Armor (/Firehost) Review – HIPAA Compliant Hosting

Armor Cyber Security

In this Armor review I will take a in-depth look into their HIPAA compliant hosting solution. I will go through their product offering, and their included services and level of support. And I will make a sample price calculation for a typical server offering. I also sent Armor a couple of questions to get to know them and their solutions even better, and you will find their answers in this Armor review.

HIPAA Compliant Hosting Setup

Armor has HIPAA compliant hosting running through it’s veins. They pride themselves in providing the most secure cloud hosting solution, and this is something you see coming back in their product offering.

A typical setup will include:

  • 2 HIPAA Secure Servers with 1 Core, 1 GB memory and 30 GB of SAN storage
  • The Armor management layer with advanced protection and monitoring, and multiple security features
  • HIPAA requirements like Two-Factor Authentication and SSL
  • Log management and monitoring
  • Vulnerability Monitoring, pro-actively scanning for hacking attempts

Included services and level of support

As you can see from the list above, Armor offers a whole range of included services. Actually about 75% of the total monthly fee for this setup  is spent on server management, monitoring and enhanced security. Any service they offer is focused in being fully HIPAA compliant, including their data center itself.

Healthcare is a major part of Armor business, and a part they take really serious. You can read more about their solution on the Armor Healthcare Portal.

All of their support staff is trained in HIPAA compliance, and available 24×7.

Sample price calculation

The setup described above is the basic entry level setup. If you host it in a US data center it will cost you $1.115 per month. This is without the 5% discount you receive when you use the offer you find on this page. This discount will account for a reduction of $55 per month.

A more powerful configuration with each server having 4 processor cores and 8 GB of memory will bring you to a total of $1.755 per month. In this case your discount will be $87 per month (see terms & conditions).

Conclusion of this Armor review

With Armor you not so much order a few servers with some server management. What you get is a full package of security measures, monitoring and management to ensure you receive and maintain your HIPAA certification.

Armor is moderately priced, and their entry-level configuration pricing is even very competitive. Don’t forget to use our promotion to receive your 5% monthly discount for the first 24 months.

Armor Interview:
4 Questions to get to know them better

1) Why should healthcare organizations and businesses choose Armor for their HIPAA-compliant hosting solution?

Armor provides the most comprehensive secure cloud infrastructure to support your HIPAA needs. As a HITRUST-certified hosting provider, bringing your application to Armor will ensure that you can focus on your business and leave the infrastructure, OS, and Managed Security to Armor .

Armor’s 5 global data centers are all included in the scope of our compliance audits. Other providers may only meet the HIPAA guidelines up to the physical security layer – which is the most basic level of compliance – the problem is that the rest of the compliance responsibility falls on the customer. Armor’s secure infrastructure reduces the scope and burden of an audit on customers and helps address ever-increasing compliance requirements.

Compare the real cost of bolt-on security, server management, support and audit fees to other cloud providers – Armor’s value is unbeatable.

2) Do you employ HIPAA-trained support staff, or have other means of answering technical HIPAA questions?

Armor’s 24×7 Technical Assistance Center, Security Operations Center, and Network Operations Center all have HIPAA specific training that allows them to assist customers with questions regarding HIPAA requirements.

Armor’s compliance team even assists when customers are going through self- assessments and 3rd party or vendor audits to ensure all of the Armor-provided audit controls are understood by assessors. Many cloud providers do not have personnel and teams with this security expertise. Armor does, and it is a major differentiator.

3) To what extent can you help a customer become HIPAA-certified?

We offer fully secure infrastructure. In addition we offer HIPAA-compliance solutions, such as the Health Data Repository, that provide a protected domain for sensitive healthcare information. Customers just need to bring their applications and be responsible for how their applications handle their data.

Armor’s Health Data Repository greatly simplifies compliance scope and difficulty for customers. Once a customer goes into the audit process – Armor’s Security and Compliance teams are there to assist with any questions.

4) How does the sales process work?
What happens after a customer contacts you to discuss a HIPAA compliant hosting solution?

Customers are guided through a process of requirements gathering, solution architecture and deployment planning that allows an environment to be fully provisioned and tested well ahead of their launch date.
Armor provides HIPAA-compliant solutions and solution expansions delivered within 24 hours of order placement.

Thank you Armor for this interview!

And this concludes this Armor review. If you have additional questions, please leave them in the comment section.

Read other HIPAA Hosting Reviews:

Armor Review – HIPAA Compliant Hosting
Liquid Web Review – HIPAA Compliant Hosting
SingleHop Review – HIPAA Compliant Hosting