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Join in the conversation on healthcare technology, security, compliance, and interoperability.

Five Best Practices for Security in Amazon SageMaker

Machine learning is rapidly transforming the healthcare industry and the role that technology plays in patient care. But these innovative new models can’t just run on our laptops, they have to be hosted in an environment where they can be powered by ... Read more
| Author Tom Burge, tagged in Security, machine learning

Generative AI and Machine Learning Security: 11 Best Practices

The explosion of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT onto the scene happened a little over a year ago, and since then it has become clear that the underlying technology can be deployed for everything from marketing and education to music ... Read more
| Author Josh Ray, tagged in Security, generative AI

Top AI and Machine Learning Security Threats 2024

If the past year had to have a name, it would surely be called the “Year of AI.” Widespread media coverage of ChatGPT and similar offerings made it abundantly clear that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have profound value to ... Read more
| Author Josh Ray, tagged in Security, generative AI

When Hospitals Get Hacked: The Far-Reaching Impacts of the Change Healthcare Cyber Attack

The Impact of the Recent Hospital Cyberattacks The attack on UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare electronic clearinghouse in early 2024 demonstrates the widespread damage that cybercrimes can cause for healthcare operations and patient care. In ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in Healthcare, Epic EHR

Ten Use Cases for Generative AI and ML in Healthcare

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve doubtless heard about ChatGPT and the amazing recent advances coming out of the field of generative AI. These large language models can now write blog posts, marketing copy, functioning code, poems, ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in generative AI

Personal Touch Settles Privacy Lawsuit over Ransomware Attack

Personal Touch Holding Corporation, a New York-based home health organization, has recently decided to settle a class action lawsuit regarding a data breach. ... Read more
| Author Abby Grifno, tagged in

NIST Releases Guidance for HIPAA Security Rule Implementation

The guide is designed to help HIPAA regulated entities comply with legal requirements through risk analysis and more. ... Read more
| Author Abby Grifno, tagged in hipaa, NIST

Change Healthcare Pays Out $22M Ransom to Blackcat

Hackers recently gained access to Change Healthcare’s IT system, interrupting pharmacy service across the country. ... Read more
| Author Abby Grifno, tagged in data

Cyberattack Hits Chicago Hospital

A cyberattack has impacted hospital systems for over 4 weeks, preventing patients from receiving medical records and leaving providers confused and concerned. ... Read more
| Author Abby Grifno, tagged in Epic EHR

Data Breach Impacts 33 Million French Residents

Two third-party payment operators were recently breached, leaking the personal information of nearly half of France’s population. ... Read more
| Author Abby Grifno, tagged in Security

NIST Releases New Guidance to Help Industries Monitor Internet Data

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has recently released a guide to help industries implement the Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 protocol while monitoring incoming data. ... Read more
| Author Abby Grifno, tagged in NIST

GAO Reviews FISMA Implementations, Deems it "Mostly Ineffective"

In a recent review of 23 government organizations, the GAO determined that the implementation of FISMA is “mostly ineffective.” ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in FISMA

How EAP Expert Scaled Its AWS Environment While Reducing AWS Expenses

The Client EAP Expert is a healthcare technology company with the premiere application for helping the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) industry run more efficiently, save time and money, and provide a great user experience. Founded in 1997, EAP ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in cloud managed services, managed services

New NIST Publication Identifies AI Cyber Attack Threats

A publication released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can help prevent and mitigate attacks on AI systems. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in NIST

HHS Announces TEFCA Now Operational

In a milestone moment, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced that the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) is now operational. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in

AWS re:Invent 2023: Top Takeaways for Healthcare

In a year where artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm, the world’s largest cloud provider has just had its chance to chime in. This week, Amazon Web Services (AWS) took center stage discussing the current and future state of ... Read more
| Author Josh Ray, tagged in aws

Top 9 Benefits of Cloud Computing in Healthcare

With70% of health ITprofessionals reporting their organizations have adopted cloud computing solutions, and another 20% expressing their desire to migrate to the cloud in the next two years, it’s safe to say that cloud computing in healthcare is in ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in

How One Genomics Company Improved Security and Accelerated Innovation

The Client BioInfoExperts provides laboratory and analytical services for infectious disease dynamics and molecular surveillance of pathogens. Incorporated in 2012 by employees with decades of experience studying pathogen genetics, its goal is to ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in cloud managed services, managed services

Ransomware Recovery for Hospitals – with Epic Read-Only on AWS

Last year, 66% of hospitals experienced a ransomware attack. When an attack strikes, the typical solution is to shut the electronic health records (EHR) system down, including disaster recovery (DR) and reporting environments, which disables the ... Read more
| Author Eric Pennington, tagged in Epic EHR

Cloudticity HITRUST Inheritance Program – Accelerate Your Path To HITRUST Certification

HITRUST certification is many things. It’s a shortcut to securing your system against the danger of data breaches, a process for ensuring compliance with HIPAA and other regulations, and a competitive edge for your business in the increasingly ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in Compliance, HITRUST certification, HITRUST CSF

AWS Cost Optimization - Overview & Best Practices

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers organizations important cost advantages for building and running applications and storing data. However, despite the advantages of the cloud cost model, AWS costs can still escalate quickly. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in aws cost optimization

Cloud Team Building: Roles & Responsibilities | Cloudticity

The world of cloud computing has experienced a meteoric rise in recent years, becoming an essential component of modern business operations. AWS alone has grown 34% over the last two years. This has sparked a significant transition in many ... Read more
| Author Josh Ray, tagged in Healthcare Industry, msp

HIPAA vs. HITRUST: What's the Difference?

