Healthcare organizations have a long list of reasons why they have to onboard a hybrid cloud strategy. Soon, with new unpredictable challenges will be dramatically extended. A good example is COVID-19 situation and cases that have appeared as a result, e.g., increased demand for telemedicine, remote work, travel restrictions, and more.

But even with these two existing solutions AWS, is still improving them and adding new features, like new supported managed services for AWS Outposts. Moreover, AWS has also announced a solution for healthcare organizations who have a unique set of limitations. For example, healthcare enterprises may need to stay in DC, don't ready to onboard cloud managed services and think about cloud, but want to improve maintainability, reduced emphasis on hardware and use other benefits of shared responsibility model for PaaS. This solution is VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts. This service is in Beta now and will be GA soon.

SoftServe as an AWS Premier Consulting Partner ready to assess healthcare providers' challenges, propose the best option for the adoption of hybrid cloud strategy, implement proposed solutions, continuously support and optimize hybrid cloud architecture and related services. As an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Consulting Partner and a digital authority in cloud-enabled solutions, SoftServe enables healthcare and life science organizations by sharing our experience and creating customized solutions based on organizational goals and priorities, patients’ needs, expectations, and technology capabilities. Learn more by contacting the SoftServe AWS healthcare experts today.