Sovereign cloud in healthcare: a hospital group with Google Cloud Dedicated
A hospital group with around 4,500 employees and four hospitals assigns its applications to Google's sovereignty levels according to their protection needs. Administration and collaboration run in the public cloud with data residency in Germany, research data with Data Boundary and its own keys. Google Cloud Dedicated with Thales as operator is planned for patient data. The project plan allows around four months until the first level is in production.
- Hospitals and hospital groups with high protection needs
- IT leaders who want to use the cloud without giving up control over patient data
- Organisations that want to differentiate applications by protection needs
Why does a hospital group need several sovereignty levels?
The hospital group runs around 180 applications in two in-house data centres. The hardware is ageing, and skilled staff for operations are hard to find.
Management wants to move to the cloud. At the same time, control over patient data must not be lost. That's why there is no single solution for all applications.
Not every application is equally sensitive.
Duty rosters, email and collaboration have different protection needs than findings, imaging data or the hospital information system.
Requirements set the framework.
Data protection, the requirements for critical infrastructure and internal policies determine where which data is stored and who may access it.
Project profile
How are the applications distributed across the levels?
In the sovereignty check, every application is classified by protection needs. Administration, email and collaboration move to the public cloud with data residency in Germany. Research data runs with Google Cloud Data Boundary: the hospital group manages the keys itself, and every access is only granted with a justification.
For the hospital information system, findings and imaging data, Google Cloud Dedicated is planned, operated by Thales in Germany. Until general availability, these systems remain in the group's own data centre; the architecture is designed for this step from the outset.
Sovereignty check
Classify all applications by protection needs, data type and requirements. Four weeks.
Level per application
Assignment to public cloud, Data Boundary or Dedicated, agreed with data protection and hospital management. Two weeks.
Target architecture
Regions, key management, network and access concept for all levels. Four weeks.
First level in production
Administration and collaboration in the public cloud with data residency in Germany. Six weeks.
Research with Data Boundary
Own keys, access justifications, migration of research data. Eight weeks.
Prepare for Dedicated
Prepare patient systems for the move to Google Cloud Dedicated once it is generally available.
Which technology is used?
Google Cloud, Frankfurt region
Administration and collaboration applications with data residency in Germany.
Google Cloud Data Boundary
Fixed boundaries for data residency and access for research data.
External key management with access justifications
Keys held by the hospital group, access only with a justification.
Google Cloud Dedicated
Planned for patient data, operated by Thales in Germany.
Google Workspace
Email and collaboration with data region Europe.
Patient data stays under the hospital group's control throughout: today in its own data centre, in future on Google Cloud Dedicated with Thales as operator.
How can progress be measured?
Starting point
- Two in-house data centres with ageing hardware
- Around 180 applications with different protection needs
- Shortage of skilled staff for operations
- Patient data must not leave the group's own control
Measures after four months
- Share of applications with a defined sovereignty level
- Share of applications running in production in the cloud
- Utilisation and remaining lifetime of the in-house data centres
Find out in 30 minutes how your data can move to the cloud with sovereignty
- Assessment of your starting point
- Rough estimate of scope and duration
- Next steps
