It’s not enough to simply make data immediately available to staff - healthcare IT is under pressure to improve the interoperability and value of all clinical data for the long term too. IT managers in charge of storage management need to make sure information assets are not only easily available to authorised users, but also more efficient, cost effective and innovative than before.

We’re working with our customers to solve their storage management challenges through storage virtualisation which lowers the amount of storage and networking hardware. This also makes management and administration easier by transferring all of the new technology’s capabilities to the older equipment and managing it from a single point.

What we need to do is transform existing silos of multi-vendor storage into a shared pool of resources that can be centrally managed, and to virtualise old archives - effectively bringing old equipment back to life. In this way we can revitalise existing assets, while reclaiming, utilising and optimising space that was previously wasted.

The recently launched Hitachi Clinical Repository (HCR) helps our customers do just that. It can create a metadata repository based on any information system, giving healthcare providers a simplified view of all relevant patient information. The HCR is an information management solution that transforms raw medical data and images into meaningful information, independent of source applications, helping to improve decision making and patient care.

For example, Klinikum Wels-Grieskirchen, one of the largest hospitals in Austria with more than 3,500 employees across four locations, needed a way to make its complex and siloed processes more automated and efficient. It now uses the HCR to consolidate patient information for its lab, radiology and unstructured content management systems, and associated metadata.

I’ve been excited to see organisations like Klinikum Wels-Grieskirchen taking these steps towards creating a future-ready storage environment. By recognising that the needs of today must be met without compromising on preparations for tomorrow, healthcare providers like this are setting themselves at the forefront of the industry.

Firstly, Michael Väth will take on a global role as vice president, Global Business Innovation, from 1^st April. He will continue to be based in Frankfurt, and will report in to Jack Domme, HDS’s CEO. A key part of Michael’s new role will be to drive synergies and collaboration between HDS, Hitachi, Ltd. and other companies within the Hitachi Group. This will be done through regular face-to-face contact with colleagues across the business and through Michael’s continued participation in the Hitachi European Strategy Board.

Following six very successful years heading up the EMEA business, this new appointment is testament to the great work that Michael has done to date. We wish him every success as he brings his expertise and passion for innovation to bear across the company worldwide.

Michael will be replaced as senior vice president and general manager, EMEA by Niels Svenningsen. Currently based in Copenhagen, Niels has taken on responsibility for HDS’s business in 24 countries across northern, central and eastern Europe over the last four years and has a strong background in the IT industry. Having worked for HP, IBM and Compaq as well as leading his own IT company in the past, Niels brings a wealth of experience and insight to the role.

Niels’ focus will be on sustaining and building upon the strong annual business growth that Michael began for HDS EMEA. In particular he will look to foster even greater collaboration with the channel and to drive customer satisfaction and employee development.

We’re sure you will join us in offering hearty congratulations to both Michael and Niels!

Sounds great doesn’t it? The challenge though, is putting it all into practice, and this can be a daunting task for data centre managers that are hard pressed to meet the everyday demands of their business units – let alone focus on infrastructure innovation. How can the data centre transform into a virtualised, automated, cloud-ready and sustainable environment that intelligently supports business goals?

My colleague Bob Plumridge (HDS EMEA CTO) and I recently spoke about these challenges in a webinar. The focus was on the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP), but one of the areas we looked at was how the new platform enables our customers to build a common, virtualised platform for all data with the ability to manage multi-vendor environments. The key is a unique feature of the Hitachi VSP, called 3D Scaling.

Of course scaling your storage environment isn’t a new concept in itself. Already, many storage platforms scale out to include additional units under the same controller. Some even scale up – introducing new processors, memory or capacity to the original storage system to improve performance.

What’s different now, is that we can add a third dimension of scalability to these existing two – scaling deep. This allows the central storage system to extend over an extra layer and scale across storage systems from multiple vendors via controller-based storage virtualisation.

By scaling up, scaling out and scaling deep, you can achieve 3D storage scaling, and this paves the way to the reality of the information centre. A big focus for us moving forward will be helping our customers make this vision a reality.

Having read that, I found myself flicking through the airline magazine. The Lufthansa one usually has some good articles on exotic locations etc, and having grasped NPV I needed some downtime. First up was an article on aeroplane seats: apparently Lufthansa is buying new ones for 180 planes. This is no small task, as 180 planes means 20,000 seats so the acquisition cost is high. Then the planes have to come out of service for a week long refit - all very expensive. The seat I had seemed good to me so why bother?

Suddenly I found myself following a story of how Lufthansa was going to reduce its TCO (use less fuel), improve the ROA (more passengers per flight) and provide a higher ROI (more space per passenger). Net result: Lufthansa can fit more seats per plane so its yield per flight is increased, customers will be delighted with the increase in comfort because they will have more legroom (despite the extra seats). Meanwhile Lufthansa costs are significantly reduced as the lightweight seats mean less fuel, which is green, and (this is my favourite bit!) the old seats are refurbished and sold.

What CFO would entertain this level expenditure in today’s competitive world? Only the ones who can see improved TCO, ROA and ROI plus a trade in. This is exactly what we do for data through Storage Economics. Sadly we can’t offer German hospitality but we might, just might, be able to help you save money.

