HIPAA Compliance for Data Centers | The How and Why

HIPAA compliance for data centers is fast becoming a hot topic in regulatory compliance. It first started with Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70 (SAS 70), it is now moving onto the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) provisions, and how the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandates may very well be next on the horizon.

In short, it is a string of compliance requirements that has and will continue to be had for data centers, co-location, and managed service entities. And why? Because these types of businesses are at the forefront of virtualization, cloud computing, hybrid clouds, software as a service (SaaS) platforms

So, if a data center undertakes a HIPAA assessment or audit, are they HIPAA compliant, do they get a HIPAA certificate, etc? The best way to answer that is an accounting firm would undertake an Agreed Upon Procedure (AUP) audit an the audit itself would test the requirements as stated in the HIPAA provisions. You would then end up with a data center that is compliant with these very provisions.

In subsequent blogs, i’ll discuss the scope of a HIPAA assessment/audit for a data center.