From patient records and imaging to real-time analytics, the cloud is becoming the backbone of modern medical operations.
But many healthcare organizations still rely on outdated, on-premise infrastructure that can’t keep up.
These systems are expensive to maintain, hard to scale, and prone to security gaps. And both patients and clinicians expect faster, more connected care they can’t provide.
That’s where cloud computing comes in.
It gives you the flexibility, speed, and security they need to improve outcomes, reduce costs, and make full use of your data.
In this article, we’ll give you an overview of the state of cloud computing in healthcare today and examine its key benefits and real-world use cases.
Let’s dive in!
Key takeaways:
Cloud technology cuts costs and boosts efficiency. You can reduce infrastructure expenses, automate workflows, and redirect resources toward patient care.
Security and compliance come built-in. Leading cloud platforms use encryption, access controls, and compliance frameworks like HIPAA and GDPR to protect sensitive health data.
Better access means better outcomes. Real-time data sharing, remote monitoring, and advanced analytics help clinicians make faster, more informed decisions that improve the patient experience.
Table of Contents
Cloud computing in healthcare: key stats and figures
48% use cloud for data storage and 41% for backup and disaster recovery, proving the cloud’s role in everyday healthcare operations.
The healthcare cloud computing market will reach $275.75 billion by 2034, growing from $63.9 billion in 2025 at a 17.64% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
The U.S. market alone is projected to hit $114.79 billion by 2034, with North America holding over 40% of global share.
Patient experience metrics climbed too, with 45% higher user satisfaction and a 25% improvement in patient satisfaction scores.
Key benefits of cloud computing in healthcare
Here, we’ll cover the main benefits of cloud computing in healthcare you need to know.
Lower costs
Maintaining on-premise infrastructure drains your budget.
Physical servers need constant cooling, occupy valuable space, and demand dedicated IT teams to keep them running. They can also become outdated, fast.
Cloud computing cuts most of those expenses.
With a pay-as-you-go model, your costs reflect actual usage, not forecasts. Need extra storage during flu season when patient volumes spike? Scale up. Lighter summer months? Scale back down.
But, maintaining advanced cybersecurity in-house is costly and complex.
Cloud service providers operate at a different scale.
They run encryption at rest and in transit, enforce granular access controls, perform continuous security monitoring, and conduct regular third-party audits.
Cloud platforms designed for healthcare also bake compliance into every layer.
U.S.-based providers must sign Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) that make them legally accountable for protecting patient data. Their software and infrastructure meet strict regulatory standards:
HIPAA and GDPR for data protection
HL7 and FHIR for interoperability and data exchange
ISO 27001 and similar frameworks for security governance
This integrated approach builds privacy protections directly into clinical workflows rather than layering them on top.
The result? Fewer security incidents, faster detection of potential threats, and stronger overall data integrity.
Better scalability and flexibility
Traditional IT setups force you into a tough choice – overbuild capacity and waste resources, or underbuild and risk downtime when demand peaks.
Cloud computing removes that trade-off entirely. With cloud infrastructure, you can scale resources up or down in minutes.
Scalability is most valuable during sudden demand spikes.
When COVID-19 hit, healthcare organizations using cloud platforms could scale their telehealth capacity within hours, for example.
Beyond crisis situations, this flexibility helps you handle everyday fluctuations too:
Hospitals in seasonal destinations can effortlessly handle varying patient loads.
Pediatric clinics can smoothly manage back-to-school surges.
Research institutions can expand computing capacity for time-sensitive studies.
By adapting resources to real-time needs, you can stay agile without breaking your budget.
Cloud scalability keeps operations efficient, responsive, and ready for whatever comes next.
Enhanced interoperability
Healthcare data often ends up in silos.
Lab results are in one system, imaging in another, prescriptions somewhere else.
And physicians waste valuable time piecing together patient information scattered across different platforms.
Cloud computing helps you connect those dots.
Modern cloud platforms are designed for interoperability and enable smooth data exchange and integration across different systems. Key benefits of interoperability in the cloud include:
Reduced medical errors by giving clinicians access to complete patient information
Elimination of duplicate testing through unified data visibility
Faster care delivery as information flows seamlessly between providers and departments
The foundation lies in the technical standards. HL7 and FHIR protocols define how healthcare data moves between systems.
Cloud platforms built around these standards connect easily with other compliant applications, without the need for complex custom integrations.
When physicians have access to accurate, real-time data, clinical decisions improve and patients get more effective treatment.
Workflow automation and operational efficiency
Administrative work eats up time that should go to patient care.
Cloud computing changes that. By automating both administrative and clinical workflows, it reduces manual effort, minimizes errors, and accelerates everyday operations.
Automation delivers impact across multiple workflows, including:
Appointment scheduling and reminders
Claims processing and billing management
Prescription management and lab result delivery
Patient record updates and clinical documentation
Appointment scheduling runs through patient portals, billing happens automatically, and connected systems share data without extra data entry.
The results are measurable.
Healthcare organizations adopting cloud automation report a 67% increase in operational efficiency, freeing staff to focus on higher-value tasks that directly impact patient outcomes.
Automated systems improve accuracy, maintain data integrity, and reduce the risk of human error in critical processes.