HIPAA and HITRUST are often used interchangeably. Both are risk management frameworks commonly used in healthcare for data security and privacy. While the two are related, they’re not the same thing. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in HITRUST

How Long Does it Take to Get HITRUST Certified?

HITRUST adoption in healthcare is in full swing. 81% of healthcare providers and 83% of payers have adopted the framework with business associates quickly following suit. Whether it's pressure from a customer or potential customer that's causing you ... Read more
| Author Jerry Shaffer, tagged in HITRUST

Choosing a HITRUST Assessor Firm: Seven Things to Look For

Engaging with an external assessor is a critical part of the process to get ready for your HITRUST assessment. In fact, the earlier you start to engage with the assessor firm, the better. Since you’ll be working with them closely for a long time, ... Read more
| Author Jerry Shaffer, tagged in HITRUST

Top 10 HIPAA Compliance Issues on AWS - and how to prevent them

Healthcare organizations are discovering the many benefits of using Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud. AWS provides a development environment for creating your own web-based healthcare applications, and a scalable storage platform for ... Read more
| Author Tom Burge, tagged in aws, hipaa

Choosing a Cloud Managed Services Provider: 12 Tips

The right managed cloud service provider can help your organization speed the adoption of public cloud services, develop apps or analyze data safely and securely, and focus more on core business objectives. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in cloud managed services


HL7 V2 vs. FHIR: Key Differences in Healthcare Data Exchange Standards

Enabling the seamless exchange of healthcare data among applications and systems is vital for realizing the full benefits of electronic health information. But for decades, data remained trapped within proprietary systems. To share information, ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in fhir

Is HITRUST Worth It? The Benefits of HITRUST Certification

For companies that want to sell into healthcare, HITRUST certification is becoming increasingly critical for success. With 81% of providers and 83% of payers adopting the framework, and many of them requiring their vendors to follow suit, it’s ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in HITRUST

Where To Start With HIPAA Compliance On Microsoft Azure

Healthcare organizations are increasingly migrating to the cloud. They are using public cloud services to host patient-facing apps, generate new clinical and operational insights, facilitate collaboration among healthcare teams, and store ... Read more
| Author Mikael Grondahl, tagged in azure, hipaa

What is the Cost of HITRUST CSF Certification in 2024?

With the healthcare sector alone accounting for 79% of reported breaches, organizations can never be too careful when it comes to managing sensitive healthcare data. HITRUST CSF Certification is an advanced system of controls created to address the ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in HITRUST certification, HITRUST CSF, HITRUST cost, HITRUST certification cost

Four Key Reasons For Modernizing Your Health Information Exchange Infrastructure

We all know how much progress has been made on the Electronic Health Record (EHR) front. But digitization of data was only the first step. Ensuring the data are accessible, manageable, and exchangeable is also key. ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in Compliance, HITRUST certification, HITRUST CSF

Why You Need Next-Gen Cloud Managed Services for Healthcare

You’ve made the decision: the cloud is your next destination. Whether you want to develop new apps, analyze large volumes of clinical data, or deliver other innovative services, public clouds can offer the scale, agility, and cutting-edge ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in cloud managed services, managed services

Healthcare Cloud Managed Services: The Benefits

Building a healthcare app in the cloud? You’re in good company. A growing number of organizations are opting to use public cloud services to speed innovation, avoid capital expenditures, increase scalability, and tap into the latest cloud-based ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in cloud managed services

Three Common HIPAA Risks Lurking in Your Azure Environment

Microsoft Azure is a popular public cloud provider for healthcare organizations, where maintaining HIPAA compliance is always a paramount concern. ... Read more
| Author Mikael Grondahl, tagged in azure, hipaa

15 Benefits of Cloud Computing in Healthcare

Cloud computing in healthcare has exploded in recent years, with expected growth from 28.1 billion in 2020 to USD 64.7 billion by 2025. Most hospital CIOs are well aware of the cost saving benefits of cloud architectures and are looking beyond ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in cloud migration

Overcoming the Challenges of a Zero Trust Journey in Healthcare

Healthcare Security Challenges Let’s face it. Healthcare organizations in the year 2022 face challenges when it comes to optimizing their technology stacks. Going through COVID left many organizations short handed, causing them to put any technology ... Read more
| Author Josh Ray, tagged in cloud security, zero trust

Cloud Migration Checklist: Adopting the Cloud

Companies of all sizes are migrating all or part of their computing environment to the cloud. These organizations are looking to take advantage of the multiple benefits available by adopting a cloud computing model. ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in cloud migration healthcare, cloud migration

What Is TEFCA and Why Does It Matter for Healthcare?

