UKCloud has announced its entry into the medical space, with the launch of UKCloud Health, a public cloud platform designed specifically for the health industry's needs.
Targeting healthcare organisations, research and life sciences and pharmaceutical businesses, the platform will address concerns of the public about the security of their data.
"There is undoubtedly a significant trust issue when it comes to the public perception of the security of highly sensitive data in the cloud," Simon Hansford, CEO of UKCloud, said.
"We pride ourselves on offering the highest possible levels of assurance and believe the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach offered by US headquartered generalist cloud platforms is not appropriate for specialised sectors such as healthcare, where issues of trust, privacy and interoperability are particularly important."
It offers a community of research institutions and companies that will be encouraged to share research data so all can benefit from the open ecosystem to help develop new products in the sector.
"We believe that providing a central, secure, open and collaborative cloud platform, where all of this data can be stored and appropriately shared, will provide a great deal of value to the healthcare industry as a whole," Hansford added.
UKCloud has partnered with 29 businesses to help it sell its product into healthcare organisations and with 30 customers already onboard, it has already started building a strong presence in the industry sector.
It will also be supported by a board of prominent figures in the public cloud and healthcare space, including Lord Paul Drayson, former minister of state for science and innovation, Rachel Neaman, former Department of Health digital leader and Cathrin Petty, European head of healthcare at CVC Capital Partners.
“To date, we’ve focused on developing a unique cloud platform exclusively to meet the needs of the UK public sector, with great success,” Hansford said. “We’re now looking to replicate our business model with a new division exclusively focused on the healthcare sector, where cloud adoption rates are typically impeded by a host of different challenges.”
