Four Critical Factors for Selecting a Business System Hosting Partner

Healthcare organizations primarily focus on cloud services for clinical workloads, but business and ancillary systems are equally integral to facility success. In fact, according to a recent report from AWS, 95% of healthcare providers plan to migrate over half of their applications to the cloud in the next three years. Whether considering hosting finance, HR, revenue cycle, imaging archives, lab systems or other ancillary platforms, cloud services must meet the unique performance and regulatory demands of each system.

An effective hosting solution allows organizations to focus on patient care efficiency and business growth, while a trusted partner manages infrastructure, security, compliance and system maintenance. However, without the right partnership, risks of downtime, data breaches or compliance failures can increase. To gain confidence in a secure cloud solution, carefully evaluate the following four critical factors when selecting a hosting partner for business systems:

1. Ensuring security and compliance are the highest priorities.
   Due to healthcare sensitive data, it is imperative to practice extreme caution when selecting a cloud hosting partner. Always assess prospective vendors based on their ability to meet extensive security demands while approaching cloud hosting with a security-first framework.Several critical security/compliance requirements a vendor must meet include:
   • Retaining HITRUST r2 certification
   • Exhibiting a HIPAA-compliant infrastructure
   • Identifying potential incidents through 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC) monitoring and Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) threat detection
   • Protecting data through encryption, strict access controls, and audit logs

   While all these components are important, a vendor should view requirements not merely as a checklist, but as an ongoing commitment to safeguarding patient and healthcare data. Look to vendors that include recurring compliance risk assessments and monitoring as part of their cloud hosting strategy.

2. Maintaining a proactive approach for consistent reliability and uptime.
   Many healthcare business and ancillary systems are mission-critical, so achieving high levels of uptime is crucial. Select a cloud hosting partner that proactively plans for continuous reliability, demonstrating a comprehensive preparedness strategy. This should include backup systems and multiple sources for both network connectivity and power, guaranteeing operations run smoothly even if a primary source goes down. These backups must be independent of each other, not relying on the same cables, providers, or geographic regions. Selecting a vendor with this type of configuration provides system reliability and performance that administrators, finance teams, operations, and support staff can depend on.
3. Providing flexible, tailored solutions based on the unique needs of each organization.
   A crucial step when evaluating cloud hosting solutions is to determine which model best serves business system needs. Seek a vendor partner who will guide you toward the most suitable option for your team, rather than simply selling a product.A strong vendor will help assess your business system and workload requirements, designing a tailored solution based on the following models:
   • Private Cloud: Offers maximum control, performance, and compliance.
   • Public Cloud: Provides scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency.
   • Hybrid Cloud: Combines benefits of private and public clouds to deliver both control and flexibility.

   Additionally, ensure prospective vendors can support a wide range of business and ancillary systems to accommodate future growth. Transparency about which systems can be hosted, as well as a predictable cost structure, are essential for building confidence and planning scalability.

4. Delivering expert support and seamless management.
   According to HealthTech, only 43% of IT leaders say they can manage their cloud environment effectively. Therefore, a true cloud hosting partner must provide expert support and seamless management to an organization’s business and ancillary system infrastructure. This allows internal teams to focus primarily on patient care and operations. When evaluating vendors, consider selecting a partner who can provide fully managed services, including system patching, updates, and maintenance through a Network Operations Center (NOC). Additionally, seek vendors that offer 24/7 help desk support to alleviate technology-related frustrations amongst staff. Lastly, prioritize vendors with a structured migration process that includes test migrations, dependency validation, and weekend cutovers to minimize downtime.

Selecting the right cloud hosting partner is key to ensuring security, reliability, and scalability across healthcare business and ancillary systems. With a trusted partner managing infrastructure and compliance, organizations can focus on delivering high quality, direct patient care.

Learn more about Business and Ancillary System hosting from MTS to ensure your systems remain secure, reliable, and always available.