Over the past two decades, healthcare organizations have ramped up adoption of new information technology (IT) solutions as part of their efforts to improve operational efficiencies and deliver better healthcare outcomes. These solutions have the ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in Healthcare, tefca

Seven Reasons to Consider Cloud Managed Services for Healthcare

With 94% of enterprises using cloud services, it’s safe to say that cloud computing is in full swing. ... Read more
| Author Tom Burge, tagged in cloud managed services

Cloudticity Recognized on 2017 CRN Next-Gen 250 List

Annual List Features Trailblazing Solution Providers Transforming Business with Emerging Technologies. ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in News

Cloudticity | Fully Automated HIPAA Technical Assessment

For A Limited Time, Healthcare Organizations Can Automatically Check Their AWS Environments’ HIPAA Compliance At No Charge SEATTLE -- Cloudticity, a leading provider of HIPAA-compliant managed services for AWS, announced today that it has released ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in News

Cloudticity Founder Gerry Miller Presents at AWS re:Invent 2017

How Verge Health leverages automation to provide a mission critical, HIPAA-compliant, 24x7x365 health solution on AWS. ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in Technical Articles, Case Studies

HIPAA Compliance 164.312(a)(1) - Access control

Within the HIPAA Security Rule are Administrative, Physical, and Technical Safeguards. These safeguards are as important to understand as they are to implement, so let’s dive into one: ... Read more
| Author Thomas Zinn, tagged in Compliance

Best Practices Purchasing Reserved Instances

Reserved Instances (RIs) provide substantial savings compared to On-Demand pricing, and provide immediate savings opportunities for most companies. This blog post explores the fundamentals of RIs, and provides advice on how to get the most out of ... Read more
| Author Nicole Chaika, tagged in Technical Articles

HIPAA Compliance 164.312(b) - Audit Controls

Within the HIPAA Security Rule are Administrative, Physical, and Technical Safeguards. These safeguards are as important to understand as they are to implement, so let’s dive into one: ... Read more
| Author Thomas Zinn, tagged in Compliance

HIPAA Compliance 164.312(c)(1) - Integrity

Within the HIPAA Security Rule are Administrative, Physical, and Technical Safeguards. These safeguards are as important to understand as they are to implement, so let’s dive into one: ... Read more
| Author Thomas Zinn, tagged in Compliance

HIPAA Compliance 164.312(e)(1) - Transmission Security

Within the HIPAA Security Rule are Administrative, Physical, and Technical Safeguards. These safeguards are as important to understand as they are to implement, so let’s dive into one: 164.312(e)(1) - Transmission Security . Implement technical ... Read more
| Author Thomas Zinn, tagged in Compliance, Security, Encryption

Cloudticity Oxygen Compliance - HITRUST Maturity Model and Our Experience

I want to thank you for being proactive by beginning or continuing your HITRUST journey! If you are new to HITRUST, start here. If you are new to Cloudticity Oxygen, start here. For everyone else, each month I will introduce you to at least one ... Read more
| Author Thomas Zinn, tagged in Healthcare Industry, About Cloudticity, Compliance, HITRUST, Cloudticity

Cloudticity Oxygen Compliance - Oxygen Alerts

Now that you are acquainted with HITRUST and have chosen to continue your journey, I want to thank you again for being proactive! If this is your first compliance series post, please start below: If you are new to HITRUST, start here. To get a ... Read more
| Author Thomas Zinn, tagged in Compliance

Cloudticity Oxygen Compliance - A New HITRUST Audit Experience

Now that you are acquainted with HITRUST and have chosen to continue your journey, I want to thank you again for being proactive! If this is your first compliance series post, please start below: If you are new to HITRUST, start here. To get a ... Read more
| Author Thomas Zinn, tagged in Technical Articles, Healthcare Industry, About Cloudticity, Compliance, Security, Encryption, HITRUST, Cloudticity, Healthcare, audit

Oxygen’s Unified Logging Service Can Replace Expensive Third-Party Tools

Everything you do in your AWS environment creates a log, and every log plays an important role in keeping your customers’ data safe. If you’ve been keeping up with our blog, you know that having the ability to store, analyze, and retrieve these ... Read more
| Author Rob Williams, tagged in Compliance, audit logs, Unified logging

AWS Savings Plans 2020

AWS has introduced two new Savings Plans this year. They both offer substantial savings compared to On-Demand compute pricing. The Savings Plans can be used in conjunction with Reserved Instances (RIs). Read this blog to understand the differences ... Read more
| Author Nicole Chaika, tagged in aws cost optimization, cloud cost, aws savings plans

NoOps: How Extreme Automation Is Accelerating Healthcare Innovation

Cloud computing has paved the way for a new generation of faster software development and deployment, known as DevOps. Healthcare organizations leverage DevOps to improve security, agility, efficiency, and to deliver software faster. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in DevOps

MSPs With Lax Security Measure Are Compromising Client Environments, Says Louisiana Secretary of State

If you've tuned into the cybersecurity news lately, you'll notice many MSPs are being challenged with having lax security measures for the businesses and government entities they service. At a recent meeting of the National Association of ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in Security, cloud security

What is the HITRUST Shared Responsibility and Inheritance Program?

Since its founding in 2007, The HITRUST Alliance has worked to establish programs and frameworks for safeguarding sensitive information, managing risk, compliance, and related assessment and assurance methodologies. Since then, the HITRUST Common ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in HITRUST, HITRUST CSF

HIMSS Canceled Amid Coronavirus – What Can Healthcare IT Take Away?

