Recently, Datalink attended the HIMSS 2013 annual conference and exhibition where the focus of this year's event was on the convergence of three key elements: technology, health IT reform, and delivery of care. As an exhibitor and participant, we had a chance to interact with some of the largest healthcare systems in the country and discuss big data, healthcare reform, and data protection, as well as how Datalink is helping healthcare best utilized the advances in technology to deliver better patient experiences while meeting stringent information security requirements.
At our booth, we showcased our abilities to address healthcare requirements through virtualization and cloud enablement by highlighting some of the things we've already done. One use case we shared offers a great example of the positive -- and significant-- impact a new virtual data center can have on a healthcare organization.
Challenge: Multiple disparate servers, aging technology, a data center at maximum capacity, limited storage capabilities, escalating costs, and unplanned downtime
For this regional hospital system, Datalink designed and implemented a virtual data center that combined compute, network, and storage components into a single, unified architecture. Using FlexPod® technology, heterogeneous environments were consolidated into one high-performance, high-availability, secure infrastructure. Existing gear was optimized, while virtual infrastructure capabilities were used to deploy site-to-site and failover disaster recovery abilities.
Result: Reduced maintenance costs, increased efficiencies, timely access to patient data, and a projected net savings of $5.4 million over five years
One thing that we heard repeated again and again at the HIMSS conference was that there's definitely a lot going on in the healthcare industry right now, both in terms of technology and policy. But with change comes opportunity -- opportunity for technology, as a key enabler, to transform healthcare systems that will ultimately, impact all of us.