Top Three Cloud Drivers are Cost Savings, Disaster Recovery and Need for Scalability

BROOMFIELD, Colo., May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — A new Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) study, conducted by HIMSS Analytics and designed to understand cloud use, trends and preferred vendors among healthcare organizations, was released today. The 2016 Cloud Survey is a blinded, web-based quantitative study that includes perspective from more than 100 IT decision makers at medium to large-sized hospital systems and hospital corporate offices across the United States.

Key Findings:

• The top three cloud adoption motivators are cost savings, more robust disaster recovery solutions and the need for scalable platforms to support internal requirements.
• The likelihood of healthcare providers planning to adopt cloud-based solutions for key use cases such as back office solutions, business continuity and disaster recovery, archiving data, health information exchange and HR or financial applications increased 65 percent in the last two years.
• The most frequently cited cloud implementations address the ability to host patient empowerment tools (73 percent), the need for compute cycles capable of executing big data analytics (59 percent) and the need to satisfy business requirements like picture archiving and communication system (PACS) storage (55 percent), indicating providers are employing cloud solutions for personal health information (PHI) and non-PHI applications, alike.
• The majority of respondents (77 percent) stated they involve their network provider early in cloud strategy discussions.
• Cloud service providers Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google are all recognized among healthcare providers as industry leaders.

Key Quotes:
Brian Hoekelman, VP Business & Cloud Ecosystem Development for Level 3
“Healthcare organizations are tapping into cloud-based solutions to support the transformation to value-based care, from big data analytics that can improve patient outcomes to back office applications, email and record back-up. In our conversations with customers, we also find that security is always top of mind. The network plays a vital role in fulfilling that need, which is why 2,500 healthcare organizations, including eight of the nation’s ten largest hospital systems and payer organizations, trust Level 3 to deploy secure, scalable and high performing communications infrastructure.”

Kyle Mumley, Advisory Solutions Group at HIMSS Analytics
“Many healthcare organizations are using cloud solutions today, but this is only the beginning. Previous HIMSS Analytics research shows that CapEx spending is on the decline while OpEx spending is increasing; this study supports those findings with 85 percent of participants indicating plans to use the cloud in 2016. The study also shows that the primary drivers for this shift are cost savings and disaster recovery initiatives.”

Additional Resources:

• EBOOK: The Cloud Evolution in Healthcare
• WEBINAR: State of the Cloud: 2016 Healthcare Study, Best Practices and Critical Trends
• BLOG: Three Recurring Themes Heard Throughout HIMSS16
• VIDEO: Accelerating Business Through the Cloud
• INFOGRAPHIC: How You Connect to the Cloud Matters

For more information on Level 3’s advanced network and service offerings, visit www.level3.com.

About HIMSS Analytics
HIMSS Analytics is a global healthcare advisor, providing guidance and market intelligence solutions that move the industry forward with insight to enable better health through the use of IT. As a trusted healthcare research and advisory firm, the industry depends on HIMSS Analytics’ resources, benchmarks, predictive models and assessment tools to improve decision making regarding their IT strategic roadmap and market strategy. For more information, visit www.himssanalytics.org/.

About Level 3 Communications
Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NYSE: LVLT) is a Fortune 500 company that provides local, national and global communications services to enterprise, government and carrier customers. Level 3’s comprehensive portfolio of secure, managed solutions includes fiber and infrastructure solutions; IP-based voice and data communications; wide-area Ethernet services; video and content distribution; data center and cloud-based solutions. Level 3 serves customers in more than 500 markets in over 60 countries across a global services platform anchored by owned fiber networks on three continents and connected by extensive undersea facilities. For more information, please visit www.level3.com or get to know us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

© Level 3 Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Level 3, Vyvx, Level 3 Communications, Level (3) and the Level 3 Logo are either registered service marks or service marks of Level 3 Communications, LLC and/or one of its Affiliates in the United States and elsewhere. Any other service names, product names, company names or logos included herein are the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. Level 3 services are provided by subsidiaries of Level 3 Communications, Inc.

The information contained under the caption “About HIMSS Analytics” has been provided by HIMSS Analytics, which is solely responsible for its content.

Forward-Looking Statement
Some statements made in this press release are forward-looking in nature and are based on management’s current expectations or beliefs. These forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside Level 3’s control, which could cause actual events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the statements. Important factors that could prevent Level 3 from achieving its stated goals include, but are not limited to, the company’s ability to: increase revenue from its services to realize its targets for financial and operating performance; develop and maintain effective business support systems; manage system and network failures or disruptions; avert the breach of its network and computer system security measures; develop new services that meet customer demands and generate acceptable margins; manage the future expansion or adaptation of its network to remain competitive; defend intellectual property and proprietary rights; manage risks associated with continued uncertainty in the global economy; manage continued or accelerated decreases in market pricing for communications services; obtain capacity for its network from other providers and interconnect its network with other networks on favorable terms; successfully integrate future acquisitions; effectively manage political, legal, regulatory, foreign currency and other risks it is exposed to due to its substantial international operations; mitigate its exposure to contingent liabilities; and meet all of the terms and conditions of its debt obligations. Additional information concerning these and other important factors can be found within Level 3’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this press release should be evaluated in light of these important factors. Level 3 is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any such obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.