Microsoft Cloud Technologies in Healthcare 2022
Part of a Public Cloud Providers Series on Adoption and Early Performance

Cloud Solutions for Healthcare—A Framework

The graphics below aim to help healthcare organizations who are interested in moving to the cloud become familiar with the various service layers (including infrastructure, platforms, and software applications), the technology associated with each layer, the surrounding professional services, and where interviewed Microsoft customers have focused their efforts so far.

Leading Clients Pleased with Functional Solutions, Partnering Approach; Issues with Delivery of New Technology, Keeping All Promises

Microsoft receives solid marks from interviewed clients. Product capabilities are typically not oversold, and the available cloud solutions are stable. Some respondents note satisfaction with the progress Microsoft has made with their cloud platform in the last couple of years, and several see Microsoft as a partner, describing the vendor as proactive, fair minded, and accessible. Microsoft is rated lowest for their delivery of new technology and their track record of keeping promises. Respondents feel there is more work to be done, especially with Microsoft Teams functionality. Clients also want to see Microsoft better set realistic expectations for development and meet those expectations in the promised time frame. Additionally, some are concerned about whether Microsoft’s cloud offering is worth the cost, citing unclear licensing, confusing billing processes, and high costs.

Core IT Operations the Foundation of Most Microsoft Cloud Technologies Deployments

Core IT operations is the predominant use case of Microsoft Cloud Technologies. Healthcare organizations use Azure for—among other things—virtual desktops, a virtual data center, long-term storage of digital pathology images, computing infrastructure for AI/ML projects (requiring huge bursts of memory), and the computing environment to run their acute care EMR platform and many other mission-critical applications. Another common use case is patient/member engagement. On this front, organizations use Microsoft for the digital front door (through business applications such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Teams); enhanced communications and experience management for providers, brokers, and employers; and mobile vaccine registration initiatives. Multiple organizations also use Microsoft tools for product development, including development of mobile applications and other tools that help providers or payers respond to COVID-19, shift patients from inpatient settings to long-term facilities, and predict patient volumes.

Key Outcomes: Improved Efficiency, Cost Savings (in Specific Areas) & Better Care Coordination

Efficiency is a major outcome identified by the majority of respondents. For example, organizations have been able to get new hires running on virtual desktops much faster, quickly scale their resources to meet evolving digital health solutions’ demands (e.g., a COVID-19 vaccine registration app), and achieve rapid, nimble development cycles. While moving a significant portion of IT infrastructure to the cloud is typically not a cost-saving measure, most interviewed organizations have seen savings in targeted areas. For example, those using Azure for clinical or genomics research and AI/ML computations indicate that Azure, with its usage-based cost model, is a less expensive approach than building and maintaining an on-premises infrastructure. Some organizations also achieve better visibility into true IT costs, so adjustments can be made and costs can be limited around procuring, implementing, and maintaining IT systems. More than one-third of respondents use Microsoft Cloud Technologies for care coordination. One organization’s care team leverages clinical data in Teams to more quickly and easily access the information needed to provide and coordinate care. Another organization’s clinical leadership team uses clinical dashboards built in Teams to shift resources to the areas of greatest need and ensure team members are on the same page.

Leading Customers Chose Microsoft Due to Existing Investment/Expertise; AWS a Formidable Competitor, Google Less Often Considered but Sometimes Used as Secondary Solution

For this research, KLAS also asked Microsoft Cloud customers about their selection process and considerations. Many chose Microsoft because of their existing experience with and knowledge of Microsoft. In many cases, they began by moving to Office 365 and other business productivity applications and expanded from there. Software bundling with Azure, strong security capabilities, and Microsoft’s breadth of capabilities were also common purchasing factors.

This report’s limited sample suggests AWS is a formidable competitor to Microsoft; 75% of interviewed Microsoft clients either strongly considered AWS or (in one case) use AWS as a secondary cloud platform. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is less often considered—half of respondents did not consider GCP at their time of selection. However, it is worth noting that all interviewed clients made their selections over three years ago, and the GCP offering has since matured. Three respondents use GCP as a secondary cloud platform.

Leading Clients Plan to Expand Cloud Use

About This Report

Each year, KLAS interviews thousands of healthcare professionals about the IT products and services their organizations use. These interviews are conducted using a standard quantitative evaluation, and the scores and commentary collected are shared online and in reports like this one so that other healthcare professionals can benefit from their peers’ experiences. To supplement the data gathered with this standard evaluation, KLAS also created various supplemental evaluations that delve deeper into the most pressing questions facing healthcare technology today.

As cloud offerings cover both software and services, this report draws on a hybrid set of quantitative evaluation questions from our standard software and services evaluations. KLAS also collected answers to supplemental research questions about customers’ selection processes, use cases, outcomes/value realized, obstacles (if any), and future plans for the cloud.

Healthcare organizations interviewed for this report come from a Microsoft-provided list of “leading customers”; as a result, this research is meant to convey insights on only a subset of the healthcare cloud market and is not representative of the market or the Microsoft Azure customer base as a whole. The number of unique responding organizations is given in the chart below.

Sample Sizes

Unless otherwise noted, sample sizes displayed throughout this report (e.g., n=16) represent the total number of unique customer organizations interviewed for a given vendor or solution. However, it should be noted that to allow for the representation of differing perspectives within any one customer organization, samples may include surveys from different individuals at the same organization. The table below shows the total number of unique organizations interviewed for each vendor or solution as well as the total number of individual respondents.

Some respondents choose not to answer particular questions, meaning the sample size for any given vendor or solution can change from question to question. When the number of unique organization responses for a particular question measuring performance is less than 15, the score for that question is marked with an asterisk (*) or otherwise designated as “limited data.” If the sample size is less than 6, no score is shown. Note that when a vendor has a low number of reporting sites, the possibility exists for KLAS scores to change significantly as new surveys are collected.