Yet, not everything was all moonlight and roses — the outsourced model also brings a fair share of cybersecurity risks. This creates a head-scratcher for network administrators and developers in balancing the benefits with the risks to ensure a streamlined mode of operation that is as effective as it’s secure. Let’s take a deep dive into all things cloud software development.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is an infrastructure model in which resources and processes are outsourced to data centers rather than done internally. This method relies on the public internet as the primary mode of delivery, allowing a much wider reach than possible using conventional methods.

Cloud computing often provides services like data storage, management, device access, networking, and cybersecurity. Externalizing these operations to cloud-based infrastructure allows businesses to focus their efforts elsewhere. In addition, this also enables them to flexibly adjust their operations according to their needs allowing them to be changed at a moment’s notice. It’s a key driving force behind the startup culture and innovations.

Service models

Reliable, fast, and secure services are what every customer takes as a baseline. Businesses are pressed to deliver on the highest level at all times. However, IT infrastructures can’t always stretch that fast, nor can every business owner issue blank checks for upgrades.

Cloud computing solves these pressing issues by providing a streamlined model delivered via the internet. According to specific business requirements, cloud computing services are classified into three distinct models.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

SaaS is primarily used for the delivery of web applications. Fully managed by the service provider, cloud software is accessed remotely and typically has pricing based on plans and subscriptions. In most cases, this provides a much cheaper solution that manages software internally and relieves the teams from the need to perform maintenance.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

PaaS offers a remotely accessible environment allowing developers to build and deliver software applications. This bypasses the need to use Integrated Development Environments, which are expensive and difficult to set up and maintain. The model includes everything you’d need to start working on your applications, like various middleware tools and operating systems. PaaS uses the same pay-as-you-go model as other remaining cloud service models.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

IaaS offers core cloud computing services like servers, storage, and networking on demand. This type helps a company to adjust company resources on demand. In cases when new applications have launched, this type also helps to quickly provision them and extend the reliability of existing infrastructure. Usually, payment costs are collected based on using a particular resource, allowing you to install and manage your software on top.

Cloud deployment models

The cloud services deployment model may also have various distinct particularities like ownership, scale, access rights, etc. It defines the location of the servers your organization will be using, what can be changed, and the needed input from the client. This distinguishes different cloud deployment types.

Public cloud

As you can probably guess from the name, the public cloud is available for everyone to access. It’s provided for the general population, making it the least secure cloud type. Owned and managed by the cloud services provider, this type doesn’t require much maintenance but is also the most difficult to secure. On other hand, some public clouds are free to use, while some require a subscription to move beyond the basic plan. 

Private cloud

The polar opposite of the public cloud is a private type — it’s reserved for a single user using separate hardware. Often incorporated into the organization’s infrastructure, the private cloud facilitates handling all the hardware and software services within its perimeter. It offers the most flexibility of all the cloud service types allowing an organization to customize even the tiniest aspects of the setup.

Hybrid cloud

Hybrid combines the best private and public cloud features using proprietary software. This allows hosting applications in a safe environment and cheaper service due to reliance on the public internet. In a way, this functions like a partially locked public cloud with much more customization options.

Benefits of software development in the cloud

If your business rapidly expands, cloud technology is a natural addition to improving your operations. This allows you simultaneously to improve productivity and give more opportunities for your internal teams. Here is a list of the principal benefits related to cloud computing.

1. Scalability

Traditional server hosting always met various constraints as it was based on physical hardware — the capacity can only be proportional to your internal server stack. Cloud computing turns this premise on its head, removing all constraints. No matter the organization’s size or budget, it’s possible to find an option to fit any budget. 

When a bigger capacity is needed, allocating more servers to combine their processing power is easy. Various server service providers also offer flexible memory or CPU adjustments, so it’s possible to customize the cloud computing setup to the smallest details.