Four weeks ago I wrote about how cloud computing can help stop coronavirus. Since then, infections have exploded from around 44,000 to over 111,000 with over 4,000 deaths in over 90 countries worldwide – with 600+ confirmed cases in the United ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in

The Cloudticity Cloud Maturity Model: A Holistic Cloud Strategy For Healthcare

Healthcare organizations face significant challenges due to the constraints of their legacy on-premise architectures. From expensive and inflexible storage to lengthy hardware provisioning processes, on-premise infrastructure is becoming outdated ... Read more
| Author Thomas Zinn, tagged in cloud maturity model

Empower Your Remote Workforce - Amazon| Cloudticity

With the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting life, more people than ever are suddenly working from home. For employers, especially in healthcare, there’s pressure to enable this transition without compromising compliance or efficiency. Thankfully, Amazon ... Read more
| Author Steven Middleton, tagged in covid-19, amazon workspaces

How Cloudticity Customers Are Helping To Fight COVID-19

Never before in history has the entire healthcare industry been solely focused on the same thing, until now. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in covid-19, coronavirus, case study

Cloudticity Healthcare DataHub™: How Organizations Are Using It For COVID-19 Response & Recovery

Cloudticity Healthcare DataHub™, a next-gen data platform purpose-built to transform healthcare data into actionable insights, puts real-time data in the hands of public health. The solution is currently being used by several states to provide ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in healthcare data interoperability, healthcare datahub, healthcare dataview

Legacy MSP is Dead - Why Next-Gen Managed Services use AIOps

The traditional MSP operating model, which relies on fully staffed network operations centers (NOCs) to respond to tickets and remediate incidents, is running out of gas for three main reasons: ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in cloud managed services, aiops, msp

Azure SQL Database Tuning – Best Practices For Performance

Making sure that your SQL database is running like a well oiled machine can mean the difference between user frustration and improved productivity. For that reason alone it makes sense to optimize performance as much as possible, even if you are now ... Read more
| Author Kevin Kline, tagged in azure

Cloudticity Healthcare DataHub Now Available on AWS Marketplace: Public health organizations can now easily uncover real-time COVID-19 analytics to drive population health management

90% of all COVID-19 data reported lacks the clinical depth needed to derive meaningful insights about how to respond to COVID-19. Because of this, many state departments of health (DOHs) and health information exchanges (HIEs) are struggling to ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in healthcare data interoperability, covid-19, COVID-19 data solutions, healthcare datahub

Top Three Reliability Best Practices for Telehealth Providers on AWS

When the COVID-19 pandemic descended on the United States with full force, one telemedicine provider saw its video call volume increase by fifteenfold. As a result, an infrastructure that worked well for a fairly stable level of baseline traffic was ... Read more
| Author Chris Covington, tagged in telemedicine, telehealth, aws, reliability, availability


In Praise of HIE Modernization

On September 30, the U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT awarded $2.5 million allocated in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act as grants to five Health Information Exchange (HIE) applicants via the STAR ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in healthcare data interoperability, health information exchange, HIE

Simplify Cloud Security: Sharing Responsibility with a CSP and MSP

Traditionally, organizations are responsible for their data security from end to end. They have to manage the physical datacenter center, like locks and keycards, as well as their network security, applications security, and data security. But ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in cloud managed services, msp, managed services, managed security, shared responsibility

2021 Healthcare IT Predictions – The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated cloud adoption, and it is not going to slow down

It’s pretty safe to say that the events of 2020 have changed the world. For healthcare and information technology, many of those changes will continue driving transformation in 2021 — and a few new ones will also make an impact. Here are my ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in Healthcare Industry, technology, hit

What the FHIR Mandate Means For Your Business

Interoperability has gone from a best practice to a mandate. Last year, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized a requirement for the use of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) among many CMS-regulated payers and ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in healthcare data interoperability, fhir

The Growing Need for HITRUST Certification in Healthcare

Serving the healthcare industry can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, healthcare vendors have the privilege to participate in something that actually makes the world a better place - helping people lead healthier lives, and helping them get ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in Compliance

Four Reasons Healthcare Payers Are Moving To The Cloud – Benefits And Drivers

It’s no secret that healthcare costs in the U.S. are skyrocketing – on both the payer and the patient side. And with the high cost of a customer service representative (CSR) call—according to one survey, as much as $6 per contact—payers can lower ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in Healthcare, cloud migration, payers

The ONC Cures Act Final Rule - Technical requirements summary

The 21st Century Cures Act rolls out significant changes that will transform how the healthcare industry exchanges data at a fundamental level. The act will take advantage of new standards and technologies to empower the patient while modernizing ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in fhir, 21st Century Cures Act

How Cloud Computing Can Help Stop Coronavirus

Note: This blog was originally published on The New Stack on February 12, 2020. Since then, there has been substantial coronavirus updates. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in

Why Choose Cloud-Native Services for Data Interoperability? 5 Benefits

In the past few decades, the volume of data generated in the healthcare industry has grown tremendously. New laws, such as the HITECH Act, have accelerated the digitization of healthcare records. Meanwhile, a proliferation of healthcare devices, ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in HITRUST

Growing Our Team for Customer Success: Cloudticity Welcomes Amber Glauser, RN

Cloudticity would like to introduce and welcome to Amber Glauser, RN — our new customer success director! ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in

