Netgain

When you’re not feeling well, you go to the clinic and your provider asks what symptoms you’re experiencing. Your head hurts, you have a runny nose, your temperature is 101 degrees and you’re having difficulty swallowing.

Based on these symptoms, your doctor takes a closer look at your ears, nose and throat. These indicators could be signs of an infection. After a diagnosis, you’re provided a treatment plan to alleviate your pains.

HIMSS Analytics reports that over 73 percent of healthcare organizations are using some sort of cloud “as-a-service” solution.  “As-a-Service” delivery models have been gaining popularity over the past few years, notably within the healthcare industry.

You’ve likely heard of Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) or the most common, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). These services center around the concept of consumption-based computing. The number of users, storage utilization or compute required are generally factors that affect as-a-service models.

Are you reading this blog from your phone or tablet? If so, you’re in good company. Mobile devices accounted for 51 percent of internet usage worldwide in October compared to 48 percent by desktop.

In healthcare, mobile trends are similar. Sixty-three percent of physicians use tablets to access medical research and 44 percent use smartphones to communicate with nurses and other patient staff.

Students across the country are cramming for finals, planning graduation parties, and preparing themselves for their first “real world” jobs. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) projects nearly 2 million students will graduate with their bachelor’s degree as the Class of 2017.     

Most of these students, known as Generation Z, were born in the late 90’s and early 2000s, directly following the millennials.

Remember the great con-artist, Gregor MacGregor, known as the “king of all con-men?” He convinced people to invest in an entirely fictitious country that he had conjured up. More recently, remember Bernie Madoff, the con-artist who made off with more than $65 billion of investors’ money in a ponzi-scheme?

In the past, great con-artists only preyed on the rich and famous, but that’s changed. New modern-day con-artists come in the form of hackers using social engineering tactics to steal the money and identities of regular people every day.

On Friday May 12, a new Malware infestation, dubbed “WannaCry”, began affecting systems in Europe and Asia. Though some action was taken to shut down the initial variant of this malware, additional variants are expected today and ongoing. An infestation results in the encryption of data and request for payment of ransom, followed by attempted infestation of surrounding connected systems.

“All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” ~Abraham Lincoln

My mom is certainly an angel mother that Abraham Lincoln talked about. She raised five boys, helped my dad run their jewelry business and volunteered throughout our community.

Still, at 79 years old, she provides daily hospice care, Healing Touch therapy and companionship in the “No One Dies Alone” program at our local hospital. She is a mixture of compassion and generosity with a healthy dose of  independence.

Security challenges and data privacy continue to be leading concerns for healthcare organizations. Now that an individual medical record can go for an average of $363 on the  black market, hackers are zeroing in on the healthcare market as a significant opportunity for income.

Recently, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paid a $17,000 ransom in bitcoins to a hacker who seized control of the hospital's computer systems and would only give back access once the ransom was paid.

Every three to four years, healthcare practices go through a refresh and upgrade cycle that causes stress on human and financial resources. As an alternative to the traditional refresh cycle, many practices are evaluating their cloud options and how it affects those same human and financial resources.

In Part I of our IT costs series, we explored how to know if your practice is ready for a hardware or software refresh. Part II discussed three considerations when planning your refresh. In this final part of our series, we analyze the total cost of IT ownership and how it compares to a private cloud model.

Has it been three to four years since you last refreshed your servers? Are your users frustrated because of slow workstations? Before you go out and purchase all new servers and workstations, there are factors to consider to ensure your refresh is done efficiently, strategically and economically.