The Open Cloud

One of the areas that is receiving a lot of interest from friends and clients is the idea of using the open cloud for projects.

There are many misconceptions of the open cloud. For one, people hear the word “open” and immediately think it’s not secure, which is as far from the truth as it can be.

Open in this context is similar to the ‘open’ in open source software in that the approach allows multiple vendors and developers to build systems to a particular standard while having the ability to customize as needed. Additionally, the open cloud approach allows for interoperability between disparate organizations, which can play a huge role in organizations that need to work together.

One of the industries that has seen a fairly large uptick in interest in the open cloud approach is the healthcare industry. While I can’t say for sure, I believe many in the healthcare industry are looking for any technology that can help them meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.

Scott Megill, the CEO of Coriell Life Sciences, points to the Affordable Care Act as a driver for the adoption of open cloud technologies. In an article titled Turning Healthcare Vision into Reality with Cloud, he writes:

With more patients potentially entering the system, the number of patient medical and history records will rapidly soar. These records need to be stored, organized, analyzed, and instantly accessible for medical researchers, physicians and healthcare insurance providers — all at minimum administrative costs. This is where open cloud technology – providing the needed interoperability, collaboration, transparency and most importantly, the security – comes to the rescue.

Emphasis mine.

With open cloud technology, healthcare companies (or any company) can build their own cloud platform while making it available to partners and other organizations to be able to collaborate with.

How has your organization been using – or thinking about using – open cloud technology?

Image Credit: Cloud passing by.

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.