2. Cost-efficiency

For businesses looking for various entry points to test the waters before committing to a full-scale infrastructure, the cloud computing model’s cost efficiency is the key benefit. Unlike hosting everything internally, cloud doesn’t need any upfront investments, making it a perfect starting spot to increase usage, on a need basis.

Pricing-wise, cloud service providers widely adopt pay-per-usage fees, meaning that organizations are only charged for the resources they use. This means it’s much more convenient to manage overspending and provides a safety net if the operations need to be quickly shrunk. 

3. Disaster recovery and redundancy

No matter which method for application and data hosting a business chooses, emergency data recovery methods will have to be set up. Admittedly, cloud services should be much easier as they come out of the box with easy data mirroring and backup solutions.

Traditional on-premise setups will have to be configured from the ground up, meaning that additional investments are very likely. Setting the mirroring within the internal perimeter doesn’t help in case the whole network becomes infected. This could potentially damage the backup as well. This is one of the biggest advantages of cloud computing.

4. Fast provisioning of resources

Relying only on the currently available on-premises leaves companies with only a few resources. Various software development and test environments require thorough planning in advance and take a while to get running. However, with the cloud model, everything can be available instantly.

Brand-new environments for testing or development purposes can be created instantly. This can speed up cloud software development by skipping preparation steps and getting the work environment ready instantly. The cloud provider periodically introduces new adjustments, ensuring that the prepared application seamlessly integrates into the new technological landscapes.

5. Multiple models and offerings

The cloud model is less restrictive and doesn’t operate in one-size-fits-all absolutes. By design, it’s flexible and aims to adapt to accommodate the organization’s needs, not the other way around.

On average, each provider has at least several options to choose from, while most will allow even greater personalization for an extra fee. As it was mentioned previously, various internal and outsourced cloud infrastructure models can be combined to develop a hybrid approach if that’s the direction in which a business wants to progress. 

6. Wide geographic reach

Unlike on-premises hardware, cloud-based infrastructures have a much wider reach. This can be helpful when connecting your globally distributed workforce and reaching your customers. The latter could be improved by optimizing the server load by leveraging cloud architecture.

Even if an application is hosted in a single location, a distributed cloud model allows users to easily access it through multiple points of presence scattered around the globe. This is further facilitated by content delivery networks allowing instant access to various resources and services.

7. Easy deployment

The innate flexibility of cloud infrastructures brings easy deployment capabilities. In practice, some operations could be automated by integrating various cloud processes into your existing setup. This could significantly speed up the application testing process.

Simultaneously this allows a business to ramp up the cloud software development speed allowing instant updates in testing environments. If everything works well, the slots could be easily swapped to go into production. This works wonders for testing new features and ensuring new upgrades work as intended before releasing them to the public.

Possible challenges of cloud software development

While it opens many doors of possibilities, cloud software development isn’t without its fair share of challenges. Outsourcing can be difficult, especially for companies with a functioning system. Here are the major challenges that face cloud application software development.

Seamless interoperability

The major challenge facing organizations that are considering cloud frameworks is interoperability. The written code needs to work with multiple cloud providers despite their differences. This even gets more complex when portability is involved. The same code might be difficult to transfer from one environment to another.

This needs to be addressed by introducing standards and facilitating data access across different software platforms. For this reason, operating protocols must be highly standardized to avoid potential interoperability errors.

Performance issues

When we’re talking about the cloud, we’re talking about distributed physical servers. This still means that their physical location is important, and customer connection to them could impact their experience.

Therefore it’s important to prepare in advance and figure out which data centers will be hosting your data. It will be much easier to set everything up correctly in advance rather than to plan the move once the operations are up and running. End-to-end testing is critical. Cutting corners will result in an inefficient mechanism that hurts your company in the long run. 

False promises of scalability

While it is true that all cloud computing providers can provide scalability, this still has the constraints of the provider’s capacity. Scalability is always limited to the number of resources a provider has, so if your scaling needs are beyond what the provider can deliver, you may be stuck with a service that doesn’t cover your needs.

