Cloud Computing Knowledge in Healthcare
Cloud computing services have been considered as one of the paradigms used for innovations which have been offering provisions to users with the on-demand access to the shared pool of resources of computing which are configurable such as the data storage, servers and the applications (Grance, 2011). Cloud computing possesses features which are very unique some of which are as stated here below.
- On-demand self-services
- Pooling of resources
- Network access that is very broad
- The feature of the rapid elasticity
- Services which are measured.
These features argued in many ways through which they can enhance traditional in-house of the information in the health Technology (Dasma, 2018). The approaches have been applied in Hospitals and clinics. Many researchers have claimed that the Services of IT are delivered via the cloud computing paradigms by offering provisions of a lot of benefits such as those of healthcare that may include improving the use of IT resources flexibility, high availability of all the infrastructures of the IT that addresses the main demands of health services which may be changing every day and lastly are the low upfront investments and cost of maintenance of IT that has been used by health industries. In this research the aims is rethinking on the meaning of Cloud computing for the healthcare where the reliance is on the existing cloud computing services that are in practice and aims is generation of insights to the phenomenon fo the IT research in the health field. The following research questions should help one focus on the research (Jararweh, 2016).
- What are the properties which are relevant with regards to cloud computing for all the services delivered to the healthcare?
- What are some of the specific meaning of the healthcare properties?
To understand the two research questions the attention was drawn from the data structured with answering it in the literature review and some experts were interviewed with reference to the development of the Cloud computing service for the healthcare (Gupta, 2017).
Cloud computing is simply an innovation for most healthcare organizations. In healthcare industry there are three major types of innovations observed.
- Innovation that focuses on the manner where clients can access their health care and the related fund services when need be.
- Innovation that applies technology in improving the services and products of care
- Innovation that is used for generation of models of business
Cloud computing has provided further three service models named as Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and where all of the three models all of them are web-based. Cloud computing can be termed to be delivering the IT resources which are said to be fundamental such as concept of processing, data storage which is achieved by the third model service which is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and other platforms which work together with tools such as programming languages, libraries that has offered provisions to users with regards to developing and deploying the said or needed software where the model service applied is the Platform as a Service (PaaS). Cloud computing have been known for providing the ready-to-use software applications which are able to run efficiently in the infrastructures of cloud computing services as provides by the open use of such service in the general public.
Cloud computing has relied on different models for deployment in offering provisions of Information Technology Services. In the public cloud , cloud computing services infrastructures has provided for open use of such to be applied and used in general public. In the private company infrastructure the cloud is provisioned in the manner that there will be like use of single organization or organizations groups who have a policy and a contract with the vendor. Lastly is that the hybrid cloud can be a combination of two or more mentioned preceding models for deployment. In the public clouds if there exist in the off premises of the users of the cloud, private and clouds in the community may exist on the or off the existing premises. The research on cloud computing services applied the concept of aiming at organizing all the knowledge about the cloud computing and it conceptualization with reference to Healthcare.
Non-functional Requirements
Non-functional requirements defines the overall qualities or the attributes of the resulting system. They are applied by placing restrictions on the services or the developed products, the process of development and thus specifying the constraints which are external that must be met by the product. Some of the examples that cloud computing services should meet are such as the safety, usability, security, reliability and the requirements such as performance (Velusamy, 2009).
In the choosing of all the non-functional requirements the first thing that should be ensured is that data is protected from all the access that are not authorized. In case Healthcare opts to choose any of the cloud computing models then it is their mandate to know who to give the access to the protected data. Conventionally it is considered as one of non-functional requirement as will not specify the system functionality and its supposed to provided when stating the requirements. The sytem is therefore designed in the manner that the users must identify themselves in cases when they want to login using their names and passwords. It is only the users who have access to cloud computing service will have access to the data in the system.
Figure 1 Furps Non Functional Requirements
In the cloud computing service the first non-functional requirements to be considered as explained here below.
- Product Requirements where there is specification of the desired characteristics that a major system or its subsystem may be possessing. Most Non-Functional Requirements in Cloud computing services always specifies the constraints with regards to the behaviors of system doing the operations. When one specify the product requirements, it is supposed to be done in a precise manner and thus it should be quantifies where it will ease the performance an capacity. In other cases it may be difficult when quantifying and thus stated as informal thus the usability requirements (Devata, 2016).
- The other requirements is that of the source code requirements where the vendors of Cloud computing services such as the SaaS may require some portability requirements which may affect the design of the CC system.
- There are situations for critical systems requirements where the CC system failure may cause significant physical, economic and much more the human damages to organizations or to people. The three principals of systems which are critical in Cloud computing in health care are such as the business, mission and safety critical systems respectively. The non-functional requirements must have constraints which must be relevant to the mentioned critical systems.
- Reliability. These are constraints which runs on the run-time system behaviors. The two considered headings in this case will be availability and the rate of the system failure.
- Performance. These are constraints which majors on the operation so the system speed.it may consider the following requirements in Software as a Service model in cloud computing that is the response, throughput and timing respectively.
- Security- this may include backing up, access permissions allowing external communications with restrictions.
- Usability. This is concerned with the specifications of the interfaces of the user and how he or she interacts with the system. When there are well structured in the cloud the user manuals and error messages in information may help in facilitating the interfaces which are consistent thus enhancing usability.
