Ultimate Guide To On-Premise Vs. Cloud Services – Which One Is Better?

two female doctors looking at a tablet and laptop

The healthcare landscape has continued to evolve and impact the industry in every aspect of healthcare. The implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act, interoperability among health systems, the rising data needs, and the increased sophistication of cybersecurity crimes have impacted the operations of providers and added a burden to daily operations.

The ever-changing healthcare ecosystem faces rising IT costs, security concerns, or even excessive downtime complicating the provider’s decision to create an on-premise environment or transition its infrastructure to a cloud-based environment.

When deciding on-premise versus cloud infrastructure, it’s important to consider costs, security, and workloads. As we address changing needs in security and the uptick of cyber-attacks, it’s vital to look at some quick statistics. According to Comparitech’s insights, there were 2.75 billion malware attacks based on data from the first six months of 2022. Without a doubt, better security in the ever-changing digital world is a must for many.

Cost-effectiveness for your organization

Just how much does it cost to be an on-premise EHR? In 2017, Gartner published a report stating that through 2020, the shift to the cloud will be the most disruptive force in the IT markets since the beginning of the digital age. What’s more, the report states by 2025, 55% of large enterprises will fully use an all-cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) strategy. According to the Hobson Cobrand Migration Guide, the on-premise cost for periodic hardware is $29,000 using Prime Suite. Also, there are ongoing costs for on-premise internal IT major upgrades at $779, and maintenance releases at $260, for a total of $1,038 for annual release costs. In addition, Prime Suite support and admin for on-premise is $15,577 yearly with a cost of $1,250 a year in server downtime.

What are the primary components needed to function as an on-premise EHR? Some of the parts necessary to function on-premise are IT support and admin (around $15,577 annually).

“Customers reported spending significantly each year for disaster recovery and cyber liability insurance, as well as anti-virus, end-point detection software and monitoring services,” according to the Hobson Co-brand Migration Guide.

Greenway Secure Cloud gives clients the uptime they deserve while reducing the risk of a data breach. There are cost savings available when companies move to the cloud such as fewer annual expenses and costly updates. In the Hobson Cobrand Migration Guide, we note a progressive savings over the five years. While Greenway Secure Cloud does require a sizeable initial investment, over time, the savings are substantial.

Control, security, and flat-fee pricing

Traditionally, practices may struggle with ensuring updates are completed regularly, the budget needed to manage upgrades, or IT staffing needed to manage security needs. With Greenway Secure Cloud, no additional maintenance and security tools are needed and updates are done seamlessly. With the cloud, both overall budget and IT personnel needs are reduced.

There are many ways to leverage technology and shrink rising infrastructure costs for companies. Many areas require capital such as hardware, installation fees, backup, support, and personnel to keep maintenance and security operational. These costs require ongoing fees and changes. The Hobson whitepaper statistics illustrate the tremendous savings accrued with cloud-based services. The five-year cost of ownership for on-premise is nearly $1.5 million compared to Greenway Secure Cloud at $595,974 (the price includes the cost of Prime Suite). That’s nearly 1/3 the costs of on-premise hosting.

Less downtime (statistics for the five-year cost breakdown)

The Potential Impact for the Sample Practice calculator, from the Hobson whitepaper, illustrates the tremendous savings with cloud-based services. The five-year cost of ownership for on-premise versus Greenway Secure Cloud represents a 59% savings. These are the total costs for diverse, secure, and affordable tools in Prime Suite and Greenway Secure Cloud.

Cost and security are not the only factors; the security of Greenway Security Cloud reduces potential breaches and downtime.

With Greenway Secure Cloud fewer time-consuming processes are involved.

“Greenway Insights is the combination of Greenway's skill sets using AWS's services to create a cloud-based data services platform that will create new data insights and healthcare interventions with increased speed, security, and reliability, to advance the breadth and impact of Greenway's products and services,” according to Greenway.

Those practices and clients hoping to achieve compliance regulations urgently need Greenway Secure Cloud. Clients who look to control their records, receive cost-effective storage, and experience less workload will want to take notice as compliance regulations evolve.

Reliable, accessible, and scalable

Greenway Insights increases speed and reliability and pulls together information from all of Greenway’s products and services. The cloud enables businesses to use more automation and standardization, which may result in more scalable solutions.

The security of Greenway Secure Cloud reduces breaches and downtime and fosters a cost-effective environment.

While on-premise EHRs may be more familiar to some, physical servers kept on-site can be much more costly for the initial set-up and ongoing maintenance expenses. A cloud-based EHR is typically less expensive over the lifespan and allows for easy access and sharing of information among multiple providers. Ultimately, the decision to move to the cloud or on-premise; is a personal choice with pros and cons. Only an individual practice can make the best choice for themselves by considering all factors.

Future performance of healthcare systems

Healthcare systems are overloaded in some areas of billing and automation, and a vision of future needs is vital. Cloud-based EHR systems offer a reliable, accessible, scalable, and cost-effective solution but should be weighed with the needs of each organization.

Cloud services do allow for secure and seamless access to patient information from any location. The scalability and cost-effective system make it helpful for many types of businesses. The cloud-based EHR systems and cloud services should be viewed as an investment into the future of healthcare.

Learn more about Greenway's cloud-based solutions