4 Reasons Your Dental Practice Needs Cloud Backup Now

When cloud services first appeared on the tech scene, it was hard for a lot of people to wrap their heads around how the cloud worked or how it could benefit their business. It didn’t, however, take long before most businesses realized that cloud computing, storage, and services had the potential to revolutionize the way we handled data, especially business-critical data. Cloud storage has provided many businesses with the reliability, accessibility, speed, security, flexibility, and efficiency that they need. The only question remains, what’s taking medical and dental practices so long to capitalize on those benefits?

Quick Links

• What is Cloud-Based Backup?
• 5 Benefits of Cloud-Based Backup
• 4 Reasons Your Dental Practice Needs Cloud-Based Backup

What is Cloud-Based Backup?

Cloud-based backup is essentially storing a duplicate of your data remotely via the internet. Typically, these backups are stored at off-site data centers with the greatest levels of physical and digital security. Cloud backup services will often create redundant backups across multiple data centers. Backing up your data at multiple off-site locations helps ensure the safety, security, and availability of your data should there be an emergency at your practice location that compromises your data (e.g. a flood destroys your onsite server).

5 Benefits of Cloud-Based Backup

In addition to the benefit of being able to access your data from anywhere and having a secure off-site location for data storage and backup, cloud-based backup has a few significant advantages.

1. Saves Money

Infrastructure is expensive, as is hiring the tech team you need to keep your hardware and software up-to-date (essential for cybersecurity and HIPAA compliance). Utilizing off-site cloud-based storage allows you to save the money you’d have to invest in equipment to store data onsite and a team to manage your server security.

Additionally, should there be a disaster or equipment failure, replacing equipment and restoring data can be costly. With a cloud-based backup in place, you limit those costs by being able to retrieve and restore data much more quickly.

2. Saves Time and Resources

In addition to saving money, storing your data in the cloud comes with significant time savings. Your team no longer has to worry about running manual backups every day. Most cloud backup services create automatic backups of all your data, in real time. What’s more, the time-consuming work of maintaining and updating the IT infrastructure is done for you, so  you no longer have to address repairs, download the latest patches or spend time on the phone with tech support. Most importantly, you don’t have to worry about the difficult process of trying to recover your data after loss or equipment failure, much less the business interruption during that process.  In fact, you can even set your backup to automatically mirror data on machines in your practice, saving additional time and giving you peace of mind.

3. Improves reliability

Data centers and managed service providers offer the most reliable connections, typically boasting 100% uptime, which means your data is available whenever you need it. With fully redundant power systems, your data center is prepared for emergencies that would be too costly for your dental practice to handle or prepare for on its own. With up-to-date, state-of-the-art, and well-maintained hardware, speed is also typically improved.

4. Improves scalability

As your practice grows, you inevitably need greater storage capacity for your data. When your data is stored in the cloud, your storage capacity can instantly grow as needed, without you investing in more equipment. That means you can invest in your practice and prioritize your patients, knowing your data is accessible, secure and taken care of for you. .

5. Improves security

As with other IT needs, for a dental practice, ensuring your data is secure–and your security measures are HIPAA compliant–is a top priority. HIPAA-secure cloud-based backup means your data is stored and transmitted in a way that adheres to federal regulations and protects your data. Further, with data center storage, you’re assured that there are stringent security policies and protocols in place to protect your assets both physically (controlled and guarded physical access) and digitally(firewalls, virus software, active monitoring).

4 Reasons Your Dental Practice Needs Cloud-Based Backup

Across almost every industry, businesses have been switching to cloud services for the last decade because their reliability and cost savings can’t be beat. But, as with other technology, medical and dental practices have been slow to transition. In addition to the benefits noted above, there are some big reasons for your dental practice to use cloud-based backup.

1. HIPAA compliance

Despite the arrival of HIPAA regulations on the scene in 2003, it wasn’t until 2009 that enforcement was assigned to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights. That means that even though the laws were in place, they previously had no teeth. Now, enforcement has increased and it’s more important than ever that dental practices ensure their adherence to HIPAA regulations. 

2. Collaboration and connection opportunities

This is especially true for dental service organizations (DSO) who may be managing multiple locations. One of the biggest benefits of cloud-based backup and storage is that data can be retrieved and restored from anywhere. Consider the potential for patients who move or are in an emergency situation away from home. Your connected dental practices can pull their data from anywhere, ensuring they get the best care possible from your dental team, wherever they may find themselves.

3. Cost savings

There are few dental practices or DSOs who aren’t looking for ways to save costs. Cloud-based backup provides you with a predictable operating expense vs capital expenditures as you need to update software and hardware. Instead, you have an accessible team  ensuring your hardware and software are up-to-date and in good working order. You save time on tech and on your team.

4. Peace of mind

While we can put a price on hardware, software, and other resources, we can’t put a price on peace of mind. There’s something to be said for not having to worry about:

• Data security
• Equipment failures
• Natural disasters or power outages
• Business interruptions 
• HIPAA compliance security
• Data encryption
• Hardware and software investments
• Keeping your IT up-to-date
• Finding an IT team and IT support for servers
• Data access and reliability

Cloud-based backup is the solution so many businesses are switching to for the benefit of their bottom line. For dental practices, it’s about more than the cost savings. It’s about building patient confidence; it’s about trusting your data is safe and secure; it’s about access and reliability; it’s about the kind of service and solution that can bring your practice into the future and ensure its continuity, even in the face of a catastrophic event.

If you’re ready to talk about how cloud-based backup can improve your practice, reach out to the iCoreConnect team today!