Cloud services for healthcare, without breaking clinical operations
Cloud is not a hosting decision. It is an operating model decision. In healthcare, the only acceptable migration is one that improves resilience, security, and cost control while protecting day-to-day clinical workflow.
Executive summary
- Reduce risk from ageing server estates, patch gaps, and “unknown” systems no one wants to touch.
- Improve resilience with right-sized HA/DR patterns that are actually tested.
- Modernise integration and data access safely, without “big bang” replacement programmes.
- Make ownership explicit: who patches, who monitors, who restores, and who signs off.
What we mean by “cloud” in a hospital
Healthcare organisations rarely move everything. The reality is hybrid: on-premises clinical systems, national services, vendor-hosted platforms, and cloud workloads coexisting. The win is not “lift and shift”. The win is reducing operational fragility and cost while improving security and recovery.
Azure
Microsoft’s cloud platform is a natural fit for M365-heavy environments and supports modern security patterns (identity, device management, and policy-driven control). We design Azure landing zones that are pragmatic for healthcare: clear network segmentation, auditability, and an operating model your team can actually run.
Amazon Web Services
AWS can be a strong option when you need specific managed services, global reach, or an ecosystem that fits your existing tooling. We help you choose intentionally, not by default, and keep the design supportable for internal teams and vendors.
The problem we see everywhere: the “forgotten server” estate
In public and private hospitals across New Zealand, the UK, and Asia, the pattern is the same: critical services running on old Windows Server builds, minimal documentation, staff turnover, and an untested recovery plan. Teams are understandably cautious because one wrong change can break a clinical workflow.
Lifecycle reality check (Windows Server)
- Windows Server 2012 R2 has already reached end of extended support (no routine security updates).
- Windows Server 2016 reaches end of extended support in January 2027.
- Windows Server 2019 reaches end of extended support in January 2029.
- Windows Server 2022 reaches end of extended support in October 2031.
A healthcare cloud strategy that survives reality
A safe migration programme starts with architecture and governance, not tooling. We typically work in these steps:
- Discover and classify: what runs where, what is truly critical, and what can fail safely.
- Define target patterns: network segmentation, identity, logging, backup, and DR tiers.
- Sequence migration: move the low-risk workloads first, prove the operating model, then tackle the clinical core.
- Test recovery: backups do not matter until you can restore under pressure.
- Operational handover: runbooks, monitoring expectations, and vendor responsibilities in writing.
Credibility anchor: TrakCare on Azure (MercyAscot, 2020)
In 2020, we helped architect and host an InterSystems TrakCare environment on Microsoft Azure for MercyAscot. The goal was simple: reduce on-premises burden while keeping clinical performance stable and predictable. That experience still shapes how we approach cloud in hospitals: cautious sequencing, clear ownership, and designs that teams can support long after go-live.
Where we help
- Cloud readiness assessments for hospital and vendor estates
- Azure landing zones and secure network patterns for healthcare
- Migration planning with HA/DR and backup/restore validation
- Clinical application hosting strategy (including InterSystems platforms)
- Operational runbooks, handover, and vendor responsibility models
Next step
If you’re planning a migration, dealing with an ageing server estate, or want a pragmatic cloud target architecture that your team can actually operate, we can sanity check your approach quickly.