Two years ago, healthcare organizations were experimenting in the public cloud. Now their focus is on migrating legacy technology to the cloud and transforming data and applications using capabilities that aren’t available in their existing infrastructure solutions.

As business priorities shift, modern cloud-enabled technologies are more critical than ever in healthcare. However, scaling cloud can be complicated. Healthcare is at a tipping point. A hybrid cloud environment can solve many of its biggest challenges.

But how does a historically risk averse industry make it happen fast enough? By working across the business, healthcare players can harness cloud to operate in a climate where the resilience of people, systems and partnerships is paramount.

There are four important reasons why healthcare organizations should act with urgency to develop and implement their cloud strategy. The question is no longer about “why” healthcare needs cloud. It’s about how to scale it at a time when the dynamics of the industry are evolving fast.

There is a big difference between aspiring to scale cloud and acting to make it happen. For healthcare organizations to expand investments in public cloud, they need to answer three common questions.

1. How do we organize around cloud?

2. A new, cloud operating model is required. It’s necessary to drive collaboration across various IT and business domains that have historically been very siloed. Without the right level of senior, cross-functional engagement, organizations cannot realize the full potential of cloud and will struggle to drive change.

    

3. How do we drive change quickly despite complex legacy systems and technical debt?

4. While modernizing the legacy is costly and highly complex, healthcare organizations do not have to be overwhelmed by tackling such a monumental challenge. A more reasonable approach is to focus on modernizing key capabilities that drive the experiences that are priorities for reinvention. There is no need to do it all at once.

    

5. How do we need to think about value to stakeholders?

6. As healthcare organizations aggressively pursue their cloud strategies, it is critical to engage leaders beyond traditional IT executives to sponsor the transformation. After all, the “buyer” is no longer simply a CIO or an infrastructure leader. And the business case is not just about cost, it is about business value and growth.