How Next-Generation Cloud Management Helps Health Care Navigate Difficult Times. A publication by:

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1 How Next-Generation Cloud Management Helps Health Care Navigate Difficult Times A publication by:

2 Introduction Some industries grapple with heavy regulation. Others deal with the need to sharply cut costs. In some fields, the problem is keeping up with fast-changing technology. And then there s the business of health care. Name a challenge, and health care companies have it. Labor shortages? Check. Slowing revenue growth? Yep. Cost cutting? You bet. Massive legacy technology problems? Sure thing. Government regulations? Out the kazoo. All of which would seemingly make cloud computing, and especially the private cloud, a great solution for health care companies. And yet, it hasn t worked out that way. Look at the world of health care information technology, and everywhere you ll find instances where the cloud failed to deliver true value. Perhaps it took too long to set up and implement for one hospital. Maybe the promised expense savings didn t materialize for a given health plan. Or the management platform was too cumbersome and inefficient for such-and-such chain of pain management clinics. Don t even get the CIOs started on issues such as vendor lock-in, the idea that health care companies become virtual prisoners to cloud vendors for price hikes, product delays and the like. Not to mention chores like getting different clouds to operate together in harmony. 2

3 Introducing the Next-Generation ucloud : A Cloud Over All Other Clouds The point is, health care companies need efficiency, compliance and cost savings, and they haven t gotten it from the cloud. Until now, that is. Consider ucloud, a cloud management platform from Connectloud that provides unmatched speed, ease and low cost in setting up and running clouds of any type, size or number. Just as an operating system handles the basic functions of a desktop computer, ucloud does the tasks of deploying, managing and orchestrating clouds on routers, servers and similar equipment. It takes care of those jobs rapidly, smoothly and with reporting capabilities that health care companies need to compete in a rapidly evolving market. Remember that hypothetical hospital that took forever to get its cloud running? The ucloud platform can shrink the time from months to minutes, depending on hardware provisioning. The pain management clinic s clunky platform that drove the system administrator nuts? She d find ucloud to be intuitive, easy to handle-and efficient. And that health plan that couldn t cut costs in the cloud? It could now. And with security encrypted at multiple points, she ll also avoid compliance worries. Ready to learn more? Then let s take a look at the ucloud platform. First, we ll examine the myriad problems that health care businesses face, and then we ll get into how Connectloud solution was built specifically to tackle those problems. 3

4 The problem Rarely in U.S. history has the always-changing field of health care been in such flux. On the one hand, even though health care consumes roughly 17.2 percent of this country s Gross Domestic Product, spending grew only 3.7 percent in 2012, to $2.8 trillion. That was the slowest rate of growth since 1960, according to data cited in a recent Deloitte report. Although roughly 30 million new Americans are slated to gain health insurance through the federal Affordable Care Act, reimbursements are likely to decline, both through the expansion of Medicaid rolls and implementation of health insurance exchanges, the Deloitte report says. In order to at least break even, most (providers) will have to cut costs from 20 percent to 30 percent, the report adds. Other changes coming down the pike in health care, per Deloitte, include: Consolidation. On the provider side, many believe that competing in the new environment will require minimum system revenue of $4 billion to $10 billion, the report says. That consolidation is both horizontal such as one hospital buying another and vertical, with hospitals adding services like ambulatory care and home health. Value-based care. Payer models are changing to reward providers for getting and keeping patients healthier. For providers and plans alike, that means reducing risk, often by increasing revenue streams. Health systems, which want 51-plus percent of revenue from non-acute care, are buying things such as medical practices, labs and imaging centers. Plans are snapping up medical practices and going into accountable care. 4

5 The problem (cont.) Technology-driven change. New tech tools such as electronic health records and home and remote monitoring are changing how care is administered. And analytics and predictive modeling are helping to better understand and manage risks, costs and clinical effectiveness. While clinically beneficial, these trends can also drive up costs as more lifesaving technologies come online and impact national economies as life spans (grow,) the report says. All of which is plenty of change for one industry to deal with. But on the information technology side of health care, there s more. According to CIO magazine, changes that are happening include: Meaningful use. Dubbed the granddaddy of all healthcare IT challenges by CIO, meaningful use refers to a mandate to demonstrate the meaningful use of (electronic health records) by 2014 or face reduced Medicare reimbursements, the publication reported in a 2012 package. (That deadline for Medicaid providers is 2016, CIO reports.) Accountable care organizations. These voluntary organizations, which aim to help coordinate and reduce costs of healthcare for patients, require everything from heavy electronic health records investment to clinical data analytics and tools for staying engaged with patients. New security issues. The expanding use of mobile devices in health care, from tablets to smartphones to wearable technology, is problematic from a security standpoint in any industry. But it s even worse in health care, where providers and plans alike must worry about privacy and security rules and penalties from HIPAA. Wireless networks. Most hospitals and other medical facilities weren t built with wireless connections in mind. Fixing that problem isn t easy, or cheap. 5

