It’s not just that sensitive data is stored with healthcare organisations, it’s also that life depends on this.

Literally.

The amount of sensitive data that healthcare organisations manage is enormous and critical to their outcomes, ie, saving patients’ lives.

The consequences of any disaster, any system breakdown, any IT failure in a healthcare organisation will be disastrous.

Not to mention, a legal nightmare.

The reason why doctors, clinics, hospitals, specialists and other healthcare providers who care about their brand name and know that reputation once lost is hard to gain back are turning to cloud storage.

So how and why is Cloud Backup better than any other option out there?

Storing your data into the cloud objectively increases operational flexibility and makes adaptation to new technology easier and swifter, and scale.

Definition of Cloud Backups

Types of Backups

There are largely three different kinds of backups, any of which can work for you based on your requirements.

• Backup of your data files to the cloud
You could backup all of your data to the cloud. The highlight of this kind of full backup is the minimal time it requires to restore data. The cloud provider is responsible for your data security.

• Backup to a NAS and also to the cloud
Network-Attached Storage (NAS) allows access to storage drives via a network. NAS file storage can be backed up by cloud-based file storage or replaced entirely by cloud storage.

The good thing when you use NAS is that you host the files on your own hardware, thus, keeping full control over your data security. NAS offers data redundancy and protection options, along with data encryption and user access controls.

While you won’t lose critical data with NAS, it is not advisable to have it as your only backup.

• Backup of an entire server or workstation image direct to the cloud
A full image backup, or a mirror backup, creates a precise duplicate of your entire system, which is invaluable if your computer suffers a catastrophic crash.

This kind of a backup is an exact duplicate of everything on your server’s or a workstation’s hard drive, from the operating system, boot information, apps, and hidden files to your preferences and settings. It captures all the individual files, and also everything you need to get your system running again. With this kind of backup, you are prepared to restore your system due to file errors or malware infections anytime without losing any critical patient data.

Cloud Storage Compared With Cloud Backup

Dropbox / OneDrive / iCloud are not a backup solution. They are cloud backups, yes for your documents but they do not backup your applications, settings etc.

On the other hand, cloud backup can take a snapshot of the entire computer and back it up. So in case there is ever a disaster and your data needs to be restored, your entire computer image gets reinstalled, along with applications and settings, not just files.

How Cloud Backup Works in the Healthcare Environment

In some healthcare practices, the server uses a backup application to copy data and stores it on different media (such as a small NAS – network attached storage – like we talked about above). In reality there are hundreds of copies of the data – stored at various timestamps.

This allows easy recovery of files in the event of a disaster and data loss.
NAS offers data redundancy and protection options, along with data encryption and user access controls.

The backup application regularly transmits backups of the data to the secure cloud storage which is located off-site. This way there are two copies of the backup – one on the NAS and one in the cloud.

When You Have A Cloud-Based Practice Management Software

A cloud-based practice management software stores all your patient data in the cloud, which is managed and run by a third party. The cloud is then responsible for the security of your data. Which means, you no longer control its safety and hopefully, the software provider keeps it secure.

But any healthcare practise, big or small, has numerous data in the form of images which gets renewed on a daily basis. Like X-rays.

If there is a ransomware attack, is there an image of your mission-critical computers backed up that can be used to restore everything within a couple of hours?

Why Relying On Your Staff To Perform Backups Is Unreliable
You may have an active IT team and it may be easy to just trust them to handle a situation whenever something goes wrong.

But whenever humans are introduced into a process, it increases uncertainty and the possibility of errors.

People forget things and team members change, so the backup process can be forgotten or simply overlooked.

Internal backups or manual backup systems such as removable hard drives and tapes are unreliable. We have written another post about why this should not be your backup solution.

Features of Cloud Backups For Your Practice

How can healthcare organisations like yours take advantage of the cloud backups?

Working with many healthcare practices for their Cloud backups, we have seen how it helps you accelerate innovation and maintain business continuity.

Fast and easy access to important medical information is vital to diagnosis, treatment and ongoing care. Uploading health records, patient history, test results, images and other diagnostic findings into the cloud means that members of the care team can always act on the latest information.

• Automatic
Cloud services provide real-time backup of healthcare data. You don’t need to do anything — in the form of quarterly backups or backups on hard drives etc. The cloud backs up your data at all times, and makes it recoverable swiftly in the event of a disaster.

• Easy to restore data
This is the best part about cloud backups. In the event of hardware failure, power loss or data breaches, healthcare providers can quickly and easily restore data with barely any disruption in their patient care services.

• Set and forget
Cloud backup does not need active management. Not from you, not from your IT team. So any chances of human error or staff changes or any work related hiccups do not hurt your data. Just set up cloud backup and go on with your work. Whenever you need access to your files, you have it.

• Robust security
Cloud backup actually makes it possible for you to ‘gate’ your sensitive information, ie, it makes it easier to provide authorised access to privileged information to authorised personnel only.

For instance, financial data of a patient may not be made available to everyone in your practise. Or sensitive information about medical conditions, medication, diagnosis or treatment can be hidden from anyone not directly responsible for a patient’s treatment.

What To Look For In A Cloud Backup Provider

So how can you get started with cloud backup for your healthcare organisation? How can you make sure you find the right cloud backup provider who understands exactly how sensitive your data is, how important it is to protect it, and how to recover it.

Look for three main things to determine a perfect fit:

• Experience in your industry
Firstly, yes, experience. Experience in the industry matters. A team that has worked with other healthcare practises, and that has delivered good service to them will immediately understand your needs and treat your data like you do. So a team that has prior experience in this will definitely provide a better service than a team that has no past experience with your industry.

• A NZ based help desk
Local is always better. When you have a team taking care of your critical data, they should be easily accessible, understand your local market, work within your timings, and comply with the local IT security and data privacy laws.

• Good security
High-speed and ultra-safe storage and recovery of all your files is paramount. The team taking care of your data, your cloud backup should be trained engineers who do this all day long, who know the ins and outs of cloud backups and disaster recovery.

Getting Your Practice Started With Cloud Backup

By putting data to work towards improving patient outcomes, streamlining and speeding access to critical clinical data and running any application on-premises or in the cloud, our Revolution IT team is ready to help your business.

We’re here in Auckland and we comply with all the data security regulations of New Zealand.

Your data is stored in data centres in Australia and New Zealand.

You can connect with us at [email protected]