GCP PCA · Question 20 · Compute Systems

CASE STUDY: HealthSecure

Company Overview:
HealthSecure provides electronic health record (EHR) systems and telemedicine platforms to hospitals across North America. They handle highly sensitive patient data.

Current Technical Environment:

• Co-located data centers with strict physical security.
• Monolithic .NET applications running on Windows Server.
• Microsoft SQL Server databases.
• Custom-built video streaming solution for telemedicine.

Business Requirements:

• Migrate to the cloud to improve scalability during telemedicine surges.
• Maintain strict compliance with HIPAA and HITECH regulations.
• Enable interoperability with other healthcare providers using FHIR standards.

Executive Statements:

• CEO: "Telemedicine is exploding. We need to scale instantly to meet patient demand."
• Chief Risk Officer (CRO): "Security and compliance are our license to operate. A data breach would destroy us."
• CTO: "We want to leverage cloud-native AI/ML for medical image analysis in the future."

Technical Requirements:

• End-to-end encryption for all data at rest and in transit.
• Strict network isolation to prevent data exfiltration.
• Comprehensive audit logging of all data access.
• High availability across multiple regions.

Constraints:

• Must use Customer-Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK).
• Third-party auditors require detailed compliance reports.
• Legacy .NET applications cannot be easily containerized without refactoring.

QUESTION:
Given the constraint that the legacy .NET applications cannot be easily containerized, which compute architecture should you recommend for the migration?