Healthcare services generate a considerable amount of information these days. All of these digital assets, which include emails, private communications, medical tests results, and health records, must be stored securely and in compliance with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability) regulations.
Data Protection
When sourcing a data center in Boston, healthcare institutions have to select a facility that can seamlessly migrate highly sensitive information to a secondary site for added security.
Because information load can vary from one session to the next, any solution needs to be able to support hundreds of terabytes of data and have the ability to scale. There also has to be an excellent uptime record, as mission-critical applications require constant availability and cannot tolerate downtime.
Managed Hosting
In today’s technology-driven world, healthcare clients struggle to consolidate, integrate, and manage complicated systems and applications. Doing so effectively requires significant financial expenditure and retaining in-house IT personnel. Outsourcing to a data center in or near Boston that offers managed hosting services is a solution to these and related challenges.
Data centers that will build and deploy managed hosting solutions for their customers will increase network efficiencies, safeguard confidential data from damage or exposure, and offer the scalability needed to accommodate varying data flow levels.
Expert engineers will also manage the infrastructure and ensure 24/7 availability, leaving the healthcare client free to focus on patient support.
HIPAA Compliance
In March 2013, the HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule was enacted, raising the bar on compliance issues.
As more healthcare and patient data are transferred to the cloud, regulations become more exacting and finding a Boston data center that has the equipment, services, and expertise to meet the HIPAA requirements is a critical issue.
The ideal provider will:
- Use AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) for data stored in the cloud
- Have a strong and secure encryption-key management system
- Use IPsec (Internet Protocol Security) or SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security) when transmitting data
- Have the ability to delete mirrored versions of any data deleted from the cloud
- Apply audit controls that record and assess activity in systems containing confidential health information
- Have security measures in place to guard against unauthorized access to information transmitted over electronic communication networks
Relevant Links
Bottom Line
Like the retail and finance industries, healthcare has the ability to turn casual clients into loyal patrons.
By helping to streamline efficiencies and contributing to a hospital’s bottom line, Boston data centers help medical offices and hospitals provide the secure and personalized experiences that foster trusted relationships with patients.
Are you a healthcare provider located in Boston? If so, what services do you consider absolutely essential for a data center? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments box below.
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