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From the November 2003 Issue PACS as an Enterprise Resource |
Simplified Service Georgia healthcare network implements KVM solution for improved server management. By Rick Allen Founded in response to community need for quality healthcare, Gwinnett Health System (GHS), based in Lawrenceville, Ga., began with a single clinic in 1943. The not-for-profit healthcare network now serves a community that has grown during the past 60 years to include all of Gwinnett County and the surrounding area and a population of more than 600,000 people. With three hospitals, multiple outpatient care centers and medical offices, rehabilitation centers and more, GHS employs more than 3,800 people and has more than 700 affiliated physicians. GHS uses and stores huge amounts of data, so it requires an efficient and secure information systems infrastructure. However, the organization had 92 servers dispersed around the main campus because there was no room for them in the data center. Some were even stashed in closets. Five Intel server administrators, one UNIX administrator and one MPE administrator were challenged with maintaining a scattered array of servers and platforms including Intel-based Novell and Windows (NT and 2000), HP 3000, HP 9000, IBM RISC6000 and Sun. With the information services administrative offices in a separate building from the data center and servers that were located all over campus, our administrators had to deal with inefficiency and inconvenience to access servers for routine maintenance, troubleshooting, rebooting and making fixes. GHS had additional concerns. Power consumption in the data center was pushed to the limit. With our overflowing data center and overworked IT staff, we had no way to accommodate the projected growth in systems and applications during the next year. Monitors and servers were plugged into a daisy chain of surge protectors—up to six in a line plugged into a single outlet. None of the outlying servers were monitored on a regular basis. Since the deadline for HIPAA compliance loomed on the regulatory horizon, our organization needed rock-solid security, with server access controlled through role-based access. Switching Strategies Our IT staff knew they needed to get the data center and its outlying servers back into control. In July 2002, we began looking for a virtual keyboard, video and mouse (KVM) solution to access each server from a single workstation. Using this technology, administrators can securely access the functions they need to diagnose, control and fix network devices, regardless of platform or location. It also frees up space by eliminating the need for each server to have its own keyboard, monitor and mouse, so we could eliminate daisy-chained power strips and move more servers into the server room with space to spare. We also concentrated our efforts on IP-based switching, because we needed to consolidate and distribute access all at the same time. IP-based digital KVM solutions enable network administrators to easily access any connected device over TCP/IP (Ethernet) network connections—even via the Internet. They allow full control of all devices on the network, right down to the BIOS level, and are both secure and operating system-independent. After evaluating different systems, GHS chose Avocent’s KVM over IP switching in September 2002 based on support, functionality and my experience with Avocent’s products in a previous employer’s data center. Using a TCP/IP connection for digital control via a Windows interface, this switching eliminated the distance obstacles that faced us on a daily basis, opened space in the data center and made maintaining systems easier by putting network equipment at our administrators’ fingertips—even if some of that equipment is in the building next door or thousands of miles away. In addition, by implementing IP-based KVM technology, we were able to use GHS’ existing network cabling infrastructure as its KVM communication medium, eliminating the need to run dedicated cable between switches. Later that month, GHS installed KVM over IP switching, including Avocent’s DSView, DSR2161, CPS800 and OutLook systems, at a cost of about $20,000. Virtual Control With the new switching system in place, our IT staff was able to remove 23 monitors from the server room immediately, freeing up enough space in the data center for four new server racks. Outlying servers were moved into the protected environment as well, and now the data center houses more than 100 servers thanks to that reclaimed space—up from 42 servers when the project began. Security is further enhanced because we were able to eliminate the maze of power strips that fueled all of the monitors, so now we are better able to leverage the uninterrupted power supply units in the data center. Power consumption is down, too. Although the most obvious savings that GHS realized with the entire implementation was in the recovery of critical data center space, the real benefits come from the resulting quality-of-service advances. The KVM over IP technology has enabled our IT staff to provide a means for efficient centralized monitoring and management of the servers, allowing us to deliver a higher level of system, data and application availability to our IS customers. Now, our administrators can manage the servers—to the boot level—from their desks or remotely, over the Web, so troubleshooting is easier, problems get solved faster and routine maintenance schedules are easy to adhere to. After making necessary changes to a server’s configuration, an administrator can monitor the entire process while the device reboots as if he were sitting in front of it. Finally, the new system gives us the ability to tie console access into the active directory environment, so now the system provides total server access to administrators, limited access to other personnel and no access to the general public, thus meeting HIPAA requirements.
Rick Allen is the director of IS operations at Gwinnett Health System, Lawrenceville, Ga. Contact him at rallen@ghsnet.org. For more information about Avocent’s KVM over IP systems, www.rsleads.com/311ht-200 © 2003 Nelson Publishing, Inc |
All of this greatly improves our productivity, as well as our quality of service, so we expect to expand on the Avocent platform.