RenovoData Weekly Articles

Professionals within the medical industry are faced with new advances in technology that generate more electronic data than ever.  The obligation to meet strict patient privacy and government compliance standards surrounding data protection has intensified with the shift to electronic medical records.  This rapid advancement in digital data growth and government regulations calls for more accountability to protect patient confidentiality through administrative procedures, technology and a thorough offsite data backup and disaster recovery plan.  Consequentially, medical professionals are turning to managed service providers that offer secure offsite backup and disaster recovery consulting capabilities.  These remote backup companies provide the reliability, recovery time objectives and data security required to ensure patient privacy and business continuity.  

Remote backup companies present a broad choice of various cost options according to the amounts and types of data files that need to be stored and protected.  A dependable offsite data backup provider should back up several variations of mission-critical documents and allow an organization to carry out a point-in-time recovery in the event of a disaster.  Even though there are some documents which change on a consistent basis, there are those medical records that are never altered once initially produced.  One case in point:  a radiograph or signed certificate will go unchanged years down the line.  Therefore, it would be unnecessary to store these files through a remote backup solution which backs up at multiple restore points intermittently.

A practical and low cost alternative would be to move all unchanging and infrequently retrieved data to a lower-cost tier within a tiered storage solution.  Consider using an offsite data backup company that provides tiered storage solutions within their disaster recovery services.  This data archiving system stores and protects files that never change, such as e-mails, pictures, signed documents, videos and static medical records like x-rays.  This is a less expensive resolution than storing data on a higher tier that is not essential for rarely-accessed and invariable data.

Businesses are facing many hard-hitting challenges caused by the current economic environment, where technology budgets have become negatively impacted by the credit crunch. According to an article published by the Wall Street Journal in October 2008, 61% of CIOs are currently re-evaluating their budgets, 49% are trying to save money by renegotiating contracts with their vendors, and almost 25% have instituted a hiring freeze - which is a bad sign indicating that many businesses may not have enough staff on hand to complete already started projects on time.  Opportunities for IT cost reduction can be found within key categories where Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) can be reduced, and core areas where remote backup companies enable savings during these hard economic times that many businesses are facing.

The sudden onset of the financial crisis and consequential recession has induced strong growth in IT spending for 2009, causing IT organizations to reevaluate their operating costs and prepare for the worst.   Money is tight and reducing overhead is the key to keeping the doors to the business open.  Globally throughout all industry sectors, IT organizations are searching for ways to operate leaner.  The growth of corporate storage needs and the resulting increased importance of data protection and storage are forcing IT departments to grapple with increased costs and complexities.  By managing an efficient storage environment through outsourcing, centralizing and automating IT functions, organizations will realize a reduction in TCO of storage infrastructure, increased performance and lower overhead.  Hiring a remote backup service providers to handle the operation and maintenance of hardware and software will prove more efficient and cost effective.

A remote backup company assists organizations in achieving a reduction in their TCO through several ways.  Their most immediate means to accomplish this are through eliminating expenses associated with the following:

Hardware and Software.  Includes hardware and software purchases, maintenance and support contracts, training and professional services, upgrades and other software such as virus protection and backup software.

IT Operations.  Components include the costs associated with server deployment, server configuration, network and storage infrastructure, data center power and cooling and other system administration tasks.

Downtime.  Includes costs of restoring services, lost employee productivity and lost revenue.

Business Administration.  These include the labor cost associated with creating orders, obtaining purchase approvals, negotiating vendor contracts and tracking the procurement process.

Tough economic times force downward pressure on IT budgets that require organizations to operate leaner.  When calculating TCO, procurement of assets, IT support, administration, downtime and operation cost are all factors to consider.   Outsourcing a remote backup service provider to uncover the hidden costs and manage IT operations associated with the business can be critical to achieving significant savings as the organization's needs continue to grow.   Eliminating business practices that are significant cost centers for the business, as well as implementing advanced standards of data storage and protection, will have a positive impact on reducing TCO, while inevitably increasing the ROI for the company.