Cloud was just about everywhere at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas last week. Of the 1,100 exhibitors, almost all cited cloud in their offerings in some way. There seemed to be as many cloud definitions as there were vendors—creating significant confusion for the record-setting 37,000+ attendees.

Naturally, cloud security was a hot topic. Yet, there was a perceptible lack of practical, rigorous, embedded-security capabilities to meet healthcare’s demanding standards and which must go beyond vendor self-checks, such as Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) 70 type audits. (For insight into the depth of security to address on the federal side, see our security white paper.) Another key issue was “mobility and the cloud” where identity management on mobile devices deserves more attention.

CGI both exhibited and presented at HIMSS. In the Cloud Knowledge Center, CGI Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Loonsk and I joined Doug Pennington, CCIIO Web Strategy Lead for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, to share our thoughts on navigating the cloud. John and I focused on providing:

• The context for cloud in healthcare and why it is disruptive
• NIST-based cloud definitions to improve understanding
• Criteria for selecting cloud service providers
• Ways to think about cloud security for healthcare
• The importance of service management and transparency

Doug Pennington then provided some very insightful lessons learned from the business owner’s perspective on:

• Benefits of cloud (e.g. greater control, cost-effective back up and COOP support)
• Need for governance and provisioning planning
• Planning for timing and resources
• Implementation considerations (e.g., short-term v. long-term, current vs. future technology)
• Remembering test environments
• Cloud vs. business-owned server farms

From the interactions following our presentation, conversations in our booth, and observations throughout the show, it appears this community is starting to recognize the impact cloud will have on healthcare. But it is still in the early stages where the focus is more on technology and less on things like service management and transparency which are just as critical. If you’re interested in reading more about the importance of service management for the cloud, check out my November blog post following the Gartner Symposium ITxpo.