Essay Sample on Economic Benefits of Cloud Computing

Introduction

The success of different business sectors is attributed to their ability to ensure effective operation. Firms in those sectors identify and implement practices which are able to offer superior services at a low cost. For example, with the idea of cloud computing, firms have identified an opportunity through which they can lower their year-end operational costs while at the same improve the quality of services and goods they avail to their customers. An effective cloud computing saves the firm the cost of maintaining existing data server, purchasing hardware, and hiring more workforce. However, it enhances effective coordination with other firms and customer service. Based on these superior benefits associated with cloud computing, it is high time that the Hong Kong Health care sector embrace it. By relocating their IT systems to the clouds, organizations in health sectors will offer high-quality services at the lowest cost. Therefore, there is a need to explore the possible benefits that large health care organizations will realize by moving their servers to the clouds.

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Relocating organizational servers to the clouds enable large health organizations in Hong Kong to reduce the cost of operations. The organizations will not incur the cost of acquiring a new server's infrastructure, experts and consultants to oversee successful management of its data. The organization providing cloud computing services will cover all these costs. In Hong Kong, the government is funding a centralized IT system aimed at ensuring effective service delivery in the health care sector. Through the Electronic Health Record Sharing system, all health organizations will be able to store, access and share data with service provides (Hoeksma, 2009). The system will enable health organizations to provide health services at lower IT costs while enhancing the quality of service delivery. As a result, there would be an increasing market share because of customer convenience. However, all cost on hiring employees, maintenances and securing the necessary infrastructure is met by the government. According to an expert report, the capital cost for the development of the was estimated at HK $1.124 billion between 2010 to 2019 (Hoeksma, 2009). The system also attracted additional recurrent expenditure of HK $ 702 million (Hoeksma, 2009). By relocating to the system, large healthcare organization stands to enjoy a cost-saving equivalent to what the govern incur in running the system.

Secondly, transferring hospital data to the cloud server aids in reducing the cost associated with previous methods used to collect and store data. Hong Kong public hospitals rely heavily on paper documentation to store medical health histories and profile which attracts increased cost through higher budgetary allocation on stationery. However, with cloud computing, all patients are availed at a central server from where the health practitioners thus saving them the trouble of numerous paper documentation. As a result, the hospital would reduce its budgetary allocation required to source the necessary stationery for documenting for patients' information. According to Hong Kong Food and Bureau, resorting to the centralized cloud server for all healthcare will result to an annual cost saving of about HK $ 860 million from the total healthcare expenditure (Hoeksma, 2009). As a result, they would be able to solve prevalent challenges in Hong Kong health sector such as shortage of personnel. The public hospitals require additional 6200 medical staff to maintain its operation (Schoeb, 2016). However, hospitals cannot hire more stuff. Therefore, the amount saved from reducing the cost of operation will be utilized to hire more professional staff.

Despite the economic benefits derived from resorting to cloud server, there exist regulations which might affect the ability of the organization to operate effectively. A good case is the Hong Kong Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance. The regulation required health organizations to ensure personal privacy by limiting access by other parties (Microsoft, 2019). However, with cloud computing, other health organization can access data from other service providers. Also, it denies organizations complete control over their patient's data and profile. Such an idea might scare away patients who prefer the utmost privacy of their health record. They might opt for alternative service providers who have total control over their organization data and can guarantee complete privacy. Such a situation will force the health organizations to resort to ways of increasing public acceptance. In this case, will invest in an intense marketing campaign to increase awareness on the ability of the company to maintain privacy despite cloud computing. However, the marking campaign comes the additional cost of operation which will impact on the firms' profitability. In the end, the firms will not be able to increase their monetary allocation for hiring more qualified medical personnel.

Conclusion

Based on the above arguments, it is clear that Hong Kong health care providers should relocate their data to a cloud server. Such a move will lead to economic benefits such as low cost of operations, increased market share owing efficient services, cost saving, and increased market share. However, with the existing regulations, the organization might fail to enjoy the benefits of increased market share. Large organizations recording increased patient flow will report a decline owing to privacy challenges of the new system.

References

Hoeksma, J. (2009). Hong Kong Plans E-health Record. Digital Health. Retrieved from https://www.digitalhealth.net/2009/03/hong-kong-plans-e-health-records/

Microsoft (2019). Hong Kong: Cloud in Health Care. Retrieved from https://www.microsoft.com/en-sg/apac/trustedcloud/hongkong-healthcare-service.aspx

Schoeb, V. (2016). Healthcare Services in Hong Kong and its Challenges. The Role of Health Professionals within a Social Model of Health. Research Gate, 51-58