HealthShare NZ selects Emulex to monitor critical network traffic

With 77 percent of health expenditure funded by the public through taxes, each DHB needs to provide excellent service with low operational expenditure (OPEX) in order to keep their patient base and funding which, in turn, funds HealthShare NZ. Previously, when HealthShare NZ had encountered network-related issues, post-remediation was slow, as inter-departmental team members had to manually analyze log files by using laptops, WireShark and spanned network ports, to determine the root cause and resolution of the issue. HealthShare NZ needed an easier way to track and trace real world events so that when a customer called, the issue could be resolved quickly. HealthShare NZ selected Emulex to deploy an EndaceProbe INR and EndaceVision, providing powerful visualization capabilities that allow complete and efficient access to the network traffic responsible for network events, while pinpointing root cause quickly.

“As a service provider to five DHBs, we have to quickly discover the cause of IT-related issues that restrict access to patient medical data. The EndaceProbe INR and EndaceVision solution gave us instant return on investment (ROI) when an MRI file could not be accessed. We resolved the issue within 6 minutes where before, this issue could have taken us days to resolve as we combed through thousands of network log files,” said Grant Ardern, chief technology officer, HealthShare NZ. “We now have 100 percent confidence that when the phone rings, we can quickly pinpoint an issue and resolve it since we have all the facts and are not second guessing what the issue could be.”

EndaceVision allows analysts to quickly pinpoint the cause of an issue, while eliminating false positives and eliminates previous inter-departmental conflicts as analysts no longer need to speculate on the cause of an issue. Faster time-to-resolution (TTR) in determining the true root cause ultimately enhanced the management of inter-departmental relationships while allowing for maximum resource utilization across affected IT teams. Ultimately, the Emulex solution allows HealthShare NZ to deliver the service levels required for its five DHBs, with 100 percent traffic capture and a large rotating buffer of long-term storage, providing post remediation support and ensuring that DHBs have access to patient data when they need it.

“HealthShare NZ is a superb example of an organization that requires the utmost in network security and maximum uptime, as patient data is not only highly confidential, it is critically important to have access to it at any time, while ensuring data is safe and uncompromised,” said Ali Hedayati, senior vice president and general manager, Network Visibility Products, Emulex. “The Emulex solution for HealthShare has given them the rapid TTR, complete network performance monitoring and maximized IT resource utilization that is crucial to any company’s bottom line, especially a non-profit that relies on public funding to grow its organization. This also benefits HealthShare’s patients by helping to ensure that patient data is available when needed.”