When cloud computing is mentioned, many people immediately think of public cloud software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) offerings available from major vendors like Microsoft and Amazon. These large providers offer any company a wide variety of computing solutions including the ability to obtain virtually limitless storage capacity. The popularity of these products is evident in the number of companies that are migrating systems to the cloud and taking advantage of new services rolled out by providers.

There are environmental costs associated with almost every type of human endeavor. This is certainly the case with cloud computing, although this use of technology can also provide benefits to the world’s environment. Let’s look at the environmental benefits, costs, and how the greening of the cloud can change the equation in the future.

Organizations operating in the U.S. healthcare sphere are subject to data privacy regulations first defined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Failure to adhere to the standards reading the handling of Protected Health Information (PHI) can lead to substantial fines. Financial penalties are administered according to a tiered structure, with maximum fines exceeding one million dollars.