The cloud is a centralized location where everything from applications and servers, to databases and networks, are stored and running. The cloud can be public, private or both. As long as your practice has internet-enabled devices, you are in business.
How does the cloud affect your practice? Most practices have to run on one computer system or another. In fact, many practices run on several different systems. Practice management, EHR, payroll, email and file sharing are just a few. In the not so recent past, use of any of these systems would require your practice to make a large capital expenditure, as your practice chooses an application, pays for the licensing, buys the hardware and any software that might be needed. How do you stay in business with these costs?
The cloud provides the solution.
With the public cloud, your practice pays another vendor to host servers and applications. The vendor typically assesses a monthly fee that may change based upon usage. This option requires very little startup cost and can get a practice up and running quickly.
In the private cloud, your practice continues to purchase hardware. However, where one piece of hardware would support only one server or application, the private cloud would offer several servers and applications on one centralized piece of hardware.
Both solutions are scalable for the practice. Which option should your practice choose? There are three main differences:
1. There are usually significant upfront costs in setting up a private cloud. The upfront cost for a public cloud is usually a low, one-time implementation fee.
2. Creating a private cloud for your practice doesn’t include other features like offsite backups and other enterprise grade add-ons. With the public cloud, all of these features and services are available.
3. Private cloud environments are managed by you. The public could is administered and backed up by the service provider.
Going the public cloud route is the most popular, cost-effective solution for private practices. The practice is able to completely eliminate any need for hardware or software other than the PCs or laptops connecting to the cloud.
Precision is proud to announce a new public cloud product offering – CloudPPM. Your practice can now host any server or application inside Precision’s Cloud network. CloudPPM can get your practice into the latest and greatest technology at a fraction of the cost.
Please contact Precision’s Directors of IT, Jason Eding and Wayne Schiermeyer, for assistance. They can be reached at jeding@precisionpractice.com and wschiermeyer@precisionpractice.com.
