Blog What to look for when choosing a cloud-based software

Just because a company can build a locally installed software, doesn’t mean you should trust them to build a web-based software. There are a lot of unique considerations that need to be taken into account when building for web.

The most important of these are:

1. Optimizing for Speed: In a web based software, optimizing for speed is really important – a clinic’s network might be slow, so a software needs to run quickly to compensate.
2. Understanding and Updating Security: In web, it becomes even more crucial to ensure your software adheres to the latest security standards.
3. Mobile Responsiveness: One of the benefits of a web-based software is that it should also work on your smartphone. However, for that to happen, the software has to built to be mobile responsive from scratch.

Ensuring that software is fast, secure, and responsive is not a one-time task. A software team has to continuously improve its product to ensure these standards are met.

Optimizing for Speed: When building for web, speed is really important. A cloud based software runs its processes in two places: on your browser and in a remote server (the cloud). The more often your web based software needs to connect to the cloud, the slower your web-based software will be – because to complete tasks, your software first needs to connect with your server via the Internet. A well-built web based software makes communication between your browser and remote server efficient. Plato relies heavily on Javascript. We do that because Javascript allows a lot of processing to be done in your browser. As a result, your Plato will “call” your server less frequently than other web-based software and it will feel a lot more fast and smooth. If you buy a web-based software from a company that is not used to building for web, they likely won’t have the skill set to ensure a lot of processing is done in-browser – they will likely “call” a cloud server to complete every process. As a result, their software will run more slowly.

Understanding and Updating Security: First and foremost, security is a game of cat and mouse. To keep data safe, your software should be updated regularly to ensure that it can protect you from the latest threats. Second, security is managed differently in a web-based software versus a locally installed software. In a locally installed software, your data should be encrypted at minimum. Many locally installed software in Singapore don’t even do that. As well, locally installed software should be updated very regularly and use new technologies – it is harder for a hacker to exploit vulnerabilities in a newer software, because there is less information available about what vulnerabilities a newer software has. By contrast, an older software is a lot more hackable, because there is a lot of information available about how to gain unauthorized access to it.In a web based software, security has to be managed on two levels: when transmitting data and while protecting the data as it resides in your server. A team that is used to building for web will have a tried and tested set of strategies for both – but a team that runs a locally installed software may not understand and follow key trends for protecting your data while it is in transit.

At Plato we currently use AES-256 encryption to protect your data both in transit to the cloud, and at rest within cloud servers. Our team also continually educates itself about the latest security trends, so that they will be updated as needed. Web based software cannot just be built once and resold forever – it needs to be updated regularly to meet security needs.

Mobile Responsive: What is the point of using web if you can’t access your software on a mobile phone? Web based software should be built to be mobile responsive – if you open it on a mobile phone, the software view should change so that you can use it easily on web.Mobile responsiveness has to be hard coded into the software – it’s a decision a software development team executes when they first start building your software. Plato is mobile responsive so that you can access it from anywhere. You should be able to open Plato on your mobile and check a patient record if/when a patient calls you.

These are all strategies that Plato uses today, to ensure your software is fast, safe, and mobile responsive. Our team consistently educates itself on the latest advances in technology – there are constantly innovations being released that can make technology faster, better, and safer. As these are released, our team evaluates and tests them, and updates your Plato so that you have a better user experience.

Find out more about choosing a web based software and get a demo of Plato. Book a 10 minute chat.