Government regulation on cloud security may spur SaaS use in health care

"The software has been designed by software professionals" and that can prove problematic in the highly regulated health-care industry, he said.

Instead of using industry-specific services consolidated onto one platform, scientists use MicrosoftMicrosoft Word and Excel for document management and multiple platforms for storing data. Alles zu Microsoft auf CIO.de

"Fifty to 70 percent of the time scientists are managing stats instead of doing actual work," said Beyrouthy.

As for how much of the health-care industry has taken to using cloud services, the answer varies depending on the definition of cloud computing. Hospitals haven't been eager to roll out SaaS services, said Davis. Among individual care providers, however, adoption rates are higher, especially with consumer-focused services like Dropbox.

"I talk to a number of doctors who unknowingly use iCloud," he said, referring to AppleApple's storage and backup cloud service. Alles zu Apple auf CIO.de