Hybrid Cloud for Healthcare Data Sharing and Mobile Access: An Architectural Overview

A hybrid cloud computing architecture that places the mobile device or thin clients first is the logical choice especially in regions with low fixed broadband but high mobile penetration rates. The hybrid cloud model combines the benefits of computing resource elasticity in the public cloud whilst maintaining control of sensitive data and mission-critical applications mainly in a private cloud infrastructure. One industry that stands to benefit from extending mobile computing with hybrid cloud infrastructure is the healthcare industry where clinicians need the ability to access healthcare data from different locations and across multiple devices. This paper identifies a hybrid cloud architecture to support mobile device access and satisfy specific business requirements using the case of a selected hospital in Ghana. In the design of the hybrid cloud architecture the functional and non-functional viewpoints are considered using a case study where the selected hospital is used to conceptually define the requirements and set-up of a hybrid cloud architecture. The case study approach is used to illustrate the practical challenges and limitations for a hybrid cloud architecture in a developing country. The suitability of the design was validated using the metrics of availability, reliability, response time and throughput.