Cloud storage, or storage as a service (SAAS), is definitely the new buzz word in the informatics world. New cloud companies are being formed every day trying to capture their piece of blue sky; and similar to real clouds, each one seems to be unique. But could the use of SAAS be an answer to the strain digital pathology puts on IT and their all ready overtaxed resources?
Zetta, a new Cloud company, just released the results of a survey they did on over 400 IT professionals, with healthcare/medical being in the top five of the industries that responded. In the survey, the most often-cited issues with current storage methods included:
- Limited scalability (53%)
- Limited flexibility (50%)
- Data integrity (43%)
- Data protection (41%)
As a result, nearly half of the respondents (47%) either already were or are planning to use cloud storage. The applications most often planned for include backup (38%), archive (37%), and primary storage (25%). The expected benefits of cloud storage included:
- Lower storage costs (64%)
- Dynamic growth/contraction (61%)
- Ease of use (45%)
- Offsite data storage (43%)
- No more capacity planning (41%)
In a white paper issued by Iron Mountain, titled “Iron Mountain Reduces Medical Storage Costs.” issues that healthcare providers face in today’s data explosion are outlined. The paper states that assuming a provider needs to store approximately 22 TB of medical images over the course of five years, a cloud based solution would produce savings of over 60% compared to an onsite storage alternative. 
The cost savings jumps to 240% if the provider chooses to replicate the onsite storage solution to a secondary location for disaster recovery purposes as mandated in the HIPAA Security Rule (Contingency Plan Standard- section 164.308, and Device and Media Controls Standard- Section 164.310), which Iron Mountain includes at no additional cost as part of their solution. See Fiqure 1 from the white paper.
In addition, the white paper outlines that customers will save with their cloud solution because:
- They avoid all storage-related operations expenses, which make up 86% of total onsite storage costs
- The first year cost is 2x’s less then that of the capital outlay for an onsite storage solution, and 4x’s if an additional solution is purchased to support replication
On a big picture scale, it does not seem that healthcare providers are planning for or considering the impact that digital pathology will have on medical image storage in the near future- much of the talk is still focused on radiology imaging studies. However, current users of digital pathology solutions know what I am talking about as they work to manage all the data that scanners produce.
i-Path Diagnostics offers PathXL™, a novel web-based virtual slide viewing technology and management software for digital pathology with a high performance hosting capacity to provide a cloud-based service to customers. Dr. Peter Hamilton, describes PathXL™ as “…cloud computing for virtual microscopy at its best! PathXL™ offers a unique solution across a range of applications including education, training, competency testing, biomarker research, biobanking, and digital archiving of clinical samples.” Some of iPath’s cloud benefits include:
- Removes the need to purchase dedicated server hardware and employ dedicated staff to manage systems, reducing the cost by as much as 50% per annum.
- Storage and server capacity is all managed off-site in one of i-Path’s dedicated high performance server farms which guarantee up-time, regular backup and disaster recovery plans.
- Extensive storage facilities are available for clients to upload and manage their digital slide archives on-line. This is fully scalable allowing clients to grow their needs accordingly.
- i-Path’s cluster of high performance image servers allows for high volumes of internet traffic without impacting on the speed of delivery. It is resilient where if one server goes down, traffic is routed to another server. By using satellite clusters, dispersed across continents, i-Path have reduced latency of image transmission over distance supporting the sharing of slides and easy collaboration across laboratories, hospitals and or universities.
- It is a highly secure facility, already being used by major Pharmaceutical organizations and Hospitals.
- To read more on iPath’s PathXL cloud technology, click here.
Overall, I believe that SAAS may be “Cloud 9″ for Digital Pathology. If you have an opinion or question about cloud storage, please feel free to comment, our take the Cloud poll. Feedback is always welcome.
