Cloud vs On-Premises PACS: What's Best for You?

The dilemma about on-premises vs cloud PACS is common to hospitals, radiology groups, and medical imaging start-ups alike. It’s only natural for the decision-makers at these practices to be concerned about data security, accessibility, and costs. However, some of these concerns are misconceptions, and therefore making business decisions based on these could be detrimental to your healthcare organization.

The purpose of this blog is to bust some of the common myths about the cloud and provide you with a clear comparison between on-premises PACS system and cloud PACS so that you can decide what’s best for your organization.

Myth 1: Cloud provider can sell my data

This is simply not true. You retain full ownership of your data even when stored on RamSoft servers. Your data is situated in a fully dedicated and segregated storage account. You can rest assured that there are no legal provisions in any contracts or terms of use, where RamSoft assumes otherwise.

Myth 2: Cloud server is only for large facilities

When it comes to cloud, size doesn’t matter. Cloud is perfect for any sized company, specifically so for small and medium-sized entities that do not have a large in-house IT staffing. All the overhead of running and securing an infrastructure are eliminated. Also, a lot of large enterprise-grade features, such as data resiliency, are included in the offering, by default, for all customers regardless of size.

Myth 3: Cloud server is more expensive than on-premises

With cloud, you’ll have no hardware cost, no server room maintenance, and no need for a dedicated in-house resource taking care of the server. Cloud is more cost-effective even if full costs are taken into consideration over the full life span of a solution. In the case of on-premises servers, the hardware has high upfront costs as well as recurring (3-5 year) refresh costs, whereas cloud only has a monthly operating expenditure. Hardware, and specifically hardware-related issues, can result in significant technician labor costs.

Now that we’ve dispelled these myths about the cloud, let us understand what makes cloud-based imaging solutions superior to on-premises.

Advantages of Cloud PACS

Improved data security

Cloud servers can keep your data safe not just from cyberattacks but also from natural disasters. All your diagnostic imaging data remains safe from threats — RamSoft’s pioneering Imaging EMR, OmegaAI, operates on a cloud-native, serverless platform which is aligned to several global security and performance standards including FHIR, SOC Type II, and HIPAA. As you are aware, the medical community has been plagued by ransomware attacks over the past several years. RamSoft has assisted customers who suffered such an attack, migrate to the cloud where the threat is significantly decreased.

Better accessibility

A cloud PACS offers quick and secure access from anywhere, which makes it the best-suited solution for remote reading. Unlike on-prem servers, you don’t need to set up VPN connection for each new location.

Sidebar: The world’s first Imaging EMR, RamSoft’s OmegaAI, is a serverless, cloud-native SaaS solution.

High data availability

Outages due to hardware issues or improper configuration can result in significant downtime and income loss. With cloud, you don’t have to worry about hardware failure and downtime that are common to on-premises servers. Our latest medical imaging solution, the cloud-native and serverless Imaging EMR, OmegaAI, guarantees 99.9% uptime.

Seamless scalability

Need more storage? No problem. The storage capability with RamSoft’s cloud-native OmegaAI has practically an infinite expandability potential which is fully automated. RamSoft technicians also monitor all aspects of your application and scale up resources as necessary.

Advanced Medical Imaging Starts with Cloud-Native

Effective delivery of modern healthcare revolves around patient autonomy and automation of ecosystem. Faster, empowered care requires the fast and easy deployment model offered by a cloud-native solution, particularly an Imaging EMR. RamSoft’s pioneering Imaging EMR platform, OmegaAI, can consolidate any cloud PACS or other in-market or legacy healthcare information system to provide the seamless interoperability and connectivity needed to provide responsive, value-based care today’s patients expect.

Benefits of Going Cloud-Native

The benefits in implementing a cloud-native solution – such as RamSoft’s Imaging EMR platform, OmegaAI – are substantial. By adopting cloud-native infrastructure, your healthcare enterprise can expect:

• Infinite expandability
• Reduced costs to operate
• Increased uptime
• Seamless interoperability & connectivity
• Worry-free integrations
• Improved patient care

Explore OmegaAI and how its cloud-native architecture can revolutionize your healthcare enterprise towards the future and beyond! Why not start today? Talk to our team of experts.