Case Study: Texas Children's Cancer Center
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Company Overview
The Texas Children's Cancer Center (TCCC) and Hematology Service offers breakthrough therapies for all forms of pediatric cancers and blood disorders. A part of the pediatric department of Baylor College of Medicine, the Houston-based institution conducts its hematology and oncology research and educational programs inside Texas Children's Hospital, the largest children's hospital in Texas.
Business Challenge
TCCC strives to stay at the apex of medical care, research and education, while maintaining quality information-technology (IT) systems. A 70-person educational faculty and medical staff of 415 depend on computers and the correlating back-office systems to do their work. According to the center's director, Dr. David Poplack, IT is the lifeblood of the institution when it comes to medical care and research. The staff uses electronic medical records to render patient care, while rapid access to laboratory, research and clinical databases keeps research and education programs on track.
"To advance biomedical research and develop new therapies, we need the latest, most efficient information services and solutions," Poplack explains. "Much of modern biology and medicine concerns the integration of data from areas like genomics. We must stay positioned to expedite breakthrough research from the lab to the clinic. That's why we depend on innovative IT solutions to help medical workers conduct research, care for patients and advance the knowledge of health care professionals."
Solution
A Barrier-Breaking Cure for Storage Overload
For its innovative IT solutions, TCCC purchases HP ProLiant servers from Hewlett-Packard Company. All of TCCC's informatics services programs reside on HP ProLiant servers, where data swells quickly and one image file can consume 20MB. Seven HP ProLiant servers, including models ML370 and ML570, operate as e-mail, database, terminal and backup servers throughout the organization.
Over time, the research data stored in some of these servers reached capacity, forcing TCCC to evaluate other options. "We considered purchasing a storage-area network (SAN) to consolidate our data assets, but the technology was cost prohibitive for us," explains TCCC Senior Systems Engineer Dat Diep.
HP recommended that TCCC test the HP StorageWorks NAS B3000 system. This system centralizes storage resources, making it easy to manage and expand storage capacity. It combines the benefits of network-attached storage (NAS) for file serving with block-level storage found in a SAN. "With the HP StorageWorks NAS B3000 model, we can expand capacity on the fly, adding new hard drives while systems stay in production," Diep says. "These changes are invisible to users. Instead of keeping track of the individual storage requirements of each server, the NAS B3000 solution allows us more easily to consolidate all of our data into one system."
The HP StorageWorks NAS B3000 system connects to a Gigabit Ethernet LAN, allowing other servers on the network to share its resources. Pre-configured with Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server operating system, the NAS unit lets the IT staff migrate servers to the Microsoft Windows 2000 easily and continue its platform standardization initiative. "The pre-installed, file-serving software makes the HP StorageWorks NAS B3000 easy to use," Diep says. "Our users are accustomed to the Microsoft Windows interface, and there's no need for our IT staff to learn the configurations of an entirely new operating system." The storage system enables the IT staff to consolidate data from older HP ProLiant servers as well. "By migrating the data onto the HP StorageWorks NAS B3000 system, we have fewer servers to manage," he adds.
Business Benefits
Immunization Against Data Loss
In building a foundation for hematology and oncology cures, TCCC researchers amass a huge volume of critical information, including applications, personal files and document files shared by user groups. Says Diep: "We use an HP StorageWorks MSL5026SL Library to