“The cost advantages that cloud computing offers are enticing, especially in a time when healthcare organizations are investing in robust computing technology as part of their plan to qualify for the federal government’s $20 billion-plus HITECH financial incentive programs for achieving Meaningful Use of electronic health records (EHRs).
With a cloud-based model, applications, storage and even computing power is hosted by a third-party publically or privately via the Internet. Gartner defines cloud computing as “a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-related capabilities are provided ‘as a service’ to customers using Internet Technologies.” Because of the remote hosting cloud distinction, healthcare organizations can reduce their investment in infrastructure and technical support resources currently necessary to support local computing endeavors.”
Article
Janet Dillione, HealthNewsDigest.com, 22 March 2011
