Protected health information in distributed computing systems

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform a set of acts, the set of acts comprising:

• receiving a task for managing access to protected health information (PHI) that only allows read-only access, wherein
• the PHI is stored in a source datastore and is logically represented by metadata stored in and accessible by a hyperconverged system, and
• the task includes a read-only operation and a write operation that modifies the PHI;
• and
• executing the task to manage the access to the PHI at least by:
• cloning the metadata into cloned metadata accessible by the hyperconverged system;
• executing the write operation that modifies the PHI into modified PHI, with no modification to the PHI in the source datastore, at least by referencing the cloned metadata and by storing the modified PHI in an ephemeral datastore in the hyperconverged system;
• and
• executing the read-only operation to read the PHI from the source data store at least by referencing the metadata.

A system for performing one or more tasks associated with a set of protected healthcare information in a distributed computing system, the system comprising:

• a storage medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions;
• and
• one or more processors that execute the instructions to cause the one or more processors to perform a set of acts, the set of acts comprising,
• receiving a task for managing access to protected health information (PHI) that only allows read-only access, wherein
• the PHI is stored in a source datastore and is logically represented by metadata stored in and accessible by a hyperconverged system, and
• the task includes a read-only operation and a write operation that modifies the PHI;
• and
• executing the task to manage the access to the PHI at least by:
• cloning the metadata into cloned metadata accessible by the hyperconverged system;
• executing the write operation that modifies the PHI into modified PHI, with no modification to the PHI in the source datastore, at least by referencing the cloned metadata and by storing the modified PHI in an ephemeral datastore in the hyperconverged system;
• executing the read-only operation to read the PHI from the source data store at least by referencing the metadata.