eCommerce(800) 886-5369
Contact
eCommerce(800) 886-5369
BlueAllyBlueAlly
Contact

Automation to Reduce Implementation Costs in the Healthcare Industry

Our client, a medical college, needed a new hospital network that could serve its growing patient population while supporting modern healthcare technologies and existing legacy systems. This project presented significant complexities, entailing network design, evaluation of infrastructure requirements, implementation, and deployment. The medical college lacked the technical knowledge required to complete this project on time and under budget, resulting in our client seeking third-party assistance.
The medical college chose BlueAlly as a trusted partner due to our technological expertise and experience in tailoring solutions to the unique requirements of specialized industries. In addition to designing and deploying network infrastructure, we also implemented automation to expedite network configuration, resulting in 75% cost savings. Through our proprietary automation methodology, BlueAlly deployed a cost-effective, future-proofed network that can scale to the medical college’s expanding patient load while offering the reliability and security required for our client’s lifesaving services.

Exterior of modern architecture. Building abstract background

The Client

Our client is one of the oldest American medical colleges. The college has over 35,000 students and over 4,000 employees.

med students

The Client

Our client is one of the oldest American medical colleges. The college has over 35,000 students and over 4,000 employees.

The Problem

This network design and deployment posed immense complexities, necessitating the extension of a Layer 2 network throughout the hospital to support critical legacy systems needed for audio distribution, building automation, and other functions. However, the medical college also needed Layer 3 segmentation to support modern technologies while complying with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements and other health data privacy regulations. 

Our client’s new network had to maximize availability, security, and low-latency performance, as even one second of downtime could result in dire consequences for patient care. This project’s vast scope included configuring approximately 13,500 Cisco switch interfaces. If completed manually, this network configuration would have required 3-4 months of labor from a full-time network engineering team, highlighting the need for automation to complete the project on schedule.

The BlueAlly Solution

Our skilled technicians worked closely with the hospital’s IT and networking teams to ensure the new network design met our client’s technological specifications and strict industry regulations. BlueAlly leveraged a Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN) to achieve Layer 3 segmentation while extending a Layer 2 network across the medical college’s infrastructure footprint to support legacy systems. This converged networking infrastructure included virtual routing and forwarding (VRFs) systems to meet our client’s segmentation requirements for improved security. Layer 3 segmentation also improved performance and reliability by ensuring critical services such as bedside monitoring and nurse call systems operated without interference from less critical network traffic.

Considering the sheer number of ports requiring configuration across our client’s immense infrastructure, we leveraged a proprietary automation methodology to significantly reduce implementation time while providing documentation that streamlined future remediation. We built scripts to take connectivity requests from patch panels, subsystems, devices, switches in server closets, and more. Then, we ran the script set to identify open ports on the switches, assign new ports, facilitate updates, and configure the devices. This methodology minimized manual intervention significantly, reducing configuration times to less than a minute per port.

The Results

Our automation strategy shortened the network configuration timeline from 14 weeks to 4 weeks, saving our client substantial labor costs without sacrificing efficiency or accuracy. This methodology also resulted in a fully documented network infrastructure, enabling efficient troubleshooting and maintenance for the medical college’s engineering teams. 

Through this collaboration, BlueAlly designed and deployed a robust network infrastructure suited to the medical college’s specialized industry requirements, then leveraged proprietary automation to provide significant cost and time savings. By improving the security, scalability, and performance of the medical college’s network, we positioned our client for long-term growth and innovation, enhancing its ability to serve its patients through lifesaving technologies.

Cost-Savings_Blue

Cost Savings

Reduced manual intervention to lower labor costs by 75%.

Efficiency

Efficiency

Improved operational efficiency and decreased implementation time through automation.

Documents

Documentation

Extensive documentation enabled future troubleshooting of network issues.

Security

Security

Layer 3 segmentation ensured our client complied with stringent data privacy requirements.