As a healthcare organization that relies on data to better care for patients, Coastal Medical faced a critical imperative: leveraging data to enhance patient care while simultaneously safeguarding that data with utmost diligence. This dual responsibility creates a unique set of challenges, particularly when it comes to data management and protection.
The Importance of Data in Modern Healthcare
As a healthcare organization serving over 120,000 patients across Rhode Island, Coastal Medical relies heavily on data to drive decision-making, improve patient outcomes, and streamline operations. This data encompasses a wide range of information, including:
- Patient medical records
- Treatment plans and histories
- Diagnostic imaging results
- Laboratory test results
- Billing and insurance information
- Operational and administrative data
The criticality of this information cannot be overstated. It forms the backbone of Coastal Medical's ability to deliver high-quality, patient-centered care. However, with great data comes great responsibility.
Rapid data growth was causing performance issues with its legacy storage arrays. To improve performance and take advantage of the flexibility of a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), Coastal Medical migrated to Nutanix from its previous 3-tier storage environment.
The infrastructure is now 100% Nutanix, using Nutanix AHV.
They had been using a popular backup and recovery software for virtual infrastructure, when the Coastal IT team decided they needed something different. “Our previous solution was hard to use, and the UI was terrible,” according to Coastal Medical System Administrator Roger Melo. “I manage more than 100 servers, so I need to be able to just get the problem solved, back up the server and move on to other things. The product we were using was more complicated than I had time for.”
Solution
At a Nutanix .NEXT event, Melo was introduced to HYCU. “I saw it and I thought it was amazing,” he recalls, noting HYCU’s simplicity of operation. Anxious to try something different, Melo implemented HYCU in Coastal Medical’s DR facility first to see how it would perform.
“We backed up our DR servers and it was so much easier,” Melo says. Based on this successful proof of concept, he moved to implement HYCU on the production Nutanix cluster. The HYCU solution now provides full backup and recovery for Coastal Medical’s entire environment, up to 30TB of data at times to the DR facility.
Based on the positive outcomes in the DR environment, Coastal Medical proceeded to implement HYCU on their production Nutanix cluster. This expansion allowed them to leverage HYCU's capabilities across their entire infrastructure.
The full deployment of HYCU now provides comprehensive backup and recovery for Coastal Medical's complete environment, handling up to 30TB of data at times, all backed up to their DR facility. This robust solution ensures that all of Coastal Medical's critical data, including sensitive patient information, is protected and readily recoverable.
Benefits of HYCU
Easy deployment
One of the standout features of HYCU is its native integration with Nutanix, which allows for remarkably swift deployment. Melo emphasizes this point, stating, "The level of integration is incredible." This tight integration not only accelerates the initial setup but also ensures ongoing compatibility and optimal performance.
Simplified management
HYCU provides a “single pane of glass” for managing backup and recovery across the entire Nutanix environment. Melo gives high marks for the intuitive dashboard, enabling him to see at a glance whether servers are compliant, discovered, and protected. It also enables him to spot potential issues quickly, accelerating response. “If I see something red, I can immediately drill down to get to the virtual machine that causing the problem. That’s really great.”
Rapid restore times
HYCU’s fast restore performance minimizes business disruption. While Coastal Medical has not experienced an outage since deploying HYCU, Melo says he performs quarterly test restores to ensure preparedness. “HYCU always works flawlessly. The response times have been great. And the file restore is a fantastic function.”
The implementation of HYCU has transformed Coastal Medical's approach to data protection, aligning their backup and recovery capabilities with the high performance and simplicity of their Nutanix HCI environment. This synergy between infrastructure and data protection creates a robust foundation that supports Coastal Medical's mission to deliver high-quality, cost-efficient, patient-centered care.
About the customer
By ensuring the availability and integrity of critical healthcare data, HYCU plays a vital role in Coastal Medical's ability to serve its 120,000 patients across Rhode Island. The solution's ease of use, rapid recovery capabilities, and seamless integration with Nutanix allow the IT team to focus on strategic initiatives rather than getting bogged down in complex backup management tasks.
As healthcare continues to evolve and the importance of data in patient care grows, solutions like HYCU will be increasingly crucial in helping organizations like Coastal Medical navigate the complex landscape of data management and protection.
For healthcare providers and other organizations looking to enhance their Nutanix, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform backup strategy, HYCU offers a compelling solution that combines power, simplicity, and reliability. To learn more about how HYCU can support your data protection needs, visit www.hycu.com or email info@hycu.com.
By embracing innovative technologies like Nutanix HCI and HYCU, Coastal Medical demonstrates its commitment to leveraging cutting-edge solutions to support its core mission: delivering exceptional patient care in an ever-changing healthcare landscape.
Additional Stories
.jpeg)
.jpg)
.png){kind=small}
