Carolinas HealthCare System depends on a suite of Radware products to maintain efficient working environment for more than 40,000 employees
Radware (NASDAQ: RDWR), the leading provider of integrated application delivery solutions for business-smart networking, today announced that Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS), the largest healthcare system in North and South Carolina, has leveraged Radware’s suite of application delivery solutions in an effort to maintain a secure network environment with advanced load balancing capabilities for its extensive hospital system.
The need to have "always up" network availability is critical when managing a hospital system that includes more than 40,000 employees. Downtime could mean a reduction in patient healthcare service and satisfaction, as well as an uptick in employee dissatisfaction. In an effort to maintain continuous availability while also having a secured environment, CHS leveraged Radware’s expertise in the application delivery space and employed its AppDirector®, Content Inspection Director® (CID) and LinkProof® solutions to meet its networking needs.
Initially, CHS deployed the CID and Linkproof solutions. CID, Radware’s transparent smart redirection and dynamic policy enforcement device, enables CHS to redirect traffic for Web traffic filtering devices without having complicated scripts while accelerating and scaling this service. Additionally, the solution increases the level of network security by blocking malicious sites and keeping spyware out of its system. The use of LinkProof, Radware’s multi-WAN load balancer, has allowed CHS to have multiple paths to the Internet in order to accomodate various levels of traffic resulting in reduced costs for connectivity and increasing fault tolerance. LinkProof further monitors network connections by automatically recognizing when an issue arises, and reacts by re-routing traffic congestion that may occur for improved availability and response time for applications.
“Having unlimited access to a secured network without service interruption is a requirement in order for us to run our day-to-day operations to the maximum of our ability,” said Todd Greene, Information Security Manager, at CHS. “Since engaging with Radware 10 years ago, we’ve steadily increased the number of solutions we rely on them for, and continue to be impressed by their product suite and extensive customer support. Once we have something that works we stick with it, and this relationship has been great for us.”
Following the successful launch of CID and LinkProof, CHS implemented an additional Radware application delivery product, AppDirector, in order to support its corporate intranet (Synapse) and main data center. AppDirector has worked to consolidate CHS‘ systems in order to help load balance traffic. This provided network flexibility and reduced costs associated with maintaining numerous applications, and further improved employee and patient satisfaction. This solution answered a critical challenge to ensuring CHS‘ staff ability to record important patient information and access care instructions without complications. With up to 7 million page hits per day, Synpase is the most visible system on CHS’ network.
“In order for us to maintain a productive work environment for employees and maximize patient care, network downtime is not an option,” said Tommy Forrest, Senior Systems Engineer, at CHS. “Not being able to have consistent availability to the Intranet would hinder our ability to provide the best service possible. But with Radware’s help we’ve been able to stabilize our system and make it hassle-free.”
Radware’s technologies – as part of its Business-Smart Data strategy – allow organizations to maximize ROI on IT investments as they deliver mission-critical applications over the Internet and across the WAN by ensuring fast, reliable, secure delivery of both web-enabled applications and services that drive business productivity.
“Keeping a high-volume network such as CHS’ up-and-running can be a challenging task, but with our advanced solutions it has become possible to optimize the system’s availability and maximize reliability,” said Bob Simpson, Vice President Southeast, at Radware. “We value our relationship with CHS and take pride in delivering excellent application delivery products in order to provide a competitive advantage in today’s business landscape.”
About Carolinas HealthCare System
With the addition of AnMed Health (Anderson SC) and Cannon Memorial (Pickens SC) Carolinas HealthCare System (www.carolinashealthcare.org) includes 29 affiliated hospitals in North and South Carolina. One of the leading healthcare systems in the Southeast, Carolinas HealthCare employs some 1,400 physicians and serves patients at more than 475 care locations including physician practices, nursing homes, surgical and rehabilitation centers, home health agencies and other facilities. These operations comprise more than 6,000 licensed beds and employ approximately 44,000 employees.
CHS’s flagship facility is Carolinas Medical Center (www.carolinasmedicalcenter.org), an 874-bed hospital in Charlotte that includes a Level I Trauma Center, a research institute and numerous specialty units (heart, cancer, organ transplant, behavioral health, etc.). CMC also serves as one of North Carolina’s five Academic Medical Center Teaching Hospitals, providing graduate medical education for more than 250 physicians in 18 specialties.
Levine Children’s Hospital (www.levinechildrenshospital.org) has been recognized as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report. Other CMC hospitals have also been honored by J.D. Power and Associates for maternity and emergency services. Carolinas HealthCare’s “community benefit,” which includes the value of indigent care, uncompensated medical services, education, research and charitable contributions, totals more than $770 million annually.
About Radware
Radware (NASDAQ:RDWR), the global leader in integrated application delivery solutions, assures the full availability, maximum performance, and complete security of business-critical applications for nearly 10,000 enterprises and carriers worldwide. With APSolute®, Radware’s comprehensive and award-winning suite of application delivery and network security products, companies in every industry can drive business productivity, improve profitability, and reduce IT operating and infrastructure costs by making their networks “business smart”. For more information, please visit www.radware.com.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, general business conditions in the Application Switching or Network Security industry, changes in demand for Application Switching or Network Security products, the timing and amount or cancellation of orders and other risks detailed from time to time in Radware's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Radware's Form 20-F.