How to Organize Your Data in the Healthcare Industry

Data is essential for healthcare providers. Patients’ information is gathered in many formats, ranging from prescriptions to medical records, and must be correctly tracked for compliance considerations. Healthcare institutions, more than any other sector, must safeguard their IT infrastructure.

The rise of the public cloud has resulted in a surge in demand for colocation data center providers across the globe. This demand is divided into two categories: hyperscale customers taking advantage of the low energy prices, network connections, and tax benefits offered. The second kind of customer comes from business users who are replacing or supplementing their current internal company data centers and are drawn to the option to buy data center services on an ‘on demand’ basis, comparable to public cloud usage.

Reliable colocation data center infrastructure is mission-critical for healthcare organizations that rely on their IT infrastructures to run their operations. Let’s take a look at five major reasons why the demand for colocation data centers is increasing with time.

1. Healthcare organizations paradigm shift from legacy infrastructure to off-premise

Many healthcare organizations still use the legacy infrastructure with on-premise systems but now they’re faced with the necessity to exit the present system owing to operational problems, such as the regular need for hardware upgrades and complex and expensive maintenance. Another important factor is the lack of available space in the present infrastructure to expand the healthcare facility and offer additional services to patients.

The pandemic has significantly boosted the number of patients who prefer teleconsultations. It is estimated that about 30% of the world’s stored data is related to healthcare, and this figure is expected to rise further with rapid advancements in medicine. Due to a lower number of standalone data centers in India, businesses highly depend on colocation services.

Colocation providers can quickly offer extra network and physical data center capacity as needed to assist healthcare companies in meeting their rising needs. This will help organizations lease the capacity they require now and have flexibility when demand rises. Global corporations who want to create a substantive presence in the Indian market are colocating facilities here. As a result, rising investment from global colocation service providers is expected to have an impact on the Indian data center market.

2. Improved network uptime with the redundancy of colocation service providers

Due to a lack of effective UPS and DC cooling infrastructure, on-premises data solutions may not necessarily have the best track record for uptime reliability. They also frequently lack the sophisticated analytics that allows current data centers to be so energy efficient. Given how devastating system downtime is to a company’s bottom line and reputation, it’s no surprise that many businesses are opting for a more dependable infrastructure of a reputable colocation facility.

Data centers with 99.99999% uptime undergo less than 3.15 seconds of downtime throughout the year. Uptime may fluctuate amongst colocation providers, but it is the most promising feature for an enterprise to consider while considering a colocation data center service. According to Gartner’s survey, network downtime costs $5,600 per minute; this might be a catalyst for businesses to invest in more resilient colocation infrastructure.

In the event of a single site network failure, colocation providers can use multisite resiliency and regional availability zones to redirect traffic and workloads to a new location. Thus eliminating downtime on the user end.

The unstable grid connectivity in India poses a major challenge for data center uptime. UPS systems provide uninterrupted service operations; getting a colocation data center service will give considerably higher uptime reliability with the responsibility of maintaining uptime and power redundancy in the hands of service providers.

3. Reduced operational costs and improved resource allocation

Average enterprise data center costs $10 to $12 million per megawatt to build, which is a significant capital expenditure. This does not cease once the facility is operational; maintaining a data center on a daily basis demands considerable ongoing operating costs ranging from supporting infrastructure to a specialized IT workforce to assure prolonged uptime.

Companies opting for colocation data centers can focus on research and development of new products and expanding their business. Instead of being concerned about the data center infrastructure and its seamless operation, the focus may be shifted to innovation and advancement. This can also free up a sizable amount of time the IT department spends monitoring and troubleshooting the on-premise system.

Healthcare enterprises in India looking to expand their operations and research facilities will save huge space and substantial amounts of money by leasing space for their data center needs through colocation service providers.

4. Colocation data centers provide a wide range of connectivity options

In 2020, India’s colocation data center sector saw a record absorption of 102 MW as Covid-19 drove unprecedented demand for internet connectivity — both professionally and personally. According to JLL India, rising demand would provide the real estate market with a greenfield development potential of 6 million square feet by 2023.

Wide connectivity is a key characteristic of colocation, and it is one of the major reasons why organisations contemplate data center relocation rather than building their own private facility. If a healthcare organisation chooses the right colocation partner, it may accomplish a hybrid model from a single location with direct connectivity to several cloud service providers.

Connectivity is essential for this to happen. The appropriate colocation provider provides seamless connectivity choices, such as the flexibility to bring any carrier into the data center without incurring exorbitant cross-connect fees and providing professional network architectural guidance. Colocation facilities provide easy access to major providers via an exchange marketplace, allowing their clients to evaluate an array of possible choices while developing their data center migration strategy.

5. Risk minimization through enhanced security compliance

Many companies, particularly those in finance and healthcare, are subject to rigorous rules and face fines for failing to comply with them. Not to mention the operational and reputational risks posed by a data breach or other cyber event. Insurance firms, banks, healthcare IT providers, hospitals, and many other sorts of businesses store and handle massive amounts of sensitive data that hackers target for theft or exploitation, ransomware, and DDoS attacks.

Despite the legal obligation to secure and safeguard consumer data, security gives businesses a competitive edge by shielding their data from competitors. Colocation providers are responsible for security safeguards specified by legislation such as HIPAA (For healthcare data) and PCI (Payment card related data). Multiple security gates and advanced logical security mechanisms, such as biometric scanners, are used by colocation providers to ensure that only authorized personnel may physically access key data assets.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need to offer healthcare at a quick pace, whether it is tracking the virus’s progress, exchanging information on safety standards, teleconsultation, or organizing vaccination campaigns use of data has increased many folds. With lower standalone data center options in India, colocation service is the optimal solution for fast migrations.

Organizations around the globe are exploring migration of data centers to a colocation facility due to its significant benefits. Businesses can now focus on innovation and development rather than worrying about their data needs. Whilst not all providers of colocation are equal, companies may reap considerable benefits from migration by creating a proper business strategy for data centers and selecting the optimum colocation provider based on their use cases and needs.

Due to the enormous benefits of healthcare colocation, organisations all over the world are considering moving their data centers to a colocation site. Businesses may now concentrate on innovation and development rather than worrying about data requirements. While not all colocation providers are created equal, businesses may reap significant benefits from migration by developing a suitable data center business plan and picking the best colocation provider based on their applications and demands.