Epic EHR on the Cloud – Top 3 Benefits for Healthcare Providers

Epic is the top provider of electronic health record (EHR) systems in the U.S., currently claiming “31 percent of the hospital EHR market and 42 percent of hospital beds,” according to KLAS research. The company’s popular EHR software is modular by ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in Epic EHR

Multi-Cloud HITRUST Inheritance: AWS and Azure Services

HITRUST certification is often viewed as table stakes for doing business in healthcare. Meeting HITRUST’s rigorous requirements demonstrates proficiency in managing data privacy and security — and the ability to prove compliance with important ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in HITRUST, azure, aws

Top 8 Benefits of Cloud Computing for Healthcare IT

Cloud computing in healthcare has exploded in recent years, with expected growth from 28.1 billion in 2020 to USD 64.7 billion by 2025. Most hospital CIOs are well aware of the cost saving benefits of cloud architectures and are looking beyond ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in cloud migration

Riding the Cloud’s Third Wave in Healthcare IT: Making the Most of Cloud Capabilities

Earlier this year, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff introduced his vision of Cloud 3.0, a post-pandemic forecast for business where “Remote work will just be work. E-commerce will just be commerce. Video meetings will just be meetings.” ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in cloud managed services

Mistakes to Avoid While Developing a Telemedicine App for Your Healthcare Practice

The pandemic showed a major in most healthcare providers, in that patients had to be in close proximity to doctors and medical staff. People could no longer be able to meet their healthcare professionals, as that would put them at risk of ... Read more
| Author Rahul Varshneya, tagged in telemedicine

The Cloud Value Journey Framework

Moving to the cloud is a big decision that requires considerable investment in time and money. To make the case for the cloud, healthcare organizations often initially focus on the benefits of hybrid cloud infrastructure from the perspective of the ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in cloud managed services

Choosing a HITRUST Cloud Hosting Partner: 6 Things To Know Before You Buy

Healthcare, life sciences, and genomic organizations are moving to the cloud in order to harness the power of faster software development and deployment, improved performance, and lower operational costs. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in

Cloudticity Declared Finalist in 2021-22 Cloud Awards

Now in its tenth year, the Cloud Awards is an international program that recognizes and honors industry leaders, innovators, and organizational transformations in cloud computing. Cloudticity has been declared a Cloud Awards 2021-2022 finalist and ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in

Getting Started with AWS - Four Things to Do First

For technology companies, the cloud can play a vital role in developing and delivering innovative solutions. Cloud service providers (CSPs) like Amazon Web Services (AWS) offer access to cutting-edge technologies and scalable resources—all while ... Read more
| Author Thomas Zinn, tagged in

Cybersecurity in Healthcare and Financial Risk | Cloudticity

It’s no secret that the healthcare sector is a prime target for cyberthreats. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HSS), security incidents in hospitals and medical clinics in 2020 resulted in losses of $13 billion. Analysis ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in

For the Second Year in a Row, EY Selects Cloudticity CEO Gerry Miller as an Entrepreneur Of The Year® Regional Finalist

Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) recently announced that Cloudticity founder and CEO Gerry Miller is an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2022 Mountain West Award finalist. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in

HITRUST vs NIST: Comparison and Differences

HITRUST and NIST are both entities involved in creating and defining security frameworks that help to reduce cybersecurity risks and safeguard sensitive information. By implementing one or both frameworks, organizations in regulated industries, such ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in HITRUST, NIST

HITRUST CSF Certification: An Overview

For many healthcare organizations, the HITRUST certification process might seem to be too challenging. After all, attaining certification can require a significant investment in time, resources, and budget. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in HITRUST

What is HITRUST CSF Certification? Overview

HITRUST certification is fast becoming a prerequisite for doing business in the healthcare industry. A growing number of providers, payers, and other healthcare organizations will work only with businesses who have achieved this certification. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in HITRUST, HITRUST certification

How Azure HITRUST Certification Services Can Accelerate the Certification Process

For businesses in the healthcare market, there are few accreditations more valuable than HITRUST CSF Certification. HITRUST is the de facto standard for information security and risk management across the healthcare market today. 81% of hospitals ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in azure

High Time for HITRUST in Health Information Exchange (HIE)

This year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and its Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) released the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA). ... Read more
| Author Amber Glauser, tagged in HIE

What is Cloud Migration? Overview and Strategy for Moving to the Cloud

For health tech businesses and other healthcare organizations, public cloud environments offer tremendous potential for accelerating innovation. By moving existing applications to the cloud or building new ones in cloud environments, your ... Read more
| Author Karl Reeves, tagged in cloud managed services, cloud migration

10 Main Benefits of Cloud Migration for the Healthcare Industry

Is moving to the cloud right for your healthcare business? This post will take an in-depth look at the ways in which a company should prepare for cloud migration, typical challenges that may come up, the most compelling benefits and an overview of ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in cloud migration healthcare, cloud migration

Maximizing the Value of Healthcare Data with Cloud Storage

The digitalization of healthcare information has created tremendous opportunities for enhancing operational efficiencies, improving clinical decision-making, and more. But to make the most of these opportunities, health tech businesses, providers, ... Read more
| Author Josh Ray, tagged in cloud migration healthcare, cloud migration

Benefits Of Medical Technology: What's the Impact?

