One of the most common questions we get from dentists opening a new practice or upgrading an old one is: "Should we move everything to the cloud, or stick with a local physical server?" The answer depends heavily on your clinic's workflow, internet reliability, and imaging needs.
The Case for Local Servers
A physical local server sitting in a locked comms closet in your clinic offers unmatched speed. When you are pulling up massive 3D CBCT scans or high-res Panorex images, the data transfers across your local gigabit network instantly. You don't have to wait for large imaging files to download over the internet. Furthermore, if your internet connection goes down, you can still access patient charts, take X-rays, and operate your clinic smoothly.
The Case for Cloud-Based Solutions
Cloud-hosted Practice Management solutions are growing rapidly because they eliminate the need to purchase and maintain an expensive physical server. You avoid the upfront capital expenditure of a $10,000 server box and don't have to worry about replacing it every 5 years. Cloud systems also make it significantly easier to run multi-location clinics, allowing you to access schedules and patient data seamlessly from anywhere.
The Hybrid Approach
Because imaging files (like X-rays and scans) are so massive, many modern clinics adopt a hybrid approach. They use a cloud-based Practice Management Software for bridging and scheduling, while maintaining a smaller, specialized local Network Attached Storage (NAS) or server solely for rapidly serving massive imaging files across the operatories.
Not sure what to choose? Starcomm can evaluate your current software and clinic layout to recommend the most cost-effective and highest-performance architecture.