Prorenata was founded with the idea of simplifying school healthcare documentation. The rapidly growing company holds a leading position in the medtech market for developing electronic health record systems within the school sector. Through the partnership with Elastisys, a Managed Kubernetes Platform provider, and Elastx, an infrastructure provider, Prorenata can ensure that all data stays within Sweden's borders and that their service providers fall under Swedish/EU jurisdiction. They can also create the best conditions for further developing a modern cloud-native application with best-in-class security and compliance posture.
Moving Home to Sweden
Prorenata initiated a project in the spring of 2019 to bring all operations back to Sweden. As a first step, they chose to move from a non-European cloud to Elastx as their infrastructure provider. At the same time, they also decided to start using Kubernetes, running it themselves. This seemed manageable in the beginning, but as their application and customer demands were growing, they realized managing all this on one single person was not a sustainable solution. A production-grade Kubernetes platform requires far more software than merely Kubernetes itself, and the added burden of administering it all, especially over time, simply became too much work. Operating Kubernetes did not contribute to simplified healthcare documentation, the core business of Prorenata.
By switching to the fully-managed Elastisys Kubernetes Platform as an add-on to their infrastructure provider, Elastx, Prorenata could instead rely on a big team of engineers and certified Kubernetes experts to administer their Kubernetes platform. This gave them the opportunity to dedicate their full attention to what they do best - developing their own application and tailoring it to meet their customers' exact needs at scale.
Exceeding Legal Requirements
By partnering up with Elastx and Elastisys, they now have a solution that complies with Swedish legislation concerning handling of personal data and healthcare documentation. The solution also provides high end security functionality such as intrusion detection, vulnerability scanning and a clear process and tools necessary for disaster recovery, protecting Prorenatas business against major data center failures or ransomware attacks.
Initially, Prorenata ran their application on a US cloud. When legal issues arose due to regulations such as the American CLOUD Act, FISA 702, and the Schrems II verdict concerning transferring data between the EU and US, the Swedish public sector questioned the legality of such transfers, especially in relation to legislation such as the GDPR and the Swedish Patient Data Law (Patientdatalagen). Additionally, clarifications from eSamverka, the government's digital issues collaborative body, highlighted the sensitivity of having Swedish data handled by providers governed by US law. Besides these regulations, Prorenata also needed an ISO-27001-certified vendor to meet their customers’ strict information security and data protection standards.
Advantages in Public Procurements
Jens Alm states that one of the greatest benefits from a business perspective is that this solution with Elastisys and Elastx has given them advantages in public procurement. With the help of Elastisys’ great documentation regarding information security, data protection, and regulations, they get a strong competitive advantage and save a lot of time when participating in public procurements.
A Close Partnership
The smooth migration to their new Kubernetes environments and the continuous successful development of the application are direct results of the tight dialogue between all parties. Prorenata highlights their appreciation of being able to have technical discussions with Elastisys and Elastx at the right level, where they can delve into details yet get the right guidance for the solution suitable for them.
Prorenata also emphasizes the benefits of Elastisys and Elastx’ flexibility and responsiveness in the continuous development of its organization and offerings.
Prorenata contributes to making life easier for the healthcare sector, and Elastisys is proud to, in collaboration with Elastx, enable them to accelerate innovation while ensuring security and regulatory compliance.