Johannesburg, 05 Apr 2006
The innovirInstitute is an independent trust that combines innovative science with superior diagnostic and treatment facilities, and a new generation of educational products. It invests its financial, manpower and information technology resources in the field of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.
Its three divisions link their considerable expertise to form a synergistic healthcare group that positively influences clinical outcomes and quality of life. This unique approach is designed to benefit healthcare funders by ensuring optimal utilisation of financial resources.
The institute has long believed in standardising on a hardware vendor, and has had a long and fruitful association with Fujitsu Siemens Computers, and Siemens Nixdorf prior to this. The last major technology purchase/upgrade was in 1998. This equipment has served the institute`s requirements exceptionally well and aside from undertaking minor upgrades, predominantly in the area of RAM and hard disc capacity, the institute has maintained its primary platform in standard condition. With the refresh programme, the institute was able to sell its "old" equipment for a fair price, testimony to the value of a branded platform standard.
In 2005, the institute decided to embark on a technology refreshment programme. "When we investigated the options of a refresh, more than upgrading to the latest technology, we wanted to reap efficiencies from our technology investment," says Eric Benz, managing director of the innovirInstitute group of companies. "It was also important to us to increase aspects of security as the information that we handle is extremely confidential and sensitive. We decided on a thin client application as this would radically reduce our operating costs through centralising our resources. I believe that the weakest point of our entire operational network is the user, and thin client would give us more effective control over this weakness. I reviewed several thin client case studies and attended the Citrix conference, where I learned about Citrix Access Essentials. Furthermore, we had substantial success with a remote location in Swaziland that operated as a thin client, and this reinforced our decision."
As an SME running less than 75 concurrent users, the institute benefits from added Citrix utilities. These include an offsite/online ability through a Web access option which is extremely secure. The mobility element of this option is enabled through any network connection including GPRS. One uncertainty that had to be addressed was the question of integration between Microsoft, Citrix and in-house developed applications.
"Fortunately we did not experience any setbacks in this regard," says Jacques du Preez, Managing Director of NetSight, innovirInstitute`s Fujitsu Siemens Computers Reseller Partner of choice. "There are some serious cost-saving benefits within the architecture and we have cut costs through the `centralised architecture` approach."
The institute has selected the following hardware within its technology refresh and upgrade:
1 X Fujitsu Siemens Computers Server Rack with:
* 2 x PRIMERGY RX200 S2
* 1 X PRIMERGY RX100 S2
* 1 X SX 10 Backup and Storage Drive
* 1 X S30 Disc Array (maxed) and
* Multi-Stage backup
* Microsoft Media Centre
* 10 X FUTRO Thin-Client stations
* SCENICVIEW Flat Screen monitors
* Telephone system (SIEMENS)
* UPS and batteries
With security being a substantial issue, the institute has opted for standardising on Cisco networking components. The firewalls within this are substantial and give greater in-house control and responsibility for system integrity.
The system refresh was developed to provide significant headroom for expansion and more than adequately copes with the institute`s 4 800 patients. While the refresh programme has been substantially complex, the efficiencies reaped by the technology have freed up valuable human resources, allowing the institute to increase the number of training events it holds while reducing travelling costs (internationally) by 90-95%. This cost saving is achieved through linking the network to the institute`s Tandberg video satellite communications system, thus making it possible to provide live scheduled training sessions to over 160 countries simultaneously. Because of the link to the Fujitsu Siemens Computers network, additional training material can be accessed during a training session by simply pulling the material into view of the students with the terminal`s mouse.
Aside from the cost-saving elements of the refresh programme, the architecture of the institute`s new infrastructure provides security, control and manageability within a consolidated environment, reducing TCO and system management costs.
"The Fujitsu Siemens Computers technology, combined with the expertise and added value from NetSight, have resulted in a technology refresh that adequately addresses our requirements," concludes Benz.
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