Deploying the biggest VxRail project in Danish history to advance the global fight against cancer
January 25, 2021

Independently rated as the best hospital in Denmark for the last 11 consecutive years, our client also hosts one of Europe’s largest and most successful oncology centres.  

But rather than resting on its laurels, in its continuing drive to improve patient care the hospital looked to a state-of-the-art Oncology Software System in order to take a major step forward in realising the vision of a cancer-free world.  

The move was a commitment to both the people of Denmark and the global oncology community; through shared expertise, information and technology that ultimately results in smart, efficient care of the very highest quality.  

The challenge.  

The investment in such a large and important external beam radiotherapy centre, the largest in Denmark, creates significant implications for the underlying host IT infrastructure and the team entrusted to design, deploy and support it.  

While there are many IT integrators who claim to be able to deploy the necessary infrastructure, the critical nature of the project meant that our client demanded the very highest degree of technical knowledge, supported by the very highest levels of ongoing service and monitoring.  

This landmark project called for an IT integrator that could not only bring the project to life, but also ensure the system is designed for maximum fault tolerance, and in the event of the loss of the primary production facility the fastest possible disaster recovery time.  

With a proven track record in configuring, deploying and supporting critical IT infrastructure, they turned to Quadris to undertake the largest VxRail deployment in Danish history. 

The solution. 

Quadris immediately set about turning the vision into reality, with sharp focus on 3 key areas: 

1. Infrastructure. 

The core compute and server infrastructure centred around an All-Flash stretched cluster VxRail solution, combined with a mix of E series and GPU equipped V series nodes. This platform supported a Citrix virtual desktop infrastructure running the new oncology software across a team of 300 clinicians.  

By utilising All-Flash combined with NVMe write cache drives, Quadris’ solution has been designed to deliver unparalleled storage performance; resulting in apps being far more responsive, and backups completed in record time. Furthermore, All-Flash overcomes the speed problems presented by older data missing cache, as a direct result historical reports and searches are completed just as quickly as new data. 

2. Fault tolerance and disaster recovery. 

With fault tolerance and disaster recovery high on the agenda, Quadris designed the application with the VxRail nodes divided between two separate physical locations in a stretched cluster configuration; yet managed as a single cluster. In the event of a site failure, all VM workloads are automatically moved to the second site and immediately powered up. As a result of this simple yet ingenious setup, tests have proven VM recovery times are less than a minute. 

Furthermore, Quadris also designed many of the VM workloads to work in an active-active configuration. So with machines split evenly between the sites, in the event of a system failure these systems will continue to operate without relying on the recovery of VMs. 

3. High-end graphics. 

Another major requirement of the solution was that the completed system would deliver future-proofed, high-end graphics. To this end, nVidia Grid card GPUs installed in the V Series nodes are passed through to Citrix VMs as vGPUs, in order to provide the best possible graphics and then rendered inside the Citrix virtual apps. 

The implementation. 

One of the key elements of Quadris’ proposal was its unique and thorough implementation methodology, whereby the entire system was tested before being operationalised at the eventual site. 

This ‘predeployment’ involved delivering the entire system to Quadris’ own premises, where it was unboxed, racked, powered up, configured and comprehensively tested. Then, and only then, was the proven system shipped over to Denmark where it was met by Quadris’ own engineers for installation across the 2 sites. On completion, expert technicians took over in order to carry out full acceptance testing and the installation of the system software. 

 Ongoing support. 

The successful implementation wasn’t the end of Quadris’ involvement, as full support in the form of a five-star maintenance service agreement is provided in order to support the solution throughout its entire lifecycle.  

At the heart of this ongoing support is Quadris’ proprietary Prevensys monitoring solution that delivers 24/7/365 monitoring and real-time alerting to service ticket requests. To complete the picture, Quadris continuously monitors trend performance over time; ensuring the system is always performing at the very peak of health, both now, and in the years to come. 

The key project benefits at a glance. 

  • Delivers unparalleled storage performance ensuring that apps are far more responsive and backups are completed in record time.
  • Historical reports and searches are completed just as quickly as new data.
  •  In the event of a site failure, all VM workloads are automatically moved to the second site and immediately powered up with recovery times <1minute .
  • nVidia Grid card GPUs installed in the V Series nodes are passed through to Citrix VMs as vGPUs in order to provide high-spec graphics rendered inside the Citrix virtual apps.
  • The entire system tested at Quadris’ own premises before being operationalised at the eventual site.
  • Full support through a comprehensive maintenance service agreement supported by Quadris’ proprietary Prevensys Monitoring solution.
  • 24/7/365 alerting continuously monitors all aspects of the solution to ensure optimal performance at all times.

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 

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