INDUSTRY WATCH

the largest health care system in central Massachusetts . It is the clinical partner of UMass Medical School , with access to the latest technology , research and clinical trials .

Its hospitals receive full accreditation by the Joint Commission , a national organization that sets quality standards for hospitals . In addition to its fully equipped hospitals , UMass Memorial Health Care ’ s system also includes home health and hospice programs , behavioral health programs and community-based physician practices .

UMass Memorial Health Care has an affiliation with CareWell Urgent Care to provide regional urgent care services . Also , the UMass Memorial Medical Group provides high quality , low-cost outpatient surgery services at The Surgery Center in Shrewsbury .

The challenge

Kevin Davis , Senior Storage Engineer , Systems Administration and Information Services for UMass Memorial Health Care knows that in today ’ s digitally focused world , extraordinary healthcare is not ensured by the medical professionals alone . To provide exceptional care and services , healthcare organizations must employ equally advanced , innovative and reliable technology .

Earlier this year , the UMass Memorial Health Care data center recognized it was time to update a portion of its data storage infrastructure . It was and still is , employing an EMC Isilon scale out network-attached storage platform ( now Dell EMC ) to manage and store a variety of data , including medical applications and patient records , as well as administrative files . The goal was to move all of this data off the Isilon and on to new , higher performing and more secure NetApp storage .

“ The Isilon had over a petabyte of NAS data , but any engineer that is confronting having to move data across platforms , let alone this much data , understands the problems that can arise can be insurmountable ,” explained Davis .

“ Making things even more complicated is that although much of the data is decades old and we estimated that about 70 % of it should be archived , the Isilon is still in production , so new businesscritical data is being written to it all the time . And the data is complex – there are countless disparate apps being used by the doctors and departments across the UMass Memorial Health Care network .”

“ As we began to plan , it felt like when you move houses and you throw everything you own into boxes to bring to your new home , even though you know that much of it should be put into storage , or gotten rid of altogether ,” Davis said . “ Plus , we had an added pressure to move quickly . The Isilon had been end-of-lifed , meaning updates , support and services are now virtually non-existent . So , not www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO

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