So, how can NHS trusts and healthcare providers improve their technologies and adapt to a changing landscape? Solutions abound to address these issues. One of these solutions is the adoption and implementation of cloud computing services. Starting in 2013, the government launched a ‘cloud-first’ policy dedicated to prioritizing cloud technologies, a move that was continued in 2018 when NHS Digital announced that they were going to be adopting a ‘cloud-first’ approach. This was a decision made to ‘mitigate many common risks NHS and social care organizations face’. Cloud technology is able to benefit NHS trusts by shifting data and information from complex and outdated on-prem or legacy solutions to easily accessible databases. This can streamline business processes and make it easier for businesses to reach important data like patient records and waitlists faster. Additionally, an article from Blue Frontier suggests that by adopting more cloud technology, healthcare providers can ‘minimize upfront IT infrastructure costs and streamline the sharing of resources among employees’.

There remains some hesitation in the widespread adoption of cloud computing; a report from Health Business UK suggests that concerns exist about the security of cloud technology as well as how easy it is to implement on a larger scale. Ultimately, it’s important to consider that implementing cloud technology is not a one-size-fits-all approach; developers will need to take steps to ensure maximum data security.