The key risk here is choosing a predefined program that isn’t as flexible or adjusted to your needs. In some cases sticking with a hybrid model allows for the best solutions from the best worlds.

Reliability and availability

While the cloud model helps to maintain high uptime for cloud apps, this isn’t always a guarantee. Cloud providers rarely offer around-the-clock service, so outages could be left unresolved. Similarly, the provider might not inform leniently about maintenance schedules or other problems.

This requires additional effort on the client’s part. The used cloud service should be monitored using additional tools. Things like service usage and performance should be something that an organization knows at all times.

Dependency on the provider

When building applications, it is very convenient to tailor-make the code to work best within its cloud environment. However, this also has the side-effect of becoming heavily reliant on the external partner for your operations. Sometimes, changing the provider might be expensive, time-consuming, or difficult from a technical standpoint.

Your services should follow good architecture practices to avoid being tangled with underlying service logic if a business decides to move operations elsewhere. For developers, this means understanding different protocol particularities and responsibly adjusting application behavior.

Programming modes

Developing applications in the cloud require different programming skills. While most developers are familiar with SQL operations passing application-specific functions aligned with federated data sources, cloud software developments don’t work the same way. This requires developers to adopt query-oriented processing to derive federated data sets performing complex queries or function compositions that align better with cloud computing models.

Application security

Outsourcing such critical elements as application software development means their access should be heavily restricted. This makes application security a challenge due to the web delivery model and the state of the browsers.

For this reason, the connection outside the browser must be properly secured using encryption and tunneling protocols. Still, it’s a broad topic that could be addressed separately.

What measures should developers take to secure software in the cloud?

1. Establish governance policies

Clearly defined governance policies help to achieve better security in cloud software development operations. They put procedures and policies in place and give employees clear guidance in the workplace.

When aligned with your company’s internal security requirements, these policies create a holistic system defining organization-wide operational standards. This even out security across the board, creating transparent processes.

2. Segment your network

An architectural approach of dividing networks into smaller segments helps to manage various security risks in case of a data breach. As free lateral movement across the network is restricted, hackers are isolated within a subnet limiting the pace and time during which they could undetected could stage an attack.

Resources can be shared between segments, so no additional processing power is needed. In addition, this approach helps from the security standpoint and allows control of traffic flow between subnets based on granular policies.

3. Automate security processes

Security automation is an essential component of a solid cloud software development operations model. Code analysis could be automated during the building and testing phases. Meanwhile, infrastructure as code practices can automate configuration management. Finally, various potential threats could be instantly responded to without human intervention preventing potential damage.  

4. Conduct vulnerability management

Identification, evaluation, and security vulnerability reporting is a critical procedure that is paramount to secure cloud software development. Applications should be provided to the customer if they have unresolved known vulnerabilities. Otherwise, hackers could easily exploit them. Penetration testing mechanisms are therefore needed to assess potential exploits better and address critical application shortcomings.

5. Regularly audit security

Organizations’ security practices should match their policies. If the two don’t align, this catalyzes a cybersecurity incident. Periodic evaluations of security practices should be one of the cybersecurity strategy pillars. Various improvements should also be considered helping to set benchmarks and progress measurements.

How NordLayer can help secure the cloud

As the cloud-first approach is a firmly established infrastructure organization method among modern businesses, its security is one of the most important disciplines of modern cybersecurity. Application software development relies heavily on cloud computing to make the heavy lifting possible, but this must always be secure.

NordLayer offers cloud-native tools incorporating ZTNA practices within a Secure Service Edge model. Allowing secure remote access by encrypting traffic from end to end can protect data, whether it’s hosted locally or on the cloud.

Features like IP allowlisting enable network administrators to approve authenticated connections and block everything else. This helps to create an airtight system that provides a secure access model when using external cloud services.

Get in touch with the NordLayer team and explore our cloud-based products today.