One topic that we at HDS have been very interested in over the last few months is the evolution of the data centre into the information centre – basically the shift organisations are making from seeing their data centre as simply a necessary number-crunching resource, to leveraging it as a power-house for driving business innovation.

This trend is sure to continue over the coming year, and it is a natural progression of content-centric ideas that we have built our strategy upon for some time already. It’s based on the idea that rather than the bits and bytes of data that travel through organisational systems, it’s the content or information they make up that is of critical importance to the business. Technological priorities now – from Cloud and virtualisation to automation – are all geared towards making this content-centric world a reality, and it’s in these areas that the best opportunities will be found.

With the launch of the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform and Hitachi Cloud Services last year, we’ve seen strong interest in this ‘information centre’ model across EMEA, showing that content remains an essential storage consideration.

In our region more than any other, adoption of virtual technologies has been rapid and intense over the last six months, and we’ve seen strong demand for automation and tiering solutions as well. Another benefit of all these is that they help drive cost out of the system, making storage more economical and sustainable. This is true as well for Service Oriented Infrastructure solutions, like the Cloud, which are now driving daily discussions with our EMEA customers.

It’s an exciting time right now. The content-centric foundations have been laid and we’re ready to help our customers build on them to take full advantage of the information centre of the future. The enthusiasm that our region has shown for taking the pioneering role here means I’m sure there will be great things to come for data storage in EMEA in 2011.

At Hitachi Data Systems, we’re proud to be leading the world in storage virtualisation, a unique architecture that helps customers reduce cost and drive inefficiencies out of their storage environments.

However, storage virtualisation is different to server virtualisation – a concept that is probably more familiar to most, and whose operational benefits are now well recognised across the industry. Indeed, the continued success of VMware in this area is attracting more vendors to create virtualisation solutions, either to complement or compete with it, and this in turn creates value for users.

Can these virtual worlds of server and storage be combined to deliver even more value? Or are they two separate ways of delivering similar things that can’t deliver more than the sum of their parts? That’s the challenge we have been working on for some time – and, I’m pleased to say, with some success.

For example, the VMware vStorage API’s for Array Integration (VAAI) is a critical part of VMware’s strategy, and it acknowledges the need to bring compute and storage together as tightly as possible. But will any old storage do? Is ‘good enough’ acceptable? I work for Hitachi Data Systems so I am compelled to say no! The questions we at HDS have to answer is: How do we deliver more for VMware customers who see the value in technologies like VAAI?

We’ve worked with organisations in many different industries and all over the world to implement best practices and advanced techniques, like Dynamic Provisioning and balancing symmetric active-active controllers. It’s approaches like these that have enabled us to help our customers and partners make really compelling combinations of server and storage environments.

As we look ahead to 2011, I’m eager to see what new integration projects and successes we’ll be supporting.

A good example of this is Cloud Computing. With the rise of the Cloud, we have seen our customers’ IT and business strategies take an exciting new direction. There is now demand from both enterprises and Cloud service providers to make use of these significant technologies and innovative techniques across the organisation. One element of our answer to this challenge, which we announced earlier this year, is the Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP).

The UCP provides an open platform encompassing all aspects of the IT environment - from compute through to storage - with a choice of standardised industry components. It also offers a unique orchestration layer to ensure customers diligently address their key management requirements efficiently and effectively.

By deploying the UCP, customers gain leading technologies through a simplified procurement, implementation and management route to ensure that the data centre is run optimally while generating unparalleled cost and technological efficiencies.

Industry-leading virtualisation and thin provisioning are packaged together in an open solution, while innovative compute and orchestration capabilities provide massively scalable infrastructure pods. These are, from a technical perspective, fully integrated with predictable, reliable, scalable and repeatable results. The management of multiple virtualised data centres is possible through a single pane of glass.

Customers are also able to deploy, utilise and manage their data centre environments using automation to drive service level agreements, ensure quality of service and use dynamic systems management capabilities to mirror data centre usage to the dynamics of their business.

As the industry’s first open and unified compute platform, the UCP enables a game-changing strategy for enterprise data centres and Cloud deployments. With faster deployment, simpler management and unprecedented automation, we are looking forward to working with our customers to help them build and get the most out of their consolidated IT platform now and as the industry continues to evolve.

Despite the recession and more public sector cuts across Europe, patients expect hospitals to continue to deliver a high standard of care. The performance of hospitals however, does not have to be affected negatively by spending cuts in the public sector. The road to more effective hospitals doesn’t require more money – but smarter IT investments.

Let’s take a look at the patient of the future – the e-Patient. He is technologically savvy and information hungry, and this means he requires the hospital to have a high data storage capacity. The amount of data (X-rays, electronic patient journals, image storage etc) is therefore steadily growing in the health care sector. And the IT infrastructure in many European hospitals is not always able to handle this data in an easily accessible way for the clinical staff.

A sensible approach to tackling this problem is to make the right strategic investments in technology to support the medical staff’s work and make it easier to find critical data.

