When I purchased my first personal computer, the only way to obtain software was to drive to a big box store and pick it up, like a bag of chips. But unlike a bag of chips, the package wasn’t immediately useful.  Instead, you had to make sure it would run on your machine first and then install it — sometimes, the install wouldn’t work.  

This painful method of distributing software via physical media was frustrating for software producers and users.  

As internet connections improved, new avenues of software distribution became available.  

Soon we could download and update the software. Before long, the software was handling this for us. Software companies also began offering solutions that didn’t need to be installed, only accessed. 

“Cloud” or Software as a Service (SaaS) applications offer significant advantages for consumers. These consumer benefits are amplified in enterprise software, which costs more and requires more expertise and infrastructure to run. 

Three major benefits of cloud healthcare technology 

1. Safer data and secure browser delivery  

Delivery of the application via a browser, which is nearly universally available by default on all computers, means nothing must be installed to begin getting value from the software. It reduces the need for powerful local machines and prevents any potential loss of data.  

2. Lower costs and reduced system complexity 

Before cloud technology, enterprises had no choice but to build out large data centers and find, hire, and retain experts for costly servers, networking, databases, and security. Teams were asked to run and manage many critical business systems without being experts in those systems.  

Cloud-based solutions offload this complexity and enable enterprises to focus on utilizing their solution. Each cloud solution adopted reduces the number of systems that overloaded IT teams need to support. 

3. Quicker delivery and rapid feature updates  

Cloud providers can react to customer feedback at a pace no solution delivered in another fashion can match. All great companies listen to their customers and incorporate their feedback, but every software producer is constrained by the pace their customer base can receive updates. 

For example, if it takes a customer a month to roll out a minor update, and two to six months for a major update, how many updates can a software producer realistically expect a customer to take in a year? One? One every other year? If each customer needs to engage their IT team, spin up a project, get resources assigned, and execute the upgrade, those might even be conservative estimates.  

Ultimately, the fundamental promise of cloud products is to enable customers to toggle on and configure new features as they become available, allowing customers and software companies to engage in a much tighter feedback loop. 

Given that cloud solutions can reduce implementation time and complexity while enabling a tighter product feedback loop, it is no wonder why there has been a strong movement to adopt cloud technologies across all industries.

In healthcare specifically, the benefits of cloud technology will continue to help increase efficiency and quality of care while lowering IT burdens as more organizations migrate to cloud technologies.   

To learn more about the benefits of cloud healthcare technology solutions for your organization, schedule a demo.