The HIPAA Minimum Necessary Rule applies to all Protected Health Information (PHI). And includes physical documents, spreadsheets, films, and printed images, patient data stored or processed electronically, and information communicated verbally.

Every covered entity and business associate must make reasonable efforts to ensure minimal access to Protected Health Information for a particular use. But how does it work in practice? And how can you interpret “reasonable effort” or “minimum necessary disclosure“? Read our complete guide on the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard.

The ABC of HIPAA compliance

Let’s start with what HIPAA is. Passed in 1996 by the US government, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) obligates every covered entity to protect sensitive health information. Five HIPAA rules define how healthcare professionals should proceed when they handle sensitive data. One of them, the HIPAA Privacy Rule, outlines patients’ rights regarding their health information and regulates who can access it.

HIPAA compliance ensures healthcare providers meet the regulatory requirements for Protected Health Information (PHI). For example, an insurance company can only get the reasonably necessary information on a patient’s clinical history. Or if a journalist requests a plastic surgeon to disclose their celebrity patient data, they can’t do that. In short, every covered entity must follow HIPAA regulations. And restrict access to their PHI. 

Why is it critical to be HIPAA-compliant?

HIPAA compliance is essential for healthcare organizations and patients. Here is why: 

• It ensures healthcare organizations securely handle sensitive information according to the same rules.

• It gives patients peace of mind about their sensitive data by keeping strict security checks on who can access it and why. 

So, is complying with the HIPAA Privacy Rule important only because of the law? Violating HIPAA rules indeed results in high penalties. Also, HIPAA compliance builds patients’ trust and your organization’s reputation. And boosts your staff morale. 

What is the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard?

The HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard is a component of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. It states that covered entities must make reasonable efforts to ensure minimum access to physical or electronically protected health information.

But since both terms, “minimum necessary information” and “reasonable efforts,” are not defined in HIPAA, what do they mean? They mean that a covered entity can only share necessary information upon request. And decide about the disclosure or restriction of specific parts of information.

Also, the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard states that a rational justification for the decision should always follow.

• A doctor can only access patient records except for their social security number, billing information, and other sensitive information unrelated to treatment. 

• A billing specialist can obtain the name of the test that a patient did but not the results.

• An insurance company can only get information about a patient’s records relevant to the request related to the insured event, not the whole medical history.

• A physician can’t disclose a patient’s medical diagnosis to unauthorized personnel or third parties. 

Every covered entity must limit unnecessary or inappropriate access and disclosure of their patients’ sensitive data.

When does the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard apply?

As we said before, the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard applies to all HIPAA-covered entities and healthcare providers, such as:

• Hospitals.

• Insurance companies.

• Healthcare clearing houses.

• Business associates who provide services to healthcare services providers.

 It compels these organizations to take reasonable actions to limit oversharing of PHI. 

Exceptions to the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard 

There is an exception for every rule. And the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard is no different. Here we have six exceptions to the uses and disclosures of PHI. 

1. Patient’s access to their medical history

A patient of a covered entity has the right to access their own Protected Health Information. To do so, they need to make a written request.

2. Treatment of a patient

A healthcare provider may access a patient’s PHI for the purpose of treatment. It also applies to consultations between providers regarding a patient.

3. The HIPAA rules enforcement

The Department of Health and Human Services asks for a disclosure of PHI based on the HIPAA Enforcement Rule. 

4. Consent of the person whose PHI is in question

A patient may allow a covered entity to disclose or use their PHI, but he or she must sign an authorization. 

5. Requests required by law

HIPAA-covered entities may disclose PHI without authorization for judicial or administrative proceedings, for example, in adult abuse, neglect, or domestic violence. 

6. Requests required for compliance with HIPAA

It concerns uses or disclosures needed for compliance with the HIPAA Administrative Simplification Rule that ensures consistent electronic communication and data exchange across the U.S. healthcare system.

