Schumacher began moving applications to the cloud in 2006, and Menefee estimates that 90 percent of the company's processes are in cloud-based services today.

Some are hosted services and others are software as a service (SaaS), Menefee says. "We have a hybrid approach where most of these solutions are integrated with each other via Web services or are integrated with on-premise solutions," he says.

To ensure , Schumacher worked with each of its vendors to review their security and audit procedures and ensure they were in compliance with HIPAA and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. "We include our business associates agreement as part of our standard contractual language with any vendor who potentially has access to patient data," he says.

A major driver for the company, which is based in Lafayette, La., to go to the cloud was the realization that its data centers were susceptible to damage by like Katrina and Rita, Menefee says. He says the cloud providers have multiple across the country. "Review of data center footprint and geographic locations are part of our due-diligence process," Menefee says.

Other motivators include the ability to easily scale capacity up or down and the need to deliver applications to users faster.