The notion of a Cloud First policy has its origins in work by the US Federal Government CIO Vivek Kundra and is one of the cornerstones of Kundra’s 25-point plan to reform federal information technology management, published in 2010. In the report outlining that plan, Kundra explained the Cloud First mandate as follows: “When evaluating options for new IT deployments, OMB will require that agencies default to cloud-based solutions whenever a secure, reliable, cost-effective cloud option exists.” The US Cloud First policy was not merely forward looking though, it also included a requirement that “[e]ach Agency CIO will be required to identify three ‘must move’ services and create a project plan for migrating each of them to cloud solutions and retiring the associated legacy systems.” A number of other countries have implemented Cloud First policies, including the UK and Australia, and we also see government departments formulating Cloud First policies, such as the New Zealand Fire Service. One technology consulting firm even called Cloud First “The New Normal.”

That is a good place to pick up the conversation with Richard. In the first video clip you can hear Richard explain that the HSE Cloud First Policy creates a presumption that new services are deployed in the cloud, and in his words “turns on the head the principles that had been there before where on premise solutions would have been what people would have wanted to go with first.” Richard also shares that it’s critical that the Cloud First approach needs to have an appropriate starting point, but also recognize that as a whole, “the health system needs to go to the cloud, because it can’t afford not to.”

In a second video clip, Richard gives an overview of how the Cloud First Policy recently drove the cloud based implementation of a new epilepsy care system, that includes the genomic information of the epilepsy patient in their cloud based patient record. That new system allows care providers to have far more information about the patient, enabling different treatments based on unique genetic characteristics of each patient as well as information that the patient inputs into the record. Richard also talks about the importance of communicating a Cloud First Policy internally to healthcare providers and technologists, but also externally to patients and the public more generally so that they understand that the policy actually will improve the security of their health information and ultimately lead to better care outcomes. That is an important shift in perception that many largescale users of cloud (like HSE Ireland) have already undergone, but to fully recognize the value of cloud computing in healthcare we will need to work together to make sure that perception shift to becoming more comfortable with the cloud happens at the patient level as well.

We want to again thank Richard for his leadership in this area and his willingness to share his vision beyond the EU Cloud in Health Council. For more information on cybersecurity in health download the e-book here.

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One of the urgent challenges Japan faces is its aging population. Approximately 30 percent of the population is either 65 or close to it—and that percentage is expected to continue rising rapidly. Add to the equation that 70 percent of the total healthcare costs for an individual occur after age 70 and you can imagine the pressure Japan is under to find ways to take care of all its elderly efficiently and cost-effectively.

Health organizations in Japan and the world over need to meet seemingly infinite needs for health services with finite resources. So they’re digitally transforming to provide better care to more people at lowers costs in new ways. With the power and intelligence of our trusted cloud, they’re engaging their patients to get—and stay—healthy, empowering their care teams to be more productive and collaborate across the health ecosystem, optimizing their clinical and operational effectiveness to drive better diagnoses and treatment—and ultimately transforming the care continuum.

New possibilities for improving care and efficiency are brought about by the capability to connect people and data virtually everywhere with cloud services. And the high-performing computing power of the cloud means more data can analyzed faster than ever and turned into insight care teams can use to enable better health outcomes for individuals and populations.

As Neil Jordan wrote recently, a healthier, more sustainable future for societies depends on scaling the insight and art of medicine. Read his blog to learn about how health organizations are using the cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) to do so—saving babies’ lives and catching preventable eye disease earlier, as just a couple examples.

At Japan CityNext Forum, we’ll also share how governments are digitally transforming to advance their mission. For example, public safety organizations are finding they need the storage and computing power of the cloud to connect and analyze the unprecedented amount of data being collected by body-worn cameras, surveillance video, devices, sensors, people, and more. With cloud solutions, they can gain real-time insight that can help them combat crime and terrorism. And they can scale and pay as they go for the digital resources they need.

As the world undergoes the fourth industrial revolution, health and government organizations need to take advantage of the cloud to digitally transform. But they will only do so if they can use a cloud they can trust. At Microsoft, we’re deeply committed and heavily invested in an end-to-end approach to supporting the privacy, security, compliance, and resilience needs of health and government organizations. Not all clouds are created equal, so check the facts on your key concerns and learn how we earn our customers’ trust in our cloud services for health and for government.

At the Japan CityNext Forum, we look forward to discussing with health and government leaders how we can work together to ensure that the benefits of digital transformation outweigh the risks so we can empower everyone on the planet to achieve more.

You can learn more about how your health or government organization can digitally transform on Microsoft in Health and Microsoft in Government.

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At the recently concluded Asia Partner Summit in Bali, I had the opportunity to engage with our partners about our Microsoft CityNext initiative. It was great to see that a large number of our partners in Asia are using platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics, Azure, and Office 365 to build solutions that address key challenges faced by city leaders and citizens. Some of the key themes I shared with the audience at the Partner Summit were about issues that Asian cities are facing and the ways in which we can work together to create smart, sustainable cities.

The biggest issue facing Asian cities today is the explosion of urbanization. Today, about 50 percent of the population lives in cities. By 2050, that figure will reach more than 70 percent. It is a massive challenge to build the infrastructure to support the extent of growth that cities are experiencing.

From the beginning, our vision for the Microsoft CityNext program has been to have a people-first, partner-led approach. We want to listen to city leaders to understand what services citizens are demanding, and provide the framework that partners, local start-ups, established companies, and citizens can use to create applications to help solve cities’ concerns.

Cities in Asia have varied needs and starting points, and while cities like Tokyo are rather advanced in using a technology platform to solve citizen concerns, others have yet to embrace technology. In addition, the role of city leaders is evolving. It is no longer enough to do more with less; leaders must also do NEW with less. This is a meaningful time for Microsoft CityNext partners to work with city leaders to create jobs, develop education programs, and deliver healthcare, transportation, energy, and sustainability solutions across local government agencies.

A common way that cities are becoming more sustainable is by migrating to cloud-based information solutions, so people and institutions are not tied to a physical location. Microsoft is applying a mobile-first, cloud-first strategy, and making it relevant at a time when cities are transforming how they manage and optimize their resources to be smarter.

The CityNext initiative is helping cities tackle many of these challenges and has done so for a number of years. We are working with cities and there are a number of substantial steps that can be taken to leverage technology and the transformation of IT into the cloud, whether it is a small city or a large one.

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