How to carry out the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Rule in your company

Before implementing the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard, check if your organization has adequate policies and procedures. Here is our guide to HIPAA compliance.

Establish your organization’s policy

The policy and procedures should identify the following:

• Who within your organization can access sensitive data to perform their duties

• The categories or types of PHI 

• The conditions appropriate to access.  

It’s also crucial to consider the exceptions you must make, to whom they apply, and under what circumstances. 

Control access to PHI and monitor compliance

Develop role-based permissions and determine what information various employees or third parties need. Instal monitoring software solutions to ensure your staff can access only the necessary PHI.

Define your business associate’s access to PHI 

Before you sign an agreement with a new business associate, agree on what data they can access. 

Keep documentation

Demonstrate compliance with the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard by keeping all the relevant documents, such as policy changes and employee training,

Train employees on HIPAA compliance

Make sure they know how to follow the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard and what sensitive data can be transferred, to whom, and in what circumstances. It will help you avoid HIPAA violations.

Who determines the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard?

For routine or recurring requests, a covered entity must have a protocol to limit the disclosure of Protected Health Information to the minimum. For non-routine disclosures, covered entities must develop reasonable criteria for determining and limiting the disclosure. Each such request must be reviewed individually.

Here are a few cases when a reasonable judgment is permitted:

• A researcher asks for information and suitable documentation from an Institutional Review Board or Privacy Board.

• A workforce member or a covered entity’s business associate requests minimum necessary information for a stated purpose.

• A covered entity asks another entity for minimum necessary information.

• A public official or an agency needs minimum necessary information for public health purposes. 

How often is the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard violated?

Although the exact number of violations is not specified, HHS Enforcement Highlights claims the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard violations are the fifth most common non-compliance events. There is also no data on who reports these violations, whether self-reported or submitted by covered entities, patients, or health plan customers.

So, what kind of situations violate the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Rule?

• A doctor requires access to a patient’s medical records to treat them and simultaneously accidentally accesses sensitive data, such as their Social Security number or payment details.

• A gynecologist gossips with their colleague over lunch about a celebrity patient being pregnant. A cafeteria waitress overhears it, and the Minimum Necessary Rule is violated.

• An IT professional performs maintenance work on a hospital’s database and clicks on a few files with patients’ medical records. Since they didn’t have permission, they violated the Minimum Necessary Rule.

• A nurse reveals information about a patient having hepatitis C in a hallway. If other patients can hear it, they can file a complaint that his PHI was disclosed without permission.

The effects of sharing more than the minimum necessary PHI

The consequences of HIPAA violations are significant. Apart from financial penalties, organizations lose their reputation, patient trust, and their ability to operate a business. Filefax, a medical storage company, agreed to pay＄100,000 to settle potential HIPAA violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. And although Filefax shut its doors during the Office for Civil Rights investigation, it still didn’t escape additional fines and penalties.

However, the Privacy Rule allows incidental or accidental disclosures.

How can NordLayer help?

Storing patient data in a cloud has become the primary archiving method in the healthcare industry. And healthcare organizations need modern security solutions that help them follow HIPAA regulations.

NordLayer’s policies, standards, and procedures were reviewed by independent assessors who concluded we meet the security objectives outlined in the HIPAA Security Rule. And we have the appropriate measures for securing access to Protected Health Information according to HIPAA requirements.

NordLayer’s HIPAA-compliant solutions can protect endpoints with your organization’s sensitive information, adding an extra security layer to access your network, cloud tools, or databases. Contact us if you want to learn more about how we can help.

Disclaimer: This article has been prepared for general informational purposes and is not legal advice. We hope that you will find the information informative and helpful. However, you should use the information in this article at your own risk and consider seeking advice from a professional counsel licensed in your state or country. The materials presented on this site may not reflect the most current legal developments or the law of the jurisdiction in which you reside. This article may be changed, improved, or updated without notice.