Inside the Cloud Journeys of Healthcare Providers and Payers: What’s Working Now

Silk & OptaFi Webinar: Unlocking Cloud Success in Healthcare

Topic: Maximizing Savings, Efficiency, and Innovation in Healthcare Cloud Transformation
Speakers:

David Berliner, Senior Director of Product, Silk

Scott Mayo, CEO, OptaFi

Summary

In this joint webinar, Silk’s David Berliner and OptaFi’s CEO, Scott Mayo, explore how healthcare organizations can accelerate their cloud transformation to improve efficiency, security, and innovation while reducing costs.

They discuss real-world insights from healthcare migrations, the role of Silk’s data virtualization technology, and OptaFi’s healthcare-first cloud strategy. The conversation also highlights the convergence of AI, compliance, and value-based care — and how thoughtful architecture in the cloud can elevate patient outcomes, enhance resilience, and unlock new possibilities for healthcare providers and payers.

Key Takeaways

Healthcare cloud adoption is accelerating thanks to improved compliance readiness and cost optimization.

Silk enables sub-millisecond latency, reduced licensing costs, and simplified data management for EHR systems.

OptaFi brings a healthcare-native approach, combining cloud-first engineering with operational excellence.

Value-based care depends on accessible, secure, and real-time data for improved patient outcomes.

AI adoption in healthcare requires unified, performant data layers — where Silk and OptaFi together provide the foundation.

Transcript
[00:00–02:00] Introduction and Overview

David Berliner (Silk):
Welcome to our webinar “Unlocking Cloud Success in Healthcare: Maximizing Savings, Efficiency, and Innovation.”
I’m joined by Scott Mayo, CEO of OptaFi. Scott, thanks for being here!

Scott Mayo (OptaFi):
Thanks, David — happy to join. OptaFi was founded in 2022, but our roots go back to when our team at Sentara Health began its cloud journey in 2018. We learned from that experience, then spun off OptaFi to bring healthcare-specific cloud expertise to the market.

We help healthcare payers, providers, and payviders move critical systems like Epic, AIX, or QNXT from on-prem to the cloud.

[02:00–04:00] Engineering-First Culture at OptaFi

David:
I’ve always loved that OptaFi’s team is almost entirely made up of engineers — except you! How does that shape your approach?

Scott:
That’s true — I’m the only non-engineer, though I’ve got an old computer science degree from the “caveman” days!
That technical foundation means everyone at OptaFi is laser-focused on client success. We’re constantly curious, innovating, and looking for better ways to deploy and protect data — whether through infrastructure as code, or leveraging solutions like Silk to improve speed, lower cost, and boost resiliency.

We always ask:

How can we make it faster?

How can we make it cheaper?

How can we make it more resilient and secure?

[04:00–06:00] Introducing Silk’s Role in Healthcare

Scott:
David, for those unfamiliar — what is Silk, and how do you work in the healthcare domain?

David:
Silk is a software-defined cloud storage platform that sits between a customer’s databases and their cloud infrastructure. We deliver:

Higher performance at lower cost

Sub-millisecond latency for real-time healthcare workloads

Improved data resilience and manageability

We’re ideal for systems like EHRs, claims platforms (e.g., QNXT), and advanced analytics.
By optimizing how cloud resources are abstracted and combined, Silk reduces costs across storage, compute, and database licensing, while also enabling copy data management for AI and analytics.

[06:00–09:00] Why Healthcare Cloud Adoption Is Accelerating

David:
Healthcare has traditionally been slower to adopt cloud. Why are things changing now?

Scott:
It’s a convergence of several forces:

Cloud providers now fully support compliance and BAA requirements.

The industry’s shift to agility and rapid deployment demands more flexible infrastructure.

And the rise of AI and data analytics requires a unified, scalable data layer.

You can’t effectively use AI if your data is siloed across multiple systems. The cloud offers the speed, scalability, and compliance traditional data centers can’t.

[09:00–12:00] Value-Based Care and Data Accessibility

David:
How does the shift toward value-based care impact cloud adoption?

Scott:
It’s all about turning data into actionable information.
Doctors, nurses, and caregivers need the right information at the right time — securely, accurately, and in real time.

At OptaFi, we see our mission as more than technology; it’s about improving and saving lives. Making that data accessible and reliable is essential to better patient care in value-based systems.

[12:00–14:00] How OptaFi Engages Healthcare Leaders

David:
When you speak with healthcare CEOs, what gets them excited about moving to the cloud?

Scott:
Every organization’s journey is different. We start by understanding their vision, infrastructure, and challenges — and then tailor the roadmap.
Our focus areas are:

Avoiding costs before they occur

Improving performance

Building resiliency for quick recovery and redundancy

We emphasize that it’s their cloud journey, not ours — we just help accelerate it.

[14:00–17:00] Providers, Payers, and Payviders — Different Needs

David:
You work with all three — providers, payers, and payviders. How do their cloud priorities differ?