6 The problem (cont.) Clinical data analytics. The use of Big Data analysis tools can help result in healthier patients who cost less to care for. The challenge surrounds installing those tools, getting them running and then bringing in all relevant data in a data warehouse that is accessible, but also secure and compliant. The cost? It s only something that the big providers can generally afford. Storage needs. Expanding health care data centers is often a low priority, falling victim to finding room for clinical care. But storage needs will grow, with more data keeping necessary to meet federal and state laws. The cloud should be a tool for making this raft of changes faster, easier and cheaper to deal with. For instance, setting up clouds to help consolidate and merge different companies IT systems is one avenue for making life a tad easier when corporations combine. Establishing clouds to oversee cutting-edge software and hardware tools can help not only provide better functionality, but also ensure regulatory compliance. But so far, setting up, running and orchestrating clouds for purposes like these has been difficult and costly. They simply take too long to get operational, for one thing, and consume time and resources to manage once they re airborne. Little wonder that some developers set up so-called shadow IT projects in order to get cloud capacity for what they re working on. Alas, while those developers may have good intentions, shadow IT consumes time and resources (ask anyone who has been shocked by an enormous, unexpected cloud bill), and can pose security issues to boot. 6

7 The problem (cont.) What health care companies need is a cloud management platform that takes care of their needs, whether their cloud arrangement is: Dev/Test: Speeding up the push of apps to end users while avoiding shadow IT projects; Public-Cloud Lite: Handling more work and customization and using personnel more efficiently, all with good delivery speed; Transformational Cloud: Tying health care companies revenue and clinical care gains to improvements in IT. Connectloud developed the ucloud platform to meet all these challenges and more. The software helps health care companies use the cloud to provide better clinical services while reducing overhead and staying in line with laws and regulations. It s time to take full advantage of the cloud. Let s look at the benefits that ucloud delivers. 7

8 The ucloud solution Lower operating costs. Connectloud s software lets health care businesses operate IT more cost effectively. One tenant administrator can handle the jobs of several people in areas like storage, databases, administration and operations. This tenant admin becomes more of an efficiency expert, and supertenant admins can even run several data centers. Small and mid-sized health care companies can pull down savings of $10 million to $20 million annually. Larger health enterprises can generate savings of $40 million to $50 million annually. Lower capital costs through data center consolidation. Stretch what your existing data centers can do through ucloud, and you won t need as many of them. Move your on-site data into off-site clouds as cost-saving measures. Compliance. The ucloud software never touches your data, which keeps you in compliance with HIPAA and other laws and regulations. This also avoids the expensive and time-consuming job of testing data to put it in the cloud, something that other management platforms require. Audits. Get audits done faster and easier by setting up clouds just for audit data, all while staying compliant with regulations and laws. Security. Our technology provides encryption at multiple points in a cloud orchestration, providing a strong backstop. And health care providers and their tenant admins can change security encryptions as often as they like. Also, get security alerts for hospitals, such as for pandemics. 8

9 The ucloud solution (cont.) Speed. Get clouds up and running in as little as 30 to 45 days, compared to six months or longer with other management platforms. Then clone that configuration to get other clouds deployed and running even faster. Plus, get configuration reports on clouds you operate. Reporting. Get dashboard reporting both for the tenant admin and upper level management on each cloud s use of resources. The dashboards also feature each cloud s use of resources, audits of what has happened, and avenues for getting the cloud reconfigured if a problem crops up. Flexibility. Set up as many clouds as you like for any clinical or business need ucloud can handle them all. You can set up customized clouds for each facility in a chain of hospitals, with a super-tenant admin running it all. Our software can also handle any combination of public, private and hybrid clouds seamlessly. Big Data. Scale computing capacity for number-crunching needs, and then shrink it right back when the project is over. Subscription model. Avoid vendor lock-in with Connectloud s payas-you-go model. When you re done with your cloud-computing needs, walk away there s no long-term contract to sign. Hardware agnostic. The ucloud platform works on any hardware platform, saving money and headaches on buying and deploying new servers and routers. Your past investment in hardware is safe. 9

10 Conclusion Change is coming fast and furiously in health care, and ucloud is here to help. Whether you re dealing with Big Data issues on the clinical side or cost cutting on the business side, ucloud delivers results. Set up, run, orchestrate and de-commission clouds quickly and effectively, all with flexibility, expense control, dashboard reporting, compliance and security well in hand. Whether the private cloud you want to test is test/dev, public-cloud-lite or transformational, ucloud will fit your needs and your budget. The time is now for Connectloud. Contact us for a free demonstration. Contact us today for a free demo! Connectloud 1100 Jupiter Road, Suite #110 Plano, TX Phone: (888) sales@connectloud.com 10