For example, the Wilhelmstift Children’s Clinic in Hamburg, Germany, specialises in the treatment of children. However, even small patients generate large volumes of data in the clinic’s IT system. By introducing the Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 2100 midrange system, the hospital has now a reliable and, at the same time, cost-effective data storage system.

Meanwhile, NHS Blackburn with Darwen Teaching Care Trust Plus provides essential health services to people across East Lancashire, UK. The PCT’s IT department needs to maintain access to critical data for 5,000 staff across some 85 sites at all times. We have helped the PCT to improve its data capacity to meet demand and introduced a scalable storage infrastructure. The Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 system is enabling Blackburn with Darwen to continue providing high standards of care to the local community regardless of unexpected events that may affect the primary IT site.

While the latest Pfizer Report and current news put the focus on Ireland right now, the effective use of the right technology is something hospitals in all regions can benefit from.

]]> http://blogs.hds.com/vox/2010/11/better-it-will-make-room-for-better-hospital-treatments.html/feed http://blogs.hds.com/vox/2010/11/data-centre-transformation-%e2%80%93-an-enterprise-perspective.html http://blogs.hds.com/vox/2010/11/data-centre-transformation-%e2%80%93-an-enterprise-perspective.html#comments Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:53:32 +0000 Johannes Kunz http://blogs.hds.com/vox/?p=447 If we were able to transport an IT manager of 30 or 40 years ago to the modern day, he would recognise the perennial challenge of managing a centralised data platform in a way that is efficient and cost effective. That’s about as far as the similarity goes, however. The internet and other technologies have fundamentally changed IT and the focus is no longer simply on managing data, but adding value to it. Turning it into information.

As the systems and applications that help effect this data-to-information shift become more complex, the cost of operating them increases. Careful, strategic planning is necessary to keep them running efficiently while fitting within limited resource and budget availability. Internal IT is now viewed as a significant cost-driver and there is a clear requirement for IT departments to operate as Profit and Loss centres. Just like any other business unit, they must clearly justify any potential investment in order to gain management support.

This is the situation that many data centre managers find themselves in. As a result we are seeing increased demand for more transparent cost models for outsourced IT services, such as usage- or SLA-based pricing. IT as a Service (ITaaS), covering aspects of Infrastructure, Platform and Software, can deliver cost savings through standardisation, lower management costs, increased utilisation and the ability to only use what the business requires. IT departments can use it to deliver services to different user groups both internally and externally, tailored to each group’s specific demands. This flexible model is better known to many as Cloud Computing and is the most influential innovation of the last few years in terms of transforming the enterprise data centre.

One of the main benefits of this approach is that it enables enterprises to reduce their CAPEX by only purchasing new hardware when they need it. Virtualisation has an important role to play here as well, of course, and the combination of virtualised environments and ITaaS models will be key to empowering enterprises to handle the explosion in volumes of data. In an economy where continually buying new hardware is no longer an option, making the most of what you already have is important. The priority now should be managing OPEX by leveraging technological innovations to reduce power, cooling and management costs.

So how will things evolve from here? The objective of delivering data as valuable information to the business will remain, but methods for achieving it will become ever-more efficient. With an increase in automated data management processes, IT managers will no longer need to worry about where data is kept within the storage environment. It can be automatically placed in a tier appropriate to how frequently it is accessed and the SLAs in place with the end user, without the need for constant manual intervention. With consolidated systems such as the Hitachi Data Systems Unified Compute Platform, this can be extended to the whole IT environment, automating storage, server, network and application orchestration while maintaining scalability and flexibility.

In the end, an increasingly efficient data centre benefits the enterprise as it can reduce the time to market and cut operational costs and risks. It’s an exciting time to be involved in this field and I wonder if we skipped forward 30 years from now, what other transformations we would see.

There was a great deal of discussion, with particularly hot topics including:

• Cloud – still a compelling issue, with top questions from end users focusing on what it is and what it will do for the business. There was also discussion around whether anyone has actually taken the plunge and started using the Cloud fully yet, or whether it’s all still hypothetical.
• Solid State – there was debate around the future of the hard drive (indeed, whether it even has a future) and whether demand for SSD is increasing. As with the Cloud, attendees were also keen to learn about the benefits to business of implementing SSDs.
• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) – as well as considering when we will really start to see FCoE take off, delegates were discussing whether it’s worth taking the risk of moving from the SAN and why we won’t see the same incompatibility issues that we saw in the early days of SANs.
• De-duplication – with everyone quick to recognise the potential space and cost savings of de-dupe technologies, there’s an eagerness to see it introduced to Primary Storage environments.
• Green – although energy-efficient and eco-friendly IT has been on the radar for some time, it’s still not a reality for many storage architectures. The feeling at the event was that vendors need to provide written guarantees on bottom line savings that will be made at the time of implementation.

Of course none of these issues are brand new, and they’re questions that we address with our customers every day. One of the most interesting outcomes of the event for me was the realisation that organisations are still eager to learn more about these (and other) issues and still greatly value guidance from the experts. It is the responsibility of solution vendors to work with their customers to address how concerns such as these make an impact and can be addressed in each individual environment.