Servers deliver 24/7 online access to data and applications.February 22, 2008 -
Offering uptime reliability in excess of 99.999%, medical-grade servers enable healthcare practices to computerize critical data such as patient charts and financial information. Solutions deliver uninterrupted, 24/7 access to digital data and information, promoting quality of care, workflow efficiency, automated decision support, and effective management. In addition to serving as application platforms, servers also support virtualization initiatives.
(Archive News Story - Products mentioned in this Archive News Story may or may not be available from the manufacturer.)
Original Press release
Stratus Technologies
111 Powdermill Rd.
Maynard, MA, 01754-3409
USA
Stratus Medical Grade Servers Deliver 24/7 Online Information Access and Application Availability
Healthcare industry's drive to digitize data creates need for 99.999% server uptime reliability
MAYNARD, Mass., Feb. 19 -- With virtually all healthcare record keeping and patient care functions converting to electronic formats, Stratus Technologies, Inc. today announced a class of industry-standard "medical grade" servers that provide the extreme reliability healthcare practices need to confidently computerize critical data such as patient charts and financial information.
Stratus medical grade servers are field-proven to be capable of delivering the uninterrupted 24/7 access to digital data and information that ensure quality of care, workflow efficiency, automated decision support, effective management and cost control. In addition to being an ideal application platform, Stratus medical grade servers can support virtualization initiatives to cut IT overhead by consolidating applications on fewer physical servers.
According to Gartner Inc. Healthcare Research Director Barry R. Hieb, M.D, "As healthcare continues the migration to increasing reliance on clinical automation systems, high-availability hardware will become accepted as an infrastructure necessity. Equally important as raw availability will be ease of management and the ability to perform both hardware and software upgrades while the application continues to execute."
Stratus medical grade servers are designed to prevent failure and downtime. That sets them apart from conventional high-availability servers, which are designed to recover after a failure has occurred and disrupted operations. The specialized architecture, complete component redundancy and self-diagnosing and servicing features of Stratus servers provide uptime reliability in excess of 99.999 percent -- less than five minutes per year in continuous operation.
"When all your physicians are relying on electronic charts and documentation, you can't afford to have the system down at all," said Ryan Bonner, IT manager for the 80-employee Orthopedic Center of St. Louis. "That is the reliability Stratus medical grade ftServer systems provide. We have had nothing but success with it."
More than 400 Stratus ftServer systems are installed in hospitals, clinics and physician practices worldwide. The company allies with leading software providers and systems integrators, including firms such as Agfa, Sage and JJWild/MEDITECH, to deliver comprehensive, resilient system solutions to the healthcare industry. Further, as virtualization technology sweeps through IT data centers everywhere, the need for a trustworthy physical host platform has never been more necessary.
According to Mark R. Anderson, CEO of AC Group, "Healthcare organizations face numerous issues and problems on a daily basis. One area of growing importance is technology uptime when mission-critical clinical applications are deployed. Based on our research, if a system is not available a minimum of 99.99 percent (four 9's) of the time, healthcare organizations will not consider the application reliable enough to use in the future. Based on our published study, Cost of Downtime, every "9" below the 99.99 percent costs the average 300-bed hospital more than $3 million per year and over $1 million for the average 50-provider practice. Given the cost of downtime, we recommend that all of our clients seek out hardware vendors offering a minimum uptime of 99.999 percent."
This trend in the healthcare industry also increases pressure upon the IT organizations and professional staff charged with supporting computer-based operations. "A confluence of healthcare market forces -- not the least of which are payer and federal mandates -- are causing rapid growth in information technology infrastructures, along with increasing responsibilities assigned to the IT professionals who must manage these infrastructures," said Alan Gilbert, healthcare practice leader for Stratus. "But while the infrastructure and responsibilities expand, IT staff size likely remains the same. The reliability and self-managing features of Stratus medical grade servers leave staff free to attend to more urgent demands upon their time."
Stratus' line of medical grade servers is built with Intel dual- and quad- core processors. All models support applications written for Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems. Stratus ftServer systems also support VMware Infrastructure 3.0 virtualization software.
About Stratus Technologies
Stratus Technologies is a global solutions provider focused exclusively on helping its customers achieve and sustain the availability of information systems that support their critical business processes. Based upon its 28 years of expertise in server and services technology for continuous availability, Stratus is a trusted solutions provider to customers in healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, telecommunications, financial services, public safety, transportation & logistics, and other industries. For more information, visit www.stratus.com.
Stratus and ftServer are registered trademarks of Stratus Technologies Bermuda Ltd. The Stratus Technologies logo is a trademark of Stratus Technologies Bermuda Ltd. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
Contacts:
Ed Marshall
Beaupre & Co. Public Relations
603-559-5816
emarshall@beaupre.com
Ken Donoghue
Stratus Technologies
978-461-7269
ken.donoghue@stratus.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 
