A Critical Review of Cloud Computing Adoption, Data Security Concerns, and Impact in the Healthcare Landscape

In recent years, cloud computing has become the buzzword in a lot of industries including healthcare. Cloud computing can be simplified as a computation infrastructure that can be accessed on-demand with high availability and uptime through networks. Especially after the outbreak of Covid-19, the growth in adopting cloud computing has shown an exponential rise. This shows how cloud computing can be very useful to mitigate certain problems during a pandemic outbreak such as providing telehealth support, automation in healthcare management systems, offering online consultations, etc., without the need to show up in person to receive physical treatment except purchasing medicine. Storage and data security as well as privacy is the most detrimental factor that delays the acceptance of cloud solutions for healthcare. This also addresses the issues that come with data availability in cloud storage. With the advent of big data, migration to clouds has become more challenging. Therefore, this paper reviews the adaptation of cloud computing in healthcare as well as the data security concerns related to cloud storage. Additionally, cloud computing characteristics, deployment options and cloud service providers are discussed and compared. Concretely, this paper aims to discuss and explore existing research and works on cloud solutions for healthcare security, strategies, and the impact of cloud computing in the context of healthcare which provides a foundation for medical practitioners, organizations, and specialists for future studies.