Why Qumulo for the Healthcare Industry?

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    The modern healthcare sector is drowning in unmanaged and unstructured data. The amount of data produced by hospitals, insurance companies, and other healthcare providers has grown exponentially in recent years. This is largely due to the growing use of electronic medical records (EMR) systems which are now standard practice for most healthcare organisations.

    EMRs generate a huge number of patient files that can quickly become useless if not properly managed; the current move towards telemedicine has only exacerbated this.

    Today, approximately 30% of the world’s data volume is being generated by the healthcare industry. By 2025, the compound annual growth rate of data for healthcare will reach 36%. That’s 6% faster than manufacturing, 10% faster than financial services, and 11% faster than media & entertainment.

    While this data can be essential to medical advancement and effective healthcare, it is only useful if providers have rapid, secure access to that data across multiple devices.

    That’s where Qumulo is making the difference.

    What is Qumulo?

    Qumulo is a hybrid cloud file storage system well-suited to revolutionise healthcare data storage and retrieval. The secret to Qumulo’s success: software-defined data management that lets organisations store the vast quantities of rich media created by today’s medical devices in a way that can be easily accessed from anywhere at any time. This allows for rapid insight into patient conditions or finding an x-ray you need to review.

    Qumulo takes advantage of modern, low-cost commodity hardware components found in server infrastructure (CPUs, GPUs, SSDs) which can be deployed quickly anywhere across a distributed network architecture.

    Combined with patent-pending software that leverages the latest OS features like Docker and Linux Containers for isolation, Qumulo is able to deliver unprecedented file storage performance and scale.

    As a distributed hybrid cloud file system, Qumulo offers the benefits of the cloud to healthcare organisations — without having to build or maintain their own infrastructure. Qumulo can be installed at any location, whether it’s on-premise in a data centre, in an edge computing environment like a remote branch office, or even within VLANs inside public clouds. This distributed approach is especially attractive for healthcare organisations with complex IT infrastructures.

    At the same time, Qumulo offers significant flexibility and choice of deployment models — all without requiring costly forklift upgrades or forklift migrations to a public cloud.

    The bonuses Qumulo brings to the healthcare industry

    Digital transformation in healthcare is no easy feat as aforementioned. But Qumulo boasts several benefits that specific to the healthcare industry that make them an ideal partner when embarking on your digital transformation as healthcare organisation, including:

    • Fast, reliable data access: Fast access to patient data when needed (access time in microseconds, not seconds or minutes). Ability to store any type of medical file in a single place with ease. This includes documents like x-rays and CT scans, videos taken during patient procedures, and even photos taken by healthcare workers.
    • Acceleration of the journey to the cloud: The Qumulo platform can eliminate the ‘cold storage’ problem — where high-value data is stored on slower, cheaper disks. With Qumulos software-defined intelligence and built-in search capabilities, healthcare organisations are able to accelerate their journey to the cloud by leveraging all of their existing infrastructures without having to migrate cold files into a separate environment.
    • Simplification of data management and storage: Healthcare providers using Qumulo are able to simplify their data management and storage strategies by leveraging Qumulo’s ability to store petabytes of information without requiring separate expensive infrastructure.
    • Increased productivity: Hospitals are facing challenges in terms of increased workflow, lack of space due to the influx of patient files being generated every day, limited time for searching through potential cases/diseases, and the inability to meet current privacy regulations. Qumulo’s secure data storage solutions help to ensure that patient information is always available, easily searchable, and compliant with various healthcare industry regulations.
    • Increased access: Qumulo enables healthcare organisations to share data securely with patients, doctors, and other medical professionals using a cloud-based solution that provides the highest levels of security by leveraging existing permissions and authentication. With benefits such as greater collaboration between caregivers for improved patient care, reduced turnaround time on treatment decisions, increased revenue opportunities, and better risk management, Qumulo provides healthcare organisations with the data needed to provide exceptional service.
    • Safeguarding patient data and ensuring compliance: HIPAA compliance and FIPS 140-compliant encryption for data at rest and in transit. Flexible access control with role-based controls such as “view only”.

    Find the Qumulo solution that’s right for you

    Qumulo offers multiple innovative data storage and access solutions, but the right solution isn’t necessarily one that keeps up with all the latest healthcare tech trends but is one that aligns with your organisation’s specific requirements. While those requirements will be specific for your business, there are some common factors to consider:

    • Time: How quickly does your information need to be accessible and how quickly do you need your new storage solution to be up and running? Qumulo provides a quick and easy setup process that can be completed in a matter of hours.
    • Cost: Cost is king when it comes to most technology shifts. The most advanced data storage in the world isn’t going to be of any use if you don’t have the budget for it. Qumulo offers a range of flexible and affordable storage options that will fit your budget without compromising on operability.
    • Security: How the data used by healthcare providers is stored and used is governed by a range of regulations. The storage solution you choose should meet or exceed these regulations. Qumulo’s data protection features are unparalleled, meeting HIPAA compliance standards and offering data encryption and secure data retention capabilities.
    • People power: The need to be able to access data in a timely manner means that storage devices are located near the users who rely on them. Qumulo’s innovative distributed technology can be configured for localised high-performance, allowing you to keep your most important files close at hand while maintaining accessibility across the organisation.

    Making Qumulo work for you

    As we mentioned, healthcare data is only useful if it can quickly be searched and accessed and the Qumulo solution that works best is the one that aligns with your organisation’s specific requirements.

    Nexstor can help you find that solution! Instead of dedicating yet more time and resources to discovering those specific requirements, and potentially getting the wrong solution, partnering with Nexstor offers a much easier path. We can help you determine what solution is optimal for your organisation, show you how to install and configure it properly for the best performance and offer ongoing support as needed.

    To find out how Nexstor and Qumulo can help revolutionise your approach to healthcare data storage, contact us today.