The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) has migrated its electronic health record (EHR) system Epic from an on-premises environment to Microsoft’s cloud-based Azure platform.
The move is designed to enhance security, improve disaster recovery, increase system scalability, accelerate innovation, and provide a stronger foundation for advanced technologies that support patient care, research, education, and operations across UTMB.
The initiative, first announced as part of a five-year agreement between UTMB and Microsoft in May 2025, was completed with a brief cutover window of just 19 minutes, according to Jayson Laban, vice president of Information Services and chief information officer.
“This is a testament to extensive planning, coordination, and execution across multiple technical teams and the Project Management Office,” Laban said.
Long-term sustainability
While the migration represents a significant technical achievement, its impact extends far beyond information technology. Moving Epic, the UTMB electronic health record, to Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform provides a modern foundation that strengthens the reliability, flexibility, and long-term sustainability of one of the institution’s most critical systems.
“More importantly, it positions the institution to support future advancements in patient care, research, education, and operations through a more agile and scalable technology environment,” Laban said.
A key advantage of the migration is enhanced security, enterprise-grade capabilities such as advanced threat detection, identity and access management, encryption, and continuous monitoring. These capabilities help protect sensitive patient and institutional data while supporting the UTMB commitment to privacy, regulatory compliance, and cybersecurity resilience in an increasingly complex threat landscape.
The transition also significantly enhances disaster recovery and business continuity.
Cloud-based architectures can securely replicate data across multiple geographic locations, helping maintain system availability during hurricanes, power outages, cyber incidents, or other unexpected disruptions.
“For an institution serving communities across the Gulf Coast and beyond, this added resilience helps ensure that critical clinical information remains available when patients and care teams need it most,” Laban said.
The cloud environment provides greater scalability as UTMB continues to grow and evolve. Unlike traditional on-premises systems that often require significant investments in physical data center infrastructure, cloud resources can be adjusted more efficiently to meet changing organizational demands.
This flexibility allows UTMB to expand capacity, accommodate increased patient volumes and data growth, and support new initiatives without the constraints of hardware limitations.
Innovation forward
Cloud architecture also accelerates innovation by enabling faster deployment of Epic enhancements and new functionality. Rather than relying solely on traditional infrastructure upgrades, new capabilities can be introduced more efficiently, helping UTMB keep pace with advances in health care technology while providing clinicians and staff with tools that support high-quality, efficient care.
In addition, hosting this data in a cloud environment creates a stronger foundation for advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and workflow automation. The move can simplify integration with emerging technologies that help organizations derive actionable insights from large volumes of data, streamline processes, and support informed decision-making.
“These capabilities align closely with the UTMB vision for innovation and its ongoing digitally connected care initiatives,” Laban said.
As teams continue to monitor system performance and stability, UTMB can also celebrate becoming the first health-related institution in The University of Texas System to move Epic to Microsoft’s cloud platform.
“The migration is more than a technology upgrade; it is a strategic investment in a secure, resilient, scalable, and future-ready platform that will accelerate innovation and provide a stronger foundation for the technologies that support patient care, research, education, and operations across UTMB,” Laban said.