Advances in technology affect multiple aspects of our everyday lives. In many ways, technology informs the way we work, play, and do business. Companies involved in creating technological solutions thrive by addressing the needs and desires of large ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in

Cybersecurity in Healthcare Overview

Cybersecurity attacks continue to rise in the healthcare industry. Organizations face not only a growing number of threats but also an increasing variety. Hackers are constantly developing new ways to access and steal the highly valuable patient ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in Security

What Are the 3 Main Cloud Computing Service Models? SaaS, PaaS, IaaS

The three main cloud computing service models are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Each model has distinct characteristics that make it appropriate for addressing specific types of ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in cloud managed services

Why You Should Store Medical Records in the Cloud

Before 2009, fewer than 10 percent of non-federal acute-care hospitals were using electronic health records (EHRs). The HITECH Act of 2009 sparked a change by incentivizing adoption of new technologies in healthcare. It also mandated that providers ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in cloud managed services, cloud migration healthcare

FedRAMP vs FISMA Similarities & Differences | Cloudticity

Navigating the labyrinth of federal compliance standards is an uphill battle even for the most experienced and savviest of government contractors or federal agencies. Case in point? FedRAMP and FISMA. ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in

Epic to Cloud: Who Benefits? A Look at Each Department

First, do no harm – is the prime directive for doctors and other medical professionals. IT professionals follow a similar, if less elegant, cautionary principle: If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in Epic

Disaster Recovery as a Service Defined+More |Cloudticity

Disaster recovery (DR) is a critical component of protecting information technology (IT) resources. In the absence of a reliable DR plan, companies risk outages that affect the business and even cause them to lose customers. The ability to quickly ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in cloud managed services, cloud security

Running Epic on AWS: Is it right for your hospital?

Healthcare industry analysts disagree often, but on one issue, they speak with one voice: The future of healthcare is in the cloud. For years, healthcare has trailed other industries in cloud adoption – now, that gap is narrowing. According to a ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in aws, Epic

Reduce Epic Hosting Costs: Migrate Functions to AWS

Comparing the cost of running Epic on-premises versus in the cloud is difficult because migrating to the cloud changes the basic business model for your IT infrastructure. ... Read more
| Author Tom Burge, tagged in aws, Epic

What is a Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE)?

As cloud adoption rates continue to grow with every passing day, many modern organizations are making it one of their top business priorities to seek out the best practices for a cloud implementation strategy. ... Read more
| Author Karl Reeves, tagged in

5 Reasons Your Cloud Migration Isn’t Paying Off – Inside the Wall Street Journal's Cloud Snafu

Last week, The Wall Street Journal ran an article arguing that organizations are struggling to reap ROI from public cloud computing under the misleading headline CIOs Still Waiting for Cloud Investments to Pay Off. ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in cloud migration healthcare, cloud migration

2023 Healthcare IT Predictions

As the year rolls to a close, we’ve scanned the industry and consulted our own internal experts to collect forecasts on what we can expect for healthcare IT in the new year. Here are a few of our 2023 healthcare IT predictions: ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in Healthcare Industry

FedRAMP vs. FISMA – What’s the Difference? | Cloudticity

FISMA and FedRAMP are two of the most important security compliance programs for cloud computing and cloud deployments. However, many organizations fail to understand the differences between them. In short, FedRAMP is a government-wide program ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in Compliance, Security, Healthcare, cloud partner, cloud managed services, cloud security, data, reliability, technology, FISMA, FedRamp


Top 9 Cybersecurity Threats for 2023

Whether it's online dating and grocery delivery or cryptocurrencies and autonomous vehicles, nearly every aspect of our lives has been utterly transformed by modern computing. ... Read more
| Author Cody Malloy, tagged in Security, cloud security

Unpacking HITRUST CSF v11 – What's New and Important?

Since 2007, the vaunted HITRUST CSF certification has been helping organizations in a variety of highly-regulated industries, such as healthcare, demonstrate their commitment to safety and security. ... Read more
| Author Jerry Shaffer, tagged in HITRUST

Top Five Cloud Challenges of 2023 – and How to Overcome Them

The Flexera 2023 State of the Cloud Report is here. According to the report, organizations are embracing cloud technologies, with 96% of all organizations using public cloud to some degree. This means good news for companies wishing to achieve ... Read more
| Author Boseme Mukete, tagged in aws cost optimization

AWS Savings Plans Guide 2023

Cloud platforms such as AWS offer companies in the healthcare space a number of important cost advantages. ... Read more
| Author Robert Wagner, tagged in aws cost optimization

How to Get HITRUST Certified - Follow These 7 Steps

As more health information is managed and stored in cloud systems, the attack surface area increases and so does the potential for sensitive data to be exposed. In fact, the number of healthcare data breaches recorded has more than tripled in the ... Read more
| Author Jerry Shaffer, tagged in HITRUST

Healthcare Cloud Security: A Guide to Getting Started

The healthcare industry experiences more data breaches than any other industry, with health records selling for up to 10X more than any other record type on the black market. ... Read more
| Author Masaru Horiuchi, tagged in Security

How The Cloud Talent Market is Ruining Healthcare

In today’s digital economy, nearly every company is a software company to some degree. In the healthcare field, organizations of all sizes leverage technology to improve patient to provider communication, deliver faster services, and reduce costs. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in kubernetes, managed kubernetes

Why Managed Cloud Services Should Be Automated

Moving IT to the cloud is an evolutionary change, similar to other developments in industrial history. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in cloud managed services, Automation

How DevOps Is Transforming Healthcare IT

Today, healthcare is synonymous with data. From electronic health records to body telemetry data, the volume and variety of healthcare information is ever increasing. Whether helping to identify an influenza outbreak or simply keeping track of ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in DevOps

Why You Need Managed Cloud Services for Healthcare

When organizations make the decision to migrate their IT to the public cloud there are several key decisions they must consider. Which public cloud service provider (CSP) to use? Multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud? Work with a cloud partner or build out ... Read more
| Author Robert Wagner, tagged in cloud managed services

Azure FHIR Services Vs. Google Cloud Healthcare API – Which one is right for you?

