What is a cloud PACS?

Four parts, and only the first sits in your center.

• A gateway on your network that receives studies from the modalities over DICOM.
• An archive in the cloud that keeps the images and their history.
• A viewer in the browser, where the radiologist reads.
• Sharing, so the result reaches the referring physician and the patient.

An on-premise PACS is bought once and then maintained: the server, the storage, the backups and the upgrades are yours. A cloud PACS is a service: the provider runs the archive and the viewer, and the center pays for what it uses.

The practical difference shows on an ordinary day. With a cloud PACS a radiologist reads from anywhere, a second branch joins without a second server, and a full disk is the provider's problem.

A cloud PACS is not the right answer to every question. Ask these before you choose.

• It depends on the internet line. A good gateway holds studies while the line is down, but reading needs a connection.
• Where the data is kept matters, by law and by contract. Ask for the location in writing.
• It is a running cost, not a one-time purchase. Compare it with the real cost of a server over five years, not with its price tag.
• Moving an old archive takes planning. Ask how it is checked.

The gateway keeps the images until the line is back. The contract names where your data lives. Pricing follows studies a month, archive size and the gateway. And when an old archive is moved, what arrived is checked against what was sent.