When the technology handles the repetitive work, care teams have more time for patients.
Improved patient experience
Patients expect the same digital convenience in healthcare that they get from other services.
They want to book appointments online, see test results instantly, message providers between visits, and manage prescriptions without waiting on hold.
Cloud-based platforms make that possible.
They give patients secure, easy access to their health data and enable real-time communication with providers.
Cloud technology improves the patient experience in several ways:
Online access to medical records and test results
Convenient appointment scheduling and prescription refills
Direct communication through secure patient portals
Cloud infrastructure powers telehealth software, including everything from video calls, secure messaging, to connected devices streaming patient vitals.
This lets clinicians deliver care wherever patients are, not just inside their clinics.
Top cloud-based telehealth and remote monitoring platforms
ExceedPACS – 100% cloud-based PACS/VNA solution with DICOM viewer and disaster recovery built in.
By moving imaging infrastructure to the cloud, you can shrink storage costs, eliminate hardware maintenance, and gain access flexibility.
And as your imaging volumes grow, cloud PACS can scale with that demand and help you avoid the bottlenecks of on-premises systems.
Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS)
CDSS use real-time patient data to push evidence-based recommendations to clinicians.
Cloud enables these systems to leverage vast data stores, advanced analytics, and machine learning models that on-premises systems typically can’t support.
Cloud R&D tools level the playing field, smaller biotechs gain access to compute power they couldn’t afford themselves.
Healthcare analytics and business intelligence
Health systems create mountains of data every day – clinical encounters, billing, supply chains, staffing, and more.
The key is turning that data into insight, not spreadsheets no one ever reads.
Top cloud-based analytics and BI platforms
Snowflake – Cloud data warehouse often used in healthcare for unified analytics layers.
AWS HealthLake – Healthcare-specific data lake that normalizes, indexes, and analyzes patient data across silos.
Databricks – Unified analytics platform (data engineering + machine learning) used in healthcare for predictive analytics and BI.
These tools allow you to combine data from clinical, financial, operational, and patient sources.
You can build predictive models to flag readmission risks, dashboards that show resource misuse, and population health trends.
Healthcare cloud computing: FAQs
Yes – when managed properly, cloud computing can actually improve data security compared to on-premise systems.
Leading cloud providers follow strict healthcare regulations such as HIPAA, GDPR, HL7, and FHIR, ensuring all data handling meets global compliance standards. Data is encrypted both in transit and at rest, meaning it’s protected while being transferred and while stored.
Providers also implement multi-factor authentication, access controls, and continuous monitoring to detect and prevent unauthorized access.
Another advantage is that cloud platforms undergo regular third-party security audits and maintain redundant backups to prevent data loss. This means fewer single points of failure and stronger overall protection.
Healthcare organizations choose deployment models based on their size, security requirements, and operational goals. The main options include:
Public cloud – Shared infrastructure hosted by providers like AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure. Ideal for scalability and cost efficiency but requires strong security configurations.
Private cloud – Dedicated infrastructure for one organization, offering maximum control and customization. Often used by large hospitals or research networks with strict compliance needs.
Hybrid cloud – Combines both models, storing sensitive data privately while running analytics or other workloads publicly. It’s the most common approach in healthcare today.
Community cloud – Shared by multiple organizations with similar regulatory needs, like regional health information exchanges or specialized medical networks.
Multi-cloud – Using several providers at once to improve resilience, avoid vendor lock-in, and tailor workloads to specific strengths.
Each model balances flexibility, control, and cost differently, but all can meet healthcare compliance standards with the right governance and security policies in place.
Cloud technology helps healthcare providers deliver faster, more connected, and more personalized care.
When patient data lives in the cloud, clinicians across departments and facilities can access complete medical histories instantly without delays or missing records. This real-time data access improves diagnostic accuracy and care coordination.
A primary care physician, specialist, and pharmacist can all work from the same record, reducing duplication and ensuring treatment plans stay aligned.
Cloud computing also powers telehealth and remote monitoring, allowing patients to receive care at home through connected devices and video calls with their doctors.
Need a reliable development partner?
Do you want to bring your healthcare system to the cloud but haven’t found the right partner to make it happen?
You’re in the right place.
We’re an EU-based, high-caliber software development company with 13+ years of experience building enterprise-grade digital solutions for clients across healthcare and other regulated industries.
Whether you’re modernizing EHR systems, improving interoperability, or building secure, cloud-native healthcare platforms, we’re confident we can help you do it right.
If you want to learn more, feel free to reach out and we’ll set up a quick call to discuss your needs in more detail.
Mario makes every project run smoothly. A firm believer that people are DECODE’s most vital resource, he naturally grew into his former role as People Operations Manager. Now, his encyclopaedic knowledge of every DECODEr’s role, and his expertise in all things tech, enables him to guide DECODE's technical vision as CTO to make sure we're always ahead of the curve.
Part engineer, and seemingly part therapist, Mario is always calm under pressure, which helps to maintain the office’s stress-free vibe. In fact, sitting and thinking is his main hobby. What’s more Zen than that?
Here, we give you practical guide to testing healthcare software that holds up in the real world while meeting clinical, security and compliance standards.
