Cloud Modernization: Architecting Your Healthcare Cloud to Last

By Jim Ducharme, ClearDATA Chief Technology Officer

Every great innovation starts with a vision.

For a healthcare provider or doctor, that vision might be in developing a new process and systems to improve how to treat certain conditions.

For a healthcare technology company, that vision might be a data analytics platform to uncover research breakthroughs, or an AI-powered tool to improve diagnostics.

You have the vision, the crayon drawing of what you want to build, but you need an architect to turn that dream into a secure, compliant, and resilient business in the cloud.

Let’s use an analogy for this article. Building a secure and compliant cloud is like constructing your dream home—representing the innovation, vision, and goals your healthcare organization strives to achieve, no matter the segment.

Architect Your Cloud Healthcare Cloud

Many healthcare organizations find themselves in a challenging position. You’ve moved to the cloud, but your infrastructure is a messy, expensive relic due to an inefficient migration.

Some healthcare organizations began their journey cloud native, with ambitious ideas, but uncertain how to navigate public cloud services compliantly. They face the challenge of adhering to HIPAA, HITRUST, and new AI regulations that continue to take shape in the months ahead.

Just as you would not build your dream house without an expert to design the blueprints and ensure the foundation is solid, you should not build your healthcare cloud solution without a partner to guide you.

ClearDATA is the architect for your cloud journey, helping you build, operate, and modernize your applications with confidence.

The Problem with a Cloud “Lift-and-Shift” to the Cloud

Let’s back up a bit. Many healthcare organizations moved to the cloud by lifting their on-premises applications and “shifting” them directly into a cloud environment. While this approach helped them exit the data center business, it created a new set of problems for some. Legacy applications that were not designed for the cloud became inefficient, difficult to secure, and costly to maintain.

Think of moving an old, single-pane window from a cabin into a modern, energy-efficient home. It might fit in the hole, but it doesn’t offer the same benefits as a modern window, and it certainly won’t hold up to inspection or a storm. As a result, you are left with drafts, high energy bills, and a weak point in your structure.

Think of moving an old, single-pane window from a cabin into a modern, energy-efficient home. It might fit in the hole, but it doesn’t offer the same benefits as a modern window, and it certainly won’t hold up to inspection or a storm. As a result, you are left with drafts, high energy bills, and a weak point in your structure

Similarly, lift-and-shift workloads often run 24/7 at maximum capacity, just as they did on-premises. This model completely misses the cloud’s primary advantages: elasticity and cost-efficiency. You end up paying a premium for resources you aren’t using, like a server running at full tilt at 2:00 AM when patient portal usage is near zero.

Let’s not run the heat on full blast when you have an open or cracked window!

This inefficiency can become so severe that some organizations even contemplate costly retreats to on-premises data centers, forgetting the very operational headaches they worked hard to escape.

Modernize Your Cloud: A Smarter Path Forward

Cloud modernization is not only about fixing the mistakes of the past. It is about building for the future. It means re-architecting applications to be cloud-native, leveraging services like containers and serverless computing to create solutions that are scalable, resilient, and cost-effective.

Modernization addresses several key pain points:

• Cost and Inefficiency: By redesigning applications to scale with demand, you pay only for the resources you use, drastically reducing operational expenses.
• Security and Compliance: Legacy applications often require unique, cumbersome security controls. Modernizing allows you to build a standardized, secure foundation using cloud-native tools, which simplify compliance and strengthen your security posture from the ground up.
• Innovation and Agility: A modernized cloud serves as a platform for innovation, with a flexible, cloud-native architecture that makes it easier to build and maintain compliance.

As licensing costs for legacy platforms skyrocket, organizations have a powerful incentive to move away from these dependencies and embrace more agile and cost-effective multi-cloud solutions.

Building, Modernizing, and Optimizing Your Healthcare Cloud

Whether building a new application or modernizing a legacy system, it’s essential to work with an expert who understands the unique environment of healthcare. A trusted partner can provide the blueprints for a secure, compliant, and resilient foundation.

ClearDATA isn’t the builder swinging the hammer; ClearDATA provides the  architectural guidance and code enforcement to ensure your cloud environment is built securely, aligns with compliance standards, and remains resilient under pressure.

Building Your Dream on a Secure Foundation

ClearDATA’s role begins at the foundation. We provide the essential ingredients and best practices to ensure your cloud environment is built right from the start.

When you have a vision for a new application, our role is to translate that dream into a practical, secure, and compliant architectural plan. We help you make the right choices from day one, ensuring your foundation is solid. This includes:

• Secure Cloud Baseline: ClearDATA establishes a secure cloud baseline with standardized policies, IAM roles and permissions, and default logging and backup settings—laying the groundwork for continuous compliance and operational integrity.
• Blueprints and CRAs: With CIS Level 2-benchmarked hardened images and secure infrastructure-as-code templates, ClearDATA gives your teams a compliant, ready-to-deploy foundation for building and scaling applications.
• Expert Guidance: Our experts work with you to design a solution that is not only functional, but also secure, compliant, and optimized for the cloud. We are expert consultants who understand local building codes (like HIPAA and HITRUST) and environmental threats (AI-driven ransomware and data breaches).
• Continuous Compliance Monitoring: During the “construction” phase, our CyberHealth Platform (CHP) acts as the code enforcement officer. It continuously monitors your environment to ensure your builders follow the blueprints, alerting you immediately if a configuration deviates from compliance standards.

Modernizing Your Legacy “House”

If your organization is struggling with a costly and inefficient lift-and-shift application, we act as the expert architect for your renovation. ClearDATA helps you tear down the old structures and rebuild using modern, cloud-native principles. We guide you in transforming your monolithic application into a resilient, scalable, and efficient solution that can support your organization’s growth and innovation.

Operating and Defending Your Finished Home

Once your application is built and running, our job is not over. A house requires maintenance, and a cloud environment is no different. As your business grows, and new trends and threats emerge, so too should your cloud strategy. Your organization should consider leveraging:

• Ongoing Monitoring: The ClearDATA CyberHealth™ Platform continues to monitor your live environment, ensuring that any changes or updates don’t compromise your security or compliance posture. If someone leaves a “door unlocked,” you will know.
• Managed Detection and Response (MDR): Once your application, housing sensitive patient data, is operational, it requires a security system. Our award winning MDR service acts like security cameras and a weather station, monitoring threats, detecting suspicious activity, and enabling rapid responses to prevent breaches.
• Expert Guidance: Our team continues to work with you to ensure your cloud is optimized and cost-effective.
• Multi-Cloud Cost Optimization: ClearDATA helps track and optimize your cloud spend across cloud providers, giving you visibility and control over operating costs while maintaining security and compliance standards.

From Dream to Reality, Securely

Healthcare organizations are at a crossroads. The cloud offers unprecedented opportunities for innovation, from data-driven research to AI-enhanced patient care. Yet, the path is filled with complexities around security, compliance, and cost. Trying to navigate this journey alone is like building a house with nothing but a crayon drawing and a hammer. You might get a “structure” up, but will it be safe? Will it pass inspection? Will it withstand the first storm?

By partnering with ClearDATA, you gain the architectural guidance from the start. We help you articulate your dream, act as your code enforcement officer throughout the process, and design the blueprints for a secure and resilient solution.

Whether you are building something new or modernizing the old, start with a solid foundation.