Fordway infrastructure for London PCT

NHS Hammersmith and Fulham has implemented a new storage and disaster recovery infrastructure provided by ICT integrator Fordway Solutions.

The primary care trust said the new storage solution was needed to handle anticipated data growth and reduce both the physical size of its server space and server power consumption. It said implementation had reduced its server count by 60%.

Zakaria Ahmed, chief technology officer at NHS Hammersmith and Fulham, said the PCT wanted to increase storage capacity, bring its random access databases together and make the data secure.

He added: “We realised a SAN was the way forward and Fordway, who were already providing us with network support, reviewed the market and recommended a bespoke solution.”

The SAN infrastructure links the PCT’s headquarters and its disaster recovery site 3.5 miles away.

Fordway said the infrastructure used a combination of VMware virtualisation, Compellent SAN arrays and CommVault centrally managed enterprise back-up, all tailored to the PCT’s specific requirements.

Ahmed said the PCT had already seen a number of benefits including reduced access times and improved reporting.

Richard Blanford, managing director of Fordway, said the company had delivered more than 100 public sector projects in the last year.

He added: “We have an excellent record of delivering successful projects for public sector organisations because we take the time to fully understand their needs. Whether they are a university, local government or, as in this case, a leading PCT, our process ensures we can identify exactly what needs to be achieved.”