Denver Health Calls on NetScout During Major VoIP Rollout

DENVER -- Denver Health is using the nGenius Performance Management Solution from NetScout Systems. Initially deployed to resolve existing issues and proactively manage performance of Voice over IP (VoIP) services, Denver Health has expanded its investment in the nGenius Solution with an eye towards enabling streaming video and ensuring rapid access to critical applications such as Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS).
Denver Health has a large campus environment with 18,000 ports and a fiber backbone. It presently has 20 remote sites. With 3,400 wireless access points campus-wide, the network currently averages 600 simultaneous wireless user sessions; both the number of access points and the number of simultaneous user sessions will likely double over the next 12 months.
“We have VoIP, PACs and EMRs. We have medical devices, streaming video and new users coming on to the network, plus we have substantial growth in our wireless usage,” said Adam Bradley, Denver Health’s network manager. “NetScout allows us to see what traffic is coming across.”
Denver Health’s needs have evolved over time to require streaming video for education and collaboration. The IT organization is using the nGenius Solution to ensure quality and bandwidth availability for the streaming video but not at the expense of other essential networked applications such as PACS.
Denver Health also recently leveraged the nGenius Solution to enhance communication between the network and application teams, when Siemens’ Enterprise Document Management (EDM) replaced the medical records system and also assumed a greatly expanded role within daily operations. “Overnight, we went from 300 users to 1200 users, and in the first few days the EDM deployment team was very interested to know how the application was doing on the network,” says Bradley. “Instead of saying we’d have to check and let them know later, we pulled up nGenius System reports and shared the information with them.”
“Denver Health’s investment in the nGenius Solution reflects their commitment to reducing troubleshooting time and proactive network management,” said John Downing, vice president, worldwide sales for NetScout Systems. “Their achievement of 100 percent uptime for two years running is testament to the fact that performance can be assured despite rollouts of major new technologies and applications, and NetScout is excited to be playing a role in their success.”