Scott:
Providers focus on EHR systems and patient-facing operations. Many start by migrating analytics before production data.
Payers care about development agility and secure data sharing (often with data masking).
Payviders — organizations that are both — focus on unifying these systems for analytics and AI, aligning payment and care data for full patient understanding.

David:
That makes sense. At Silk, we see similar trends: providers prioritizing real-time performance, payers emphasizing developer velocity, and payviders focusing on integrated analytics.

[17:00–20:00] Rethinking Architecture for the Cloud

David:
How do you help clients think differently when migrating?

Scott:
“Different” is the key word. Cloud requires a new mindset — not just lift and shift.
We guide clients through this shift step by step: showing how projects that used to take months in a data center can now be done in days or weeks.

We also teach that architecture shouldn’t just be copied from on-prem. With Silk’s flexibility, you can rethink and re-architect for better efficiency.

David:
Exactly. There’s a middle ground between “lift and shift” and total reimplementation. Small architectural changes can have huge impact without massive refactoring.

[20:00–24:00] Ongoing Optimization and Continuous Improvement

Scott:
Cloud migration isn’t a one-time event — it’s a continuous journey.
We encourage clients to re-evaluate architecture every 30–90 days and foster an internal “optimization mindset.”

As customers mature, they start inventing solutions that weren’t even possible on-prem. The innovation potential is enormous.

[24:00–28:00] Where the Biggest Cloud Savings Come From

David:
Which areas deliver the most savings?

Scott:
Production, non-production, and test environments consume the most compute and storage.
We analyze those, identify large data sets, and find ways to optimize or re-architect them. Weekly cross-functional reviews — including FinOps — help track progress transparently.

David:
Yes, cloud transformation isn’t just tech—it’s process and culture. Having partners like OptaFi ensures those shifts are structured and sustainable.

[28:00–32:00] Optimizing Claims and EHR Systems

David:
Let’s talk specifics — claims processing and EHR systems. How does Silk optimize these?

David:
For claims systems like QNXT, Silk can cut data refresh times by up to 99%, turning week-long updates into minutes.
That means faster QA, more test environments, and fresher data — all at lower cost.

Scott:
On the EHR side, the cloud improves agility and cost savings dramatically. We often see 20%+ performance gains, reduced provisioning, and better use of staff time.

With Silk, data recovery and resiliency are faster, and security frameworks like High Trust and CIS are easier to maintain.

[32:00–36:00] Analytics Optimization and Operational Benefits

Scott:
EHR analytics benefit massively too. Using Silk, we can distribute workloads across multiple hosts, reduce data footprints, and eliminate blackout maintenance windows.

David:
Exactly. Some customers have cut maintenance windows from 7–14 hours down to minutes, giving doctors and nurses real-time access to the freshest data.

[36:00–40:00] Data Warehousing and Compute Efficiency

Scott:
What about data warehousing? How does Silk help there?

David:
By eliminating the need for oversized VMs. In one case, we reduced VM cores by 33%, but saved 75% in costs by shifting to a smaller instance family — while maintaining the same performance.

This optimization has an outsized impact for compute-heavy workloads like healthcare analytics.

[40:00–44:00] Development, Test, and Innovation Enablement

Scott:
Dev and test environments are critical. We work with clients to keep them right-sized, performant, and cost-effective.

David:
Silk’s cloning and data masking simplify that process. Teams can refresh data faster, use accurate information safely, and collaborate across geographies while staying compliant.

[44:00–48:00] The Rise of AI in Healthcare

David:
AI is transforming healthcare. How are your clients engaging with it?

Scott:
AI is already here. We’re seeing it in appointment scheduling, doctor matching, and even medical imaging.
Some AI systems now flag potential health issues for review — not replacing doctors, but complementing them.

And as your example shows, AI has literally saved lives by identifying anomalies human eyes missed. The key is secure, centralized data powering these models.

David:
Exactly. Silk helps organizations feed AI efficiently and securely, using copy data and orchestration tools like Silk Echo to keep production unaffected.
We also enable agentic AI — where multiple AI agents pull from both secure Silk data and native cloud sources for richer insight.

[48:00–51:00] Closing Thoughts and Next Steps

Scott:
Healthcare clients are seeing up to 20% performance gains, faster processes, reduced costs, and stronger resiliency.
Silk’s visibility gives us early performance alerts — even before the hyperscaler notices — which is a huge advantage.

David:
That’s fantastic. These joint efforts between Silk and OptaFi prove how smart cloud architecture can elevate patient care, operational agility, and long-term innovation.

Scott:
If anyone wants to learn more, visit OptaFi.com or email info@optafi.com
— we’re always happy to connect.

David:
And to explore Silk, visit silk.us for demos, POCs, or an architectural walkthrough.

Thanks again, Scott, and thanks to everyone for joining us. See you at the next Silk webinar!