Our client is more than just one of the USA’s leading health care providers, it is also a world-renowned $19 billion, non-profit health enterprise. 

With a proven record of creating excellence in hospitals and health care systems in the United States, an international division was established in order to share this expertise across the world. 

By working side-by-side with its international partners, this global network not only develops long-term, mutually beneficial relationships, it also customises health care solutions to meet the clinical, operational, financial, and cultural needs of each particular region. 

The challenge. 

Our client has been steadily expanding its footprint across Europe; actively helping to advance the fields of patient care, biomedical research, telemedicine, education, construction planning, and IT solutions for the benefit of the country’s population. 

One life-saving example is a cancer centre based in Southern Italy, which for years has offered highly innovative radiotherapy treatments for oncological diseases. Recently, in order to make the very most of the new relationship and access the knowledge and expertise of the global medical community, the centre decided to invest in the very latest treatment system. 

The new software would be accessed via our client’s WAN network, as well as locally, so that it could be fully managed and supported from the United States as an integral part of its global infrastructure. Furthermore, it would need additional levels of security in the form of data-at-rest encryption; a feature that our client had never previously deployed. 

Crucially, our client had no deployment services in EMEA countries, so a solution was required that would enable them to procure and successfully install the necessary hardware without its physical presence. 

Acknowledging its growing reputation and proven track record in configuring, deploying and supporting critical IT infrastructure across EMEA, our client turned to Quadris for help. 

The solution. 

Our client initially supplied Quadris with a bill of materials that would be required in order to deliver the necessary infrastructure; a specification based on an All-Flash vSAN infrastructure with 4 nodes located at a single site. 

Quadris’ project management team reviewed the specifications and after making several relatively small, yet vitally important adjustments, our client accepted their recommendations. 

Furthermore, in order to overcome the difficulties posed by the geographic distance between our client and the work to be carried out onsite in Italy, Quadris facilitated a change to the network that enabled enhanced levels of access by the our client global team to the local network.  

As requested, Quadris was able to call upon its experience in order to add vSAN data-at-rest encryption to the list of security features. In the event of media loss or theft, access would be denied without the appropriate decryption key; safely stored in the Microsoft Azure cloud key vault. 

Impressed by this comprehensive approach, invaluable insights, intimate knowledge of the technologies involved, and willingness to go the extra mile, our client gave Quadris the green light to start work. 

The implementation. 

Before stepping onto Italian soil, Quadris’ employed its own unique and thorough implementation methodology or ‘predeployment’ whereby the entire system was firstly thoroughly tested at its UK data centre. This included a dedicated VPN to enable our client to deploy its software from the United States.  

Quadris then built the virtual machines that would operate on the vSAN cluster, setting them up in a ‘vanilla state’ ready for the installation of our client’s software applications. 

Only after being unboxed, racked, powered up, configured and tested so that it passed Quadris’ stringent assessment, was the system transported to Italy using a specialist courier. Once safely at its destination, Quadris’ own engineers installed the system on site, tested the end solution in its entirety before handing it over to our client’s global team.  

The deployment of the infrastructure wasn’t the end of Quadris’ involvement, as there were a number of additional obstacles that needed to be overcome. 

One of the biggest challenges was that our client also required that the system be integrated with its network hardware, sending over its own firewall and network switches. Quadris’ presence on the ground was instrumental; from helping to clear the hardware through customs, to connecting them to the vSAN infrastructure and ensuring it was all fully operational. 

Despite several obstacles that stood in its way, Quadris delivered the system delivered on site, preconfigured, racked, ready for software installation, and ahead of schedule. 

The key project benefits at a glance. 

• Provided turnkey project from system design, installation and handover for a client with no physical presence in the EMEA region.
• Fully integrated with our client’s WAN network so it can be fully managed and supported remotely from the United States as a part of its global infrastructure.
• Additional levels of security with vSAN data-at-rest encryption to ensure that data remains secure by preventing access without the appropriate decryption key.
• The entire system tested at Quadris’ own premises before being operationalised at the eventual site.
• System delivered on site, preconfigured, racked, ready for software installation and ahead of schedule.
• Proved the agility of Quadris’ services by working within our client’s timescales.

What challenges do you face?

To discuss your IT challenges and how we can help, just pick a slot in the calendar and Peter will be happy to help. Alternatively, feel free to call 0161 537 4980 and ask for Peter Grayson or email peter.grayson@quadris.co.uk