Migrating to the cloud

Migrating to the cloud can help transform the way healthcare services are run; with digital solutions, the healthcare providers can offer quicker and more seamless services, in turn improving patient outcomes.

The pandemic has shown that digital technology and data have become indispensable tools for healthcare professionals as they adapt to changes across their organisations. Many healthcare leaders are reassessing their plans and imagining a future where technology is used as a key enabler in helping to overcome the challenges caused by the pandemic.

Digital transformation has been priority under the ‘Personalised Health & Care 2020’ policy; a strategy published by the National Information Board, outlining how the health and care system will use data and technology to transform outcomes for patients and citizens in the coming years. There is a fair amount of work that has to be done before migrating to the cloud, understanding which applications are best suited for cloud? Which applications can be re-architected or re-platformed? Which on-premises services can be turned off and decommissioned? These considerations need to take effect to drive efficiencies in the cloud.

 How can healthcare providers benefit from cloud migration?

1. Scale on demand – The concept of the cloud lends itself perfectly to the current state the NHS finds itself in. Cloud platforms can be used as needed at this current time scaling up or down according to demand. With the pandemic ongoing, mass amounts of confidential data are being produced daily and utilising cloud platforms can ease the pressure on the traditional data centres.
2. Drive cost savings – the flexibility of the cloud allows the NHS to deploy and store applications and workloads as needed. Instead of paying huge sums for on-premises infrastructure with 3 – 5 year contract, using the cloud means that the NHS will only be paying for what it uses, driving cost savings across the board and allowing the NHS to allocate the money saved for frontline health services and improving patient healthcare.
3. Build the foundations for digital transformation – Cloud is the foundation on which to unlock digital transformation. As soon as this foundation is in place, NHS Trusts can begin to experiment with AI and machine learning to enhance patient outcomes.

How to avoid re-platforming clinical applications when migrating to cloud?

One issue that has previously held some healthcare providers back from migrating to cloud is the inability to continue using clinical applications that were never designed to be able to operate in a cloud environment. Previously the only options would be to re-architect or re-platform them, both of which could be costly and time consuming. But thankfully there’s now another option.

The Azure VMware Solution enables healthcare providers to migrate to cloud while enabling them to continue running their clinical applications without re-platforming them. It enables IT teams to seamlessly move VMware-based workloads from the data centre to Azure and integrate VMware environments with Azure. This means you can continue to manage your existing environments with the same VMware tools you already know, while modernising your applications with Azure native services.

Azure VMware Solution Accelerator

Our Azure VMWare Solution Accelerator will help you accelerate your migration to cloud or to provide additional capacity to existing VMware platforms. Here you will learn:

• What the Azure VMware Service is, how it works and how it can support the NHS’ Cloud First Strategy
• The benefits of adopting AVS & how to maintain compliance standards
• How to build a business case to get buy-in from your stakeholders
• How to get started