Ontario-based Sudbury Regional Hospital, which hosts health information in the region, has invested US$2 million in a new data center to meet the growing healthcare demands for storage.
As a result of a cost-sharing agreement whereby it shares PACS images and reports with six other organizations through NEHSA (North Eastern Health Services Alliance), where it supports the software and manages all updates and upgrades on the group's behalf, it required more storage and equipment.
Sudbury Regional Hospital's existing data centers were too small to accommodate this required expansion, so the decision was taken to construct a new facility.
Within three months, IBM and partner FM Engineering Services helped engineer, design and construct the 1,200 square foot data center. Consulting services, servers and a 20TB storage system were all supplied, alongside two UPS systems, three air-conditioning units and a fire suppression system.
The hospital intends to migrate away form its primary data center in a planned and slow process and has no plans at present, to close its existing data centers.