The digital revolution in the healthcare industry has brought a plethora of medical applications to consumers, who are now willing to adopt healthcare technology more than ever. With highly sophisticated apps that can even perform brain tests for dementia, users are relying more and more on technology.
In 2011, 44 million health-related applications were downloaded worldwide. Recently Study also shows that adults with smartphones have at least one health app on their phones. According to a surveytwo-thirds of Americans would rather use an app than physically visit a doctor.
As consumers rely more on technology to proactively manage their health, researchers are trying to use it data analytics to solve the problem.
The wave of technology in the healthcare industry has benefited not only patients but also doctors. For example, automated brain testing, with the help of portable devices and mobile phone apps, can save doctors up to 80% of time spent making decisions.
However, digitization in the healthcare industry comes at the expense of data security. Therefore, healthcare app providers have to be careful as they have to comply with a number of safety guidelines by regulators.
When it comes to publishing apps, one of the most important decisions is about hosting. While most of the industry is turning to cloud-based hosting due to its lower costs and greater efficiency, dedicated hosting still has a number of advantages, especially for the healthcare industry.
According to a recent survey by HIMSS Analytics’, a subsidiary of the Health Information and Management Systems Society, 61.4% of IT healthcare organizations do not adopt cloud services due to security concerns, while 38.4% do not due to uptime issues.
Here are six reasons why medical applications should use a dedicated hosting server:
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Security
Security breaches in healthcare systems have increased by 125% since 2010. While cloud-based hosting can save costs, medical apps cannot compromise on security as they carry a gold mine of information such as social security numbers, billing addresses or insurance records.
Cloud-based hosting can be considered as sharing an apartment with someone, which is why there is a higher risk of sharing servers with malicious websites. A dedicated server, on the other hand, is owned by a single client.
A dedicated server is also required for applications that accept credit cards as shared hosting is not compliant with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards.
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Customization
Dedicated server hosting gives application providers the flexibility to choose hardware. With a dedicated server CPU, RAM and disk space can be changed according to the provider’s requirements.
Dedicated servers essentially grant root access, which means that the provider can make any changes to the operating system and the rest of the server’s functionality as needed.
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Unique IP address
With cloud hosting, a single IP address is shared with other websites and applications. Dedicated IP addresses are useful for applications and websites that see large amounts of traffic every day. A unique IP address maintains speed and performance and accommodates a large number of visitors. With shared hosting, the chances of the application crashing increase as it puts a lot of pressure on the server.
A unique IP address also ensures that your application is not affected by the actions of others. For example, some sites on a shared server may engage in spamming or other activity which may also affect your search engine ranking or even blacklist an IP address.
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Show
Although dedicated servers are more expensive than shared services, they offer a better price-to-performance ratio, especially for applications that have higher traffic. Since all the processing power from a dedicated server is exclusive to a single client, it provides higher I/O performance.
Usually, in dedicated servers, the storage media is attached to the server. On the cloud platform, on the other hand, storage is connected via a Storage Access Network, which means multiple servers share bandwidth and must compete with other servers.
This can slow IO performance. Dedicated hosting, however, can handle higher page volumes, meaning faster load times for your visitors.
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Scalability
While cloud sharing is ideal for start-ups and small businesses due to its low cost, dedicated servers are preferred for larger businesses. Cloud sharing can be useful in the early stages, when traffic is low. However, if you expect your application to generate a lot of traffic over time, then you should opt for dedicated hosting.
With a dedicated server, more bandwidth can easily be added at a low cost. Research says that page response drops 7% per second from page delay. Dedicated servers, on the other hand, can use 100% of CPU, RAM, and disk I/O, when needed.
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Reliability
Since all costs are covered by a single client, it makes dedicated servers expensive. However, you don’t share resources with any other websites or apps, so you don’t have to worry about less bandwidth, or crashes; your server will run smoothly 24/7.
Plus, with a dedicated server, you don’t have to bother setting it up yourself. Servers are maintained in redundant data centers and upgraded frequently. Technical experts monitor servers to ensure their performance.
Underline
Hosting decisions depend heavily on the nature of the website or application. Most industries are turning to cloud sharing because of its many advantages. However, traditional dedicated servers are still better in several aspects.
Dedicated servers are better suited for large organizations that have to follow security protocols by regulators and can’t afford to stop time. Additionally, dedicated servers give application providers more power and control over resources. More importantly, it ensures that data is always safe, which is very important for all applications and especially medical applications.
A dedicated server doesn’t mean that hacking data is impossible. However, it is certainly safer than shared hosting. The decision to host is a very important one and, as such, should be made after weighing all the pros and cons.