Exchanging health data between systems has historically been plagued by interoperability issues. Disparate systems and differing encoding systems, like HL7 and CCDA, make it difficult for health systems to talk to one another. ... Read more
| Author Karl Reeves, tagged in healthcare data interoperability, fhir

Cloud-Based FHIR Services - Are they right for you?

In the past, varying healthcare data standards, such as HL7 and CCDA, made it difficult for systems to exchange information. The Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard aims to solve this problem by providing a robust, consistent ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in fhir


How Edge Computing is Driving Advancements in Healthcare Analytics

New technologies are not just transforming healthcare, they are completely revolutionizing it. The last few decades have seen amazing innovations that are improving patient care. ... Read more
| Author Karl Reeves, tagged in edge computing

Top Health IT Components of Medicine’s Digital Front Door

Over the last couple of decades, the healthcare industry has undergone a digital transformation. What used to be a simple but lengthy patient journey of office visits, follow-up appointments, phone calls, and waiting for results has been transformed ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in Healthcare Industry

HITRUST on the AWS Cloud: Guide to Getting Started

Cloud migration comes with some incredible advantages over on-premises data operations. The scaling in terms of storage and computing processes simply can’t be beat. The ability to eliminate the expense and hassle of maintaining physical servers can ... Read more
| Author Josh Ray, tagged in HITRUST, aws

HITRUST Certification Requirements

Securing the Protected Health Information (PHI) of patients is vital to preserving the trust that exists between healthcare providers and the people they care for. The protection of this information is regulated by the Health Insurance Portability ... Read more
| Author Karl Reeves, tagged in HITRUST

What is Microsoft Azure Stack and How Can it Help Your Business?

Certain situations make it difficult for a company to complete a full migration to the public cloud. There are a host of reasons why. ... Read more
| Author Josh Ray, tagged in azure

AWS Outposts: What You Need to Know to Get Started

With cloud migration picking up speed as time goes by, many more organizations are starting to enjoy the huge benefits of moving their local data processing into the cloud. ... Read more
| Author Karl Reeves, tagged in aws

Healthcare Cloud Security 101 – What You Need to Know About Securing Your Healthcare Cloud

Healthcare organizations are moving to cloud computing at a faster pace than ever. The considerable number of advantages to healthcare providers are almost too numerous to list. For instance, patient data can easily be accessed across multiple ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in cloud security

Using Open Source FHIR APIs with FHIR Works on AWS

One of the most exciting developments in healthcare data management is the emergence of the FHIR, or Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources standard. How exactly can the FHIR be best deployed on AWS cloud systems? It’s simpler than you think. In ... Read more
| Author Josh Ray, tagged in fhir

Is AWS HIPAA Compliant? Yes, but...

Healthcare providers, payers, and technology partners are moving to the cloud in greater numbers than ever before. Cloud migration gives organizations within the healthcare industry better reliability, scalability, and security in ways that were ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in aws, hipaa

What Is Infrastructure As Code? Overview

A major development in software development and IT operations has been the growth of the “DevOps” culture. This methodology seeks to combine the disciplines of development and operations. The result: shortened development cycles and a high level of ... Read more
| Author Karl Reeves, tagged in DevOps

HIPAA Compliance on Microsoft Azure: How to Achieve and Maintain

Moving the patient data of large healthcare organizations to the cloud simply makes sense. The reliability, redundancy, speed, and scalability of cloud platforms make them vastly superior to antiquated on-premises systems for the data-intensive ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in azure, hipaa

Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework: Definitions & How It Works

Cloud migration has become increasingly important as companies and organizations discover the massive benefits as compared to physical on-premises servers. While it sounds like a simple maneuver to simply “switch over” to the cloud, the reality is ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in azure

A Guide to the AWS Well-Architected Framework

There are so many inherent advantages to migrating a company’s data to the cloud. Scalability, redundant backups, and flexibility are just a few. That being said, the quality of an organization’s cloud experience depends on following sound design ... Read more
| Author Karl Reeves, tagged in aws

What is Cloud Management?

Over the last few years, the movement towards cloud computing architecture has accelerated to the point where it is nearly ubiquitous. Still, not every company has made a complete transition, and some are just looking to begin theirs. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in cloud managed services

Healthcare MSP: Benefits and Importance

From intense nurse shortages to out-of-control labor costs, the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare all the inadequacies and failures in the healthcare industry. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in

What Is a BAA and Why Is It Essential for HIPAA Compliance?

For healthcare organizations, complying with HIPAA regulations is mandatory. Your organization needs to implement robust internal policies and process to safeguard the protected health information (PHI) you are generating, sharing, and storing. At ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in hipaa

What Is NIST 800-53 and Why Does It Matter for Healthcare Organizations?

