San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center Looks ... - Extreme Networks

Extreme Networks Case Study: San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center (SLVRMC)
San Luis Valley
Regional Medical
Center Looks to
Extreme Networks
for Reliability and
Manageability
Extreme Networks supports mission
critical healthcare technologies in
Colorado medical center
San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center (SLVRMC) is a 49-bed regional
medical center, operating a level III trauma center, with valley-wide
ambulance service and flight for life relations. Located in the middle
of the lovely San Luis Valley of South Central Colorado, it is the largest
medical facility in the valley, and the center works closely with two large
clinics; one dedicated to specialists and the other to family practice
and outreach.
Time for a Network Health Boost
In early 2010, SLVRMC had a network based on a variety of switches
that were reaching end-of-life, and some of the organization’s needs in
the near future, such as wireless access and more, were going to be
difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. SLVRMC decided it was time to
revamp its network. The information technology (IT) team worked with
CareTech Solutions, an IT and Web products and services provider for
more than 200 U.S. hospitals, to decide on a new switch vendor.
“We went in with a set list of needs, including Quality of Service,
compatibility, and scalability,” said Patricia Allvin, client executive with
CareTech Solutions. “We planned on expanding our wireless footprint,
extending the Voice-over-IP system, and adding other new technologies
as they came along, and we went into the new vendor decision with
those things in mind.”
SLVRMC needed a solution that would fit in with the rest of the
network right away. “We have a multi-vendor environment, so we
needed something that we could plug in a few switches at a time
and they’d work right away,” said Allvin. SLVRMC looked at switches
from the leading vendors, with sights set on reliability, performance,
cost-efficiency, vendor support, and the ability to meet future goals.
Extreme Networks® was ultimately chosen.
Challenge
SLVRMC had a hodgepodge of outdated and underperforming
network switches that were not going to
live up to the needs of new technologies and users. It
was time to revamp the network.
Solution
Extreme Networks provided the powerful network
solution necessary to support healthcare applications
as well as future applications (voice, PACS, etc.).
Extreme Networks Ethernet Automatic Protection
Switching (EAPS) delivers sub-50 millisecond failover
in the case of an outage, which is crucial for the center.
Benefits
• Extreme Networks met the firm’s top priorities,
including reliability, stability, and availability, as
well as the ability to support future technologies.
• Ridgeline and ExtremeXOS streamline
management and troubleshooting, saving time
for busy staff.
• EAPS allows for failover, which means voice and
data traffic still gets through even in the case of a
network outage.
The Remedy
NACR, an Extreme Networks integration partner, provided SLVRMC
with two Summit® X450a switches in the core and more than four
dozen Summit 450e switches at the edge. Summit 250e switches
were deployed for the VoIP phone system, and Ridgeline®, a
full-featured network and service management tool, simplifies
configuration, provisioning, troubleshooting and status monitoring
of the entire network.
Make Your Network Mobile

Extreme Networks Case Study: San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center (SLVRMC)
“Extreme Networks provided us with the performance and
reliability we needed,” said Allvin. “There are not a lot of
differences in capabilities between Extreme Networks and Cisco,
yet there is a huge cost difference. Everyone benefits from the
new network – it simply doesn’t fail and it used to go down all the
time before Extreme Networks was deployed.”
“Before Extreme, with the Cisco network, while it was stable at
times, it was difficult to manage with all the varying OS’s,” said Bill
Hurst, IT project manager/network administrator, CareTech. “It was
cumbersome and at times we’d have switches crashing on us.
After the switch to Extreme Networks, the network’s been rock
solid and we haven’t had any issues. It’s easy to manage, and we’re
able to look at it from a high level so we can anticipate future
needs and troubleshoot any potential problems.”
The Benefits
The Summit X450a is based on ExtremeXOS®, a highly resilient,
modular operating system that provides continuous uptime,
manageability and operational efficiency. “ExtremeXOS is very
user-friendly, so much so that even without Ridgeline, it’s easy to
log into the Extreme Networks switch and make changes,” said
Hurst. “It’s intuitive and easy, and where it took five to seven minutes
for backup with Cisco, it takes one to two for Extreme Networks.”
Offering a comprehensive set of network management
applications for the network and its elements, Extreme Networks
Ridgeline delivers network and service management, while adding
valuable and intuitive features that help save time by streamlining
common tasks. “It’s refreshing to have such an easy network to
manage, because Ridgeline makes it so easy and quick to see any
potential troubles.”
In addition, SLVRMC also benefits from Ethernet Automatic
Protection Switching (EAPS). This open protocol allows the
rerouting of traffic – data, voice, video – in less than 50
milliseconds in the event of a network link failure, delivering
continuous operation. “We have EAPS in place with stacking
where the stack is one logical switch, and recovery is in
milliseconds. We’ve actually done some hard testing so we know it
works perfectly,” said Hurst. “Then in terms of real-world, we had
to replace a switch and we relied on EAPS, and failover worked
flawlessly – it was amazing.”
“Extreme Networks is a great option for healthcare organizations
like SLVRMC that are looking for reliability, availability,
performance and cost-effectiveness,” concludes Allvin. “Extreme
Networks produces excellent technology and the people behind
the products are knowledgeable and responsive. I’m still really
busy, but it’s not because of the network anymore.”
“Extreme Networks is a great option for healthcare
organizations like SLVRMC that are looking for
reliability, availability, performance and
cost-effectiveness.”
– Patricia Allvin,
Client Executive,
CareTech Solutions
“After the switch to Extreme Networks, the network’s
been rock solid and we haven’t had any issues. It’s easy
to manage, and we’re able to look at it from a high
level so we can anticipate future needs and
troubleshoot any potential problems.”
– Bill Hurst,
IT Project Manager/Network Administrator,
CareTech Solutions
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subject to change without notice. 1917_02 10/13