Coming Into Compliance...Slowly

The other day, I was chatting with a networking vendor who spends a significant percentage of his time with financial services clients. The topic of compliance came up, and because his company makes equipment that connects data centers and storage systems, he had a lot to say on the topic. One thing that surprised me was his opinion that, for most of his clients, compliance was yesterday's news. That has not been my experience in the conversations I have had with as I IT professionals in recent months. And the Systems Management Pipeline article examining HIPAA affirms that.Phil Britt looks at where enterprises are with regard to meeting future HIPAA provisions, and discovers that many are still struggling to meet current regulations. Storage seems to be a particularly vexing to organizations, who are suddenly finding themselves having to store data for 30 times longer than in the past.Companies are also racing to meet the requirement to convert to a 10-digit identification system.

In conversations with system administrators at small and medium-sized healthcare businesses, I've heard time and again how some of the very basics necessary to meet compliance regulations are there biggest challenges. Things like documentation can add a substantial burden to their staffs. What are your biggest compliance-related issues? Drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know.