As part of your efforts to comply with rigorous HIPAA rules, your healthcare organization might benefit from implementing security and privacy controls outlined in National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-53. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in Security, Healthcare, NIST

Implementing a Zero Trust Security Strategy in Healthcare

Data security and privacy are of the utmost importance in the healthcare industry. Businesses operating in this field have data resources that include protected health information (PHI) and may also encompass credit card payment information. This ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in

Cloud Solutions for Healthcare: Which Are Right for You?

Is the cloud in your future? Across industries, businesses are moving to the cloud to improve agility, enhance availability, and access new technologies while eliminating large capital expenditures. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in cloud migration healthcare

The Most Common Cloud Migration Challenges and How to Solve Them

The healthcare industry is experiencing an IT transformation: A growing number of health tech businesses and other healthcare organizations are moving to the public cloud. They recognize the immense potential for capitalizing on innovative ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in cloud managed services, cloud migration

How The Cloud Is Improving Healthcare Data Interoperability

Healthcare providers generate a tremendous amount of data. Hospitals and doctors’ offices use computer systems for managing patient information such as records, tracking, and billing. All of these systems need to communicate with each other when ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in healthcare data interoperability, cloud-native healthcare technology, healthcare data management

5 Benefits of Kubernetes for Healthcare

In today’s digital economy, nearly every company is a software company to some degree. In the healthcare field, organizations of all sizes leverage technology to improve patient to provider communication, deliver faster services, and reduce costs. ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in kubernetes, managed kubernetes

Cloud Adoption in Healthcare: Breaking the Barriers into a Healthier World

We all know that America is in the midst of a public health crisis and that we will face a shortage of up to 95,000 physicians by 2025. The good news is that there are many technologists out there who see the problem and are actively creating ... Read more
| Author Kate Wang, tagged in Compliance, Security, cloud partner, cloud-native healthcare technology, cloud migration

Get A Head Start On Compliance Issues With Unified Logging

Logs are crucial component of virtually any network. From recording data retrievals and monitoring traffic to keeping track of updates and flagging errors, every action that takes place in your AWS environment creates a log. ... Read more
| Author Rob Williams, tagged in Compliance, audit logs, Unified logging

Your Secure AWS Environment – Now With Even More Checks

Thanks to our expanded library of Oxygen automated compliance checks, your AWS environment has gotten even more secure. ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in Oxygen™ Release Notes

How The Cloud Cuts HITRUST Cost, Complexity, And Timelines

More and more healthcare organizations are discovering that HITRUST certification is critical to their success. While it’s not mandated, many providers and payers require their vendors be HITRUST certified. Because of the rigor of the process, ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in

Transitioning from HIPAA Compliance to HITRUST Compliance

Cloudticity's passion toward meeting security and compliance standards has led us down many paths over the past few years due to the ever-changing landscape of Healthcare and AWS. Let's reflect: ... Read more
| Author Thomas Zinn, tagged in Healthcare Industry, About Cloudticity, Compliance

HIPAA Compliance 164.312(d) - Person or Entity Authentication

Within the HIPAA Security Rule are Administrative, Physical, and Technical Safeguards. These safeguards are as important to understand as they are to implement, so let’s dive into one: ... Read more
| Author Thomas Zinn, tagged in Compliance, Authentication

The Importance (and Difficulty) of Compliance

I had the privilege of being asked to speak at the HITRUST Annual Conference this week. In addition to being amazed at the quality of leadership this conference attracts, I noticed a few recurring themes: ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in Healthcare Industry

Cloudticity Achieves HITRUST CSF Certification

CLOUDTICITY ACHIEVES HITRUST CSF CERTIFICATION TO FURTHER MITIGATE RISK IN THIRD-PARTY PRIVACY, SECURITY, AND COMPLIANCE HITRUST Certification validates Cloudticity is committed to meeting key healthcare regulations and protecting sensitive private ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in

HIPAA Security: Patching with AWS Step Functions

We're proud of our Cloudticity team members Uri Katsir and Thomas Zinn for their guest-post on the AWS Management Tools blog, "How Cloudticity Automates Security Patches for Linux and Windows using Amazon EC2 Systems Manager and AWS Step Functions." ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in

Verge Health <> Cloudticity - Success Story

Our customer Verge Health empowers more than 900 healthcare organizations to proactively protect and defend patients, caregivers, and organizations against errors, adverse events, and policy violations in order to achieve optimal quality and safety ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in

The Cloudticity Culture

What makes Cloudticity different from the slew of AWS partners out there? At the core, it's our culture. It what lets us win time and time again, over bigger, badder, bloated competitors. Our team is productive, happy, healthy, and totally focused ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in

MiHIN Case Study

Our customer, the Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services (MiHIN), is Michigan’s state-designated entity to improve health care quality, efficiency, and patient safety by sharing electronic health information statewide, helping reduce ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in

IS HIPAA Compliance Possible on AWS? The Answer is YES...

It was an honor to be asked to present the first session on HIPAA compliance ever at AWS re:Invent. Check out the video of my joint presentation with Mark Wellscott, Director of Application Development at Spectrum Health, where we talked about ... Read more
| Author Gerry Miller, tagged in

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