Delivering more cost-efficient healthcare with Epic on Azure
Electronic health records (EHR) are a vital tool for enhancing patient care. But safeguarding this confidential information with legacy, on-premises infrastructure increases costs. For healthcare leaders balancing tight budgets with resilience, expensive hardware refresh cycles and the growing risk of security breaches make inaction a risky, costly choice.
Organizations across the healthcare industry are already improving security and operations by adopting cloud-first strategies for Epic, a leading EHR system. Forrester’s The Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) of Epic on Microsoft Azure report provides independent research into the benefits organizations achieved by migrating to the cloud—from cost savings and productivity increases to security enhancements and future innovation.
Demonstrating the real-world benefits of EHR in the cloud
Healthcare organizations strive to protect sensitive data while delivering the best experience for patients. But running on-premises infrastructure requires investing in hardware years in advance, which often results in over-provisioning. Instead of anticipating their future needs, cloud-based organizations respond to demand in real time.
Companies that migrated Epic to Azure have streamlined operations, removed data silos, and improved security. These organizations achieved a 162% return on investment in three years and saved up to $46.7 million by avoiding on-premises hardware refresh cycles. As a result, tens of millions of dollars can be invested in patient services and staff support instead of infrastructure.
Cloud-first organizations are also strengthening their security posture as threats become more frequent and complex. Companies running Epic on Azure realized a 20% improvement in security event response times and avoided $1.2 million in response costs with support from Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Sentinel.
By moving from on-premises hardware to cloud infrastructure, organizations avoid expensive hardware refresh cycles, retire legacy tools, and provision infrastructure more efficiently.
Boosting security and driving innovation in healthcare
Beyond the numbers, organizations that migrated Epic to Azure enhanced security, optimized operational efficiency, and upskilled their workforces. Cost optimization and resilience are no longer trade-offs—migrating Epic to Azure improved resiliency and financial flexibility for these companies.
They’re achieving both lower long-term total cost of ownership and higher availability, along with operational and datacenter resiliency, according to one healthcare company leader. Organizations that migrated to the cloud moved from reactive security practices to proactive security advancements. By adopting modern best practices, like standardizing Zero Trust environments, they’re better positioned to defend against evolving security threats.
By moving to the cloud, organizations can provision infrastructure in minutes instead of weeks—scaling on demand without the cost or complexity of upfront overprovisioning. This shift reduces operational overhead and frees IT teams from routine maintenance, saving up to 40 hours for every new server provisioned. That reclaimed time can be reinvested where it matters most: driving innovation, enabling faster testing through temporary environments, and improving experiences for patients and care teams—without the need for permanent hardware upgrades.
40 hours saved per server provisioned—time IT teams can redirect from maintenance to improving the patient experience
Turning data into faster insights and lower costs
Migrating Epic to Azure creates a foundation for data-driven innovation. Healthcare organizations accelerated analytics, built dashboards faster with less maintenance, and achieved more comprehensive reporting. By unlocking EHR data at scale, teams are improving the healthcare experience for both patients and staff.
After the migration, companies quickly recouped their investments through savings from decommissioning aging, expensive infrastructure, avoiding hardware refresh cycles, and preventing security incidents. Companies saved $4 million on analytics alone by replacing legacy data analytics tools with Microsoft Fabric.
Developing competitive strategies and adopting AI
As the healthcare industry faces evolving demands and a changing security landscape, organizations that choose cloud-first strategies are better positioned to innovate.
EHR is a central component of healthcare, but 97% of EHR data is traditionally unused, according to the World Economic Forum. As data volumes continue to grow significantly every year, cloud-based organizations are unlocking the full power of EHR data with scalable storage, convenient access, and strong security. They’re also using AI for predictive analytics to improve patient services, support clinicians, and drive better patient outcomes.
These results are already being realized across healthcare. Organizations like Franciscan Health, Jefferson Health, and St. Luke’s have migrated Epic to Azure to strengthen security, improve resiliency, and reduce infrastructure costs—reinforcing what the independent research shows is possible today at scale. “Since migrating to Azure, we can do a failover and be up in 30 minutes—something we would never be able to do in our previous environment,” says Charles Wagner, Chief Information Officer at Franciscan Health.
“Since migrating to Azure, we can do a failover and be up in 30 minutes—something we would never be able to do in our previous environment.”
— Charles Wagner, Chief Information Officer, Franciscan Health
Changing the conversation around cloud healthcare infrastructure
Today, healthcare organizations are leaving behind infrastructure upgrades and maintenance and embracing the cloud to free up staff resources, promote innovation, and keep security up to date against evolving threats.
Independent research from Forrester shows what’s possible when organizations migrate Epic to Azure, including a 90% reduction in infrastructure costs over three years. These real‑world results demonstrate how scalable, secure cloud infrastructure empowers healthcare organizations to focus on innovation where it matters most: delivering better, more resilient care for patients.
