National infrastructure and network integration specialist Integr8 IT has provided its networking skills and expertise to successfully clear up traffic on the wide area network (WAN) running through Medi-Clinic, a major player within the South African private healthcare industry.
A re-configuration of the institution`s Cisco equipment has resulted in a significant increase in productivity and efficiency, and a substantial cost saving.
Francois Conradie at Integr8 IT says Medi-Clinic experienced issues with WAN-related traffic because of so-called `traffic spurts` that cause delays and data loss.
"Our analysis showed that although the WAN links were sufficiently capable of carrying the appropriate traffic, problems occurred because proper policing on the bandwidth was not being addressed," says Conradie.
The solution lay in re-configuring Medi-Clinic`s Cisco equipment in order to leverage off inherent features housed within the Cisco Input/Output Supervisor (IOS).
"Features such as DTS (Dynamic Traffic Shaping) and QOS (quality of service) helped to eliminate time-outs and cut bandwidth usage down to about 30% of normal. This equated to a tremendous saving in future upgrades of their WAN infrastructure and improved network efficiency," adds Conradie.
Medi-Clinic boasts more than 6 217 beds and 11 100 fulltime staff servicing 46 hospitals spread throughout SA and two in Namibia.
Deon Myburgh, Manager of IT Operations at Medi-Clinic`s head office, says an effective IT infrastructure that can adequately handle substantial data input, storage and backup is crucial to the successful management of this extensive healthcare network.
"Integr8IT resolved a long-standing bandwidth problem. By enabling and configuring dynamic traffic shaping and bandwidth threshold on our routers, our links are now stable and throughput and dramatically improved. I am astounded at the difference this has made, and so are the users," says Myburgh.
"This is the type of value that cements a good client and supplier relationship," he adds.
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