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CASE STUDY“Microsoft licensing became too burdensome,so we looked for lower-cost alternativesand found that many of our large vendorswere providing support for Linux andopen source,” Leader said. “As we purchasenew software, we look for vendors who runon Linux. Eventually, we would like to runour entire organization on Linux.”A solid disaster recovery strategy is alsoan integral part of HIPAA compliance.With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, CHWis implementing redundant systems fasterand at a lower cost than with proprietaryplatforms.“The flexibility we have with SUSE Linuxhas exceeded our expectations,” Leadersaid. “There is no way we could keep upwith rapid change if we continued to manageproprietary platforms. We now have acost-effective way to remain compliant andmaintain high availability.”ResultsWith a Novell identity and access managementsolution, Catholic Healthcare Westcentralized identity management across itsdiverse enterprise and reduced initial useradministration time by 70%. The organizationhas increased security with role-basedaccess, auditing capabilities, and streamlinedprovisioning and deprovisioning toimmediately grant or revoke access.“Before implementing the Novell solution,we provisioned users in a hundred differentways,” Leader said. “We didn’t think we couldstreamline this process without substantiallyincreasing our staff. With the Novell solution,we have a high-quality, yet cost-effectivesolution that actually frees up much of ourstaff to work on other projects.”Running SUSE Linux Enterprise serverhas improved performance for several mission-criticalsystems, while significantly reducinghardware costs and reducing serveradministration time by 25%. The organizationanticipates an estimated cost savings of$1.5 million.“Novell’s support for Linux has beenexcellent,” Leader said. “We’ve now movedLinux from a hypothetical idea to a missioncriticalplatform in our organization.”LINUXWORLD MAGAZINE WWW.LINUXWORLD.COM“We operate in a highly regulatedenvironment where the requirementsare always changing. We simply hadto consolidate identity managementor we would see a huge increase intime spent managing regulatory issues.The identity and access managementsolution provided by Novellhelps us stay ahead of the curve.”“Novell’s support for Linux has beenexcellent. We’ve now moved Linuxfrom a hypothetical idea to a mission-criticalplatform in our organization.”— Eric LeaderChief Technology ArchitectCatholic Healthcare Westwww.LinuxWorld.com29APRIL 2006