Cloud Services

HIPAA-Compliant Cloud Services

HIPAA-compliant cloud storage and Microsoft 365 environments for Arizona practices: BAA setup, encryption, MFA, audit logging, and backup, configured and managed by one Tucson-based team.

What makes cloud storage HIPAA-compliant?

Cloud storage becomes HIPAA-compliant through three things working together: a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with the cloud provider, the HIPAA Security Rule safeguards (encryption, access controls, MFA, audit logging, backup) configured on top of the platform, and correct ongoing operation. It is not a certification. No cloud product is "HIPAA certified" because HHS does not certify, approve, or endorse any vendor. Platforms like Microsoft 365 and Azure are HIPAA eligible, and your configuration decides whether you are actually compliant. Unió Digital sets up and manages that configuration for healthcare organizations across Arizona. For the full explanation, read our HIPAA-compliant cloud storage guide.

Configuration Is Where Compliance Lives

What Unió Configures and Manages

A HIPAA-eligible platform left on default settings is still a compliance gap. We implement and operate the controls that turn Microsoft 365 and Azure into a defensible home for PHI.

Microsoft 365 & Azure BAA Setup

Tenant setup on the correct business or enterprise plan, Microsoft's BAA executed before any PHI enters the environment, and PHI kept inside covered services.

Access Controls & MFA

Least-privilege access with unique user IDs, multi-factor authentication enforced tenant-wide, conditional access policies, and a clean offboarding process when staff leave.

Encryption at Rest & in Transit

TLS for data in motion and AES-256 for data at rest, verified end to end across email, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Azure workloads, with key management documented.

Audit Logging & Monitoring

Unified audit logging turned on and retained, so who accessed, changed, or shared PHI is recorded and reviewable, not just theoretically loggable.

Retention, Backup & Recovery

Retention policies aligned to your recordkeeping obligations, third-party Microsoft 365 backup with immutable copies, and restores that are actually tested. Availability is a HIPAA requirement too.

Endpoint Protection for PHI Devices

Managed detection, disk encryption, and screen-lock and device policies on every workstation and laptop that touches PHI, because a synced folder on a stolen laptop is a breach.

Staff Security-Awareness Training

Ongoing workforce training and phishing simulation, since most healthcare breaches start with human error rather than a sophisticated attack.

These controls also feed your documented risk analysis. Pair them with managed cybersecurity for detection and response across the rest of your environment.

Built for PHI-Handling Organizations

Who Our HIPAA-Compliant Cloud Services Are For

If your organization creates, receives, or stores protected health information, the cloud is part of your compliance footprint whether you planned it or not.

Medical & Dental Practices

Independent and multi-provider practices in Tucson, Phoenix, and across Arizona that need email, files, and patient communication running on a compliant Microsoft 365 foundation alongside their EHR.

Behavioral Health Providers

Counseling, therapy, and behavioral health organizations handling especially sensitive records, where access controls, retention, and audit trails carry extra weight.

Healthcare-Adjacent Businesses

Billing companies, labs, imaging centers, and other business associates that hold PHI for covered entities and carry HIPAA obligations of their own. See our healthcare industry page.

Two Ways to Engage

Engagement Models and Pricing

Start with a one-time compliance setup project, or hand us the whole environment under a managed agreement.

Compliance Setup Project

A defined outcome with a defined price: BAA execution, tenant hardening, encryption and MFA rollout, audit logging, retention, and backup, then a documented handoff.

Fixed-price proposal after a free assessment
Defined scope, timeline, and deliverables
Configuration evidence for your risk analysis

Scope a Project

Fully Managed

Best Value

Compliant cloud, help desk, security stack, backup, and training bundled into a managed IT agreement, typically $100 to $300 per user per month depending on tier.

Controls monitored and maintained month after month
Access reviews, log review, and backup testing on a schedule
See the full tier breakdown on our managed IT pricing page

See Managed Pricing

Ranges are approximate and reflect typical Arizona SMB engagements, a planning guide rather than a fixed price list. Every quote is custom, sized to your environment after a free assessment.

How an Engagement Runs

Our HIPAA Cloud Process

1. Assess

We inventory where PHI lives today: accounts, plan tiers, BAAs, sharing settings, devices, and backups, and map the gaps against the Security Rule safeguards.

2. Remediate

We execute the BAA, move PHI onto covered plans, and configure encryption, access controls, MFA, logging, retention, backup, and endpoint protection.

3. Document

You get the configuration evidence, policies, and training records your risk analysis and any future audit or investigation will ask for.

4. Manage

Compliance is a state you maintain, not a one-time setup. We keep the controls working: access reviews, log review, restore tests, and training refreshes.

Ready to Get Your Cloud HIPAA-Ready?

Start with a free assessment of where PHI lives in your environment and get a prioritized remediation plan with a fixed-price proposal. Or call us at 520-762-6535.

Get a Free Assessment

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about HIPAA-compliant cloud storage and services.

Microsoft 365 is HIPAA eligible, which is not the same as compliant by default. Microsoft will enter a Business Associate Agreement on business and enterprise plans and provides the controls needed for PHI, but your tenant is compliant only when the BAA is in place and encryption, access controls, MFA, audit logging, and data-handling policies are correctly configured and maintained. Out of the box, on default settings, it is not compliant.

Yes. If PHI will live anywhere in Microsoft 365 or Azure, a signed Business Associate Agreement with Microsoft must be in place before that data enters the tenant. Storing PHI without a BAA is a HIPAA violation on its own, even if nothing is ever breached. Microsoft makes its BAA available on business and enterprise plans; consumer and free tiers are not covered. We handle BAA execution as the first step of every setup project.

Yes, on the right plan and with the right configuration. OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online are in-scope services under Microsoft's BAA, so they can hold PHI once sharing controls, access restrictions, MFA, and audit logging are configured. Personal OneDrive accounts are not covered and should never hold PHI. The most common failure we see is external sharing and sync left wide open, which is a configuration problem we fix rather than a reason to avoid the platform.

Setup projects such as BAA execution, tenant hardening, and backup rollout are quoted fixed-price after a free assessment, so the number depends on your user count and how much remediation the environment needs. When the compliant cloud is delivered inside a managed IT agreement, it is bundled into tiers that typically run $100 to $300 per user per month in Arizona. Those ranges are approximate planning figures; every quote is custom and sized to your environment.

Both can be made compliant: each vendor signs a BAA on business and enterprise plans, and neither is compliant by default. For most practices we recommend and deploy Microsoft 365, because its compliance tooling (Purview retention and audit, Intune device management, conditional access) goes deeper for a PHI environment and it fits the Windows-based systems most healthcare offices already run. If your organization is already on Google Workspace, it can be configured correctly too; the deciding factor is configuration and operations, not the logo.

We operate under business associate agreements where required. When our role in managing your environment involves access to PHI, the engagement is structured accordingly, and we also make sure the BAAs you need from your cloud and backup vendors are actually executed and cover the services you use. Bring your BAA requirements to the free assessment and we will walk through exactly which agreements your setup needs.

No one can, because there is no such thing as a HIPAA certification. HHS does not certify, approve, or endorse any product, vendor, or organization, and any provider promising a "HIPAA certified" badge is selling marketing language. What we do is concrete: configure and manage the compliance-supporting controls (BAA coverage, encryption, access controls, MFA, logging, retention, backup, training) and give you the documentation that supports your risk analysis. Compliance is an ongoing state your organization maintains, and we keep the technical side of it working.

Unió Partners