Cloud computing has been applied in the current world as many people have been considering storing their data in the cloud. It has successfully integrated well to the companies and thus most of them saving a lot to such costs that used to be applied for maintaining the physical systems in the company in terms of expert and hardware maintenance. Cloud computing has rapidly led to technology growing in to a very high late. In cloud storage there are three major service models where one choses which suits the organization before they migrate and adopt such technology. The three are IaaS, PaaS and SaaS respectively.
Infrastructure as a Service is service model which the cloud services vendors always use virtualization tech in delivering all the scalable computing resources such as servers and networks as well as the storage to their customers and clients. It has some features such as being highly scalable to all available resources, the cost always depends on the consumption, there is an enterprise-grade infrastructure and lastly is that there is multitenant architecture (Sam, 2018).
Pros of IaaS
- It is very flexible and dynamic model wise
- The cost can be effective in terms of paying as one can do the go pricing
- It is easy due to deployment of automated hardware’s (SysGen, 2013).
Platform as a service. This is where a platform is offered by the inbuilt software’s with components & tools that are used by developers in creating, customizing, testing and launching applications. PaaS is simply the framework that is used for creation of software’s.
- The built-in software’s are highly scalable in the manner that they can be available to the multitenant.
- company policies have been automated
- Amount of coding time has been reduced
- It may allow easy time to migrate to hybrid cloud.
- The expenses will be reduced in terms of creation, test and launch of applications
SaaS (Software as a Service) is the most common category of most applied cloud computing service model. In SaaS it offers users with access to the software in the cloud and thus users will not need to have to download and install the applications of SaaS in the local devices and this will lead to them being in need of plugins.
Advantages of SaaS
- There is no cost of hardware’s
- The setup costs initialized at the beginning is not there
- Upgrades are automatic
- There is compatibility of cross-devices.
- Model of the pay-as-you is applied.
- There is scalability
- Easy to customize
Software development lifecycle is that process that must be followed by the software industry in designing, developing and testing the software quality. The main aim is designing, developing and testing the software with the aim of producing software of high quality and that within the specifies budget and much more within the estimated time given in the project schedule preparation.
The classical and good example of predictive approach is that of the waterfall model that follows set of phases flowing in a definable manner (Johnson, 2015). It is usually presented from the requirements- Designing-constructing-integrating-testing-install and maintenance.
Pros and Cons of Predictive approach.
Pros |
Cons |
It is very easy to understand the sequence of steps and thus making it very easy to follow. |
In the predictive SDLC one cannot work on the software working until the last phase of the software development has been finalized. |
Predictive SDLC has allowed the approaches be very easy when managing as each and every stage has its deliverables and given timeline. |
It is advisable when building complex projects which are object-oriented. |
It has clearly defines phases where each phase is processes each stage at a time (Wileys, 2008). |
In this approach it involves breaking the project of the software to be implemented in to smaller divisions or components over a time that is undetermined by allowing the process to be flexible in path directions and staying within the course of the project. Some examples of adaptive methodologies are such as the use of Agile Software Development methodology, SCRUM, Extreme Programming and others. (Krishnax, 2014)
Pros and Cons of Adaptive Approach
PROS |
CONS |
Adaptive approach may allow transparency when implementing such project. |
it may demand for user involvement in extensive manner and thus taking a lot of the user time |
There is early delivery as the components are easy to develop |
It may involve a lot of requirements to emerge and thus evolving during the project lifetime |
It focuses on the requirements of the users. |
Testing of software in Adaptive approach must be integrated all through the lifecycle |
It can be used for generating very high quality software’s. |
Adaptive Software Development Lifecycle approach will be the best method to be applied by health care in their project of migrating to cloud based solutions. There will be extensive involvement of employees working in the healthcare when implementing the system. System completeness will be very key by checking if the user requirements are met in each and every stage unlike in predictive SDLC approach where they can only test the system after the final stage. This has helped in developing of the systems in rapid manner as the system does some speculation and iterate the requirements for you.
References
Dasma, P. (2018). Provisioning of healthcare service in cloud. Information and Communication Technology, 259–268.
Devata, S. (2016). Modeling Non-Functional Requirements in Cloud Hosted Application Software Engineering. The Seventh International Conference on Cloud Computing, GRIDs, and Virtualization (pp. 3-17). Mosco: Pressico .
Grance, M. (2011). National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST definition of cloud computing, 06-27.
Gupta, V. (2017, June 02). VP Advanced Services and Leader Healthcare Practice (East). Retrieved from Cisco Cloud Computing in Healthcare: https://www.cisco.com/c/en_in/about/knowledge-network/cloud-computing.html
Jararweh, Q. (2016). Simulation Modelling Pract Theory. Multi-tier cloud infrastructure support for reliable global health awareness system, 45-57.
Johnson, D. (2015). Differences between predictive and adaptive software methodologies. Waterfall or Agile? , 12-17.
Krishnax, V. (2014, June 10). Principles of Pricing. Retrieved from Cambrige University: https://myassignmenthelp.com/free-samples/pros-and-cons-of-adaptive-and-predictive-sdlc
Sam, S. (2018). What’s the Difference? IaaS vs. PaaS vs. SaaS:, 1-9.
SysGen, G. (2013). SysGen Experience IT. The Pros and Cons of Cloud vs in House Servers, 7-11.
Velusamy, D. (2009). Organizational Requirements Engineering. Chapter 9, Non-functional Requirements , 3-11.
Wileys, H. (2008). ASD. Running an agile software development project , 1-9.