---
title: The Top Risk Factors of using a Shared Cloud Environment for your Healthcare Facility
description: Learn the top risk factors that can occur from using a shared cloud environment for your healthcare facility.
image: https://blog.netgainhosting.com/hs-fs/hub/355362/file-2135832461.jpg
---

The Top Risk Factors of using a Shared Cloud Environment for your Healthcare Facility

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## [The Top Risk Factors of using a Shared Cloud Environment for your Healthcare Facility](https://blog.netgainhosting.com/the-top-risk-factors-of-using-a-shared-cloud-environment-for-your-healthcare-facility)

Posted by [Netgain Blog Team](https://blog.netgainhosting.com/author/netgain-blog-team) on Nov 25, 2014 7:25:25 AM

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![ID-100269215](https://blog.netgainhosting.com/hs-fs/hub/355362/file-2135832461.jpg?width=325&name=file-2135832461.jpg)There's a big difference between using a shared cloud environment and using a private cloud for your healthcare applications and data.  If you've been [under the impression that the cloud is a security risk](https://blog.netgainhosting.com/is-the-cloud-secure), you can be right if you're referring to a shared cloud computing network.  Here are the major risks of using a shared cloud computing environment. 

- Internal security risks and access control can get complicated on an exposed open cloud network.
- Unexpected outages can disrupt usability making shared cloud computing damaging to productivity and expensive to fix.
- Growth is limited by a cap on scalability.
- Support may be hard to get a hold of and harder to hold accountable.

Using shared cloud computing can be risky for healthcare facilities.  However, these risk factors can be easily mitigated by moving your materials to a private cloud environment. 

## A Closer Look At The Risks Of Shared Cloud Computing

A shared cloud environment is exposed to a lot of people, many of whom you may not know, who are accessing the same network that stores your highly sensitive patient information.  In a shared cloud you don’t have control over the hardware that stores your information nor can you limit the people who access it outside of your environment.  This may expose you to a security risk.

The size and frequency of clients accessing information on a shared cloud means there can be a lot of traffic accessing the network at any given time.  If traffic gets too heavy it can cause unpredictable outages.  If this occurs, you’re left in the hands of the cloud provider’s IT team.  All you can do is sit back and wait until someone gets around to fixing it.  Meanwhile, you can not access the vital information you need to run your facility.

A shared cloud computing environment can get expensive as you need to buy more storage space. Even worse, shared cloud companies can cap the amount of storage you have access to.  As your practice grows, you need to know that there’s room to handle more data without eating away at the budget.  It’s important to have a limitless cloud that can offer as much space as your healthcare practice needs and can grow along with the size of the facility.

## There is a solution - Private Cloud. 

A [private cloud](https://blog.netgainhosting.com/4-benefits-of-using-a-private-cloud-hosting-provider) infrastructure gives you the same benefits of storing information on a cloud without exposing your healthcare facility to the risks of using a shared service.  With a private cloud, all of the information your facility stores is located on dedicated resources that only your employees can access.

Healthcare facilities experience a lot of benefits using private cloud computing that allows only their own trusted staff to access sensitive information.  As your patient population grows your private cloud easily grows with you.  The scalability of a private cloud is completely up to the healthcare facility that uses it making future growth easier to implement.  

Private [cloud computing](https://blog.netgainhosting.com/topic/cloud-computing) is the solution for healthcare organizations that want to switch to the ease and flexibility that comes from using cloud storage without all of the risks of storing sensitive information on an open network. 

Please feel free to contact us at [Netgain](http://netgainhosting.com) to further discuss the benefits of private cloud IT hosting.

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 Topics: [cloud-computing](https://blog.netgainhosting.com/topic/cloud-computing), [Private Cloud](https://blog.netgainhosting.com/topic/private-cloud), [Shared Cloud,](https://blog.netgainhosting.com/topic/shared-cloud)

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We do this by proactively bringing ideas, expertise, and solutions to your attention, which enables you to communicate the related technology, security or compliance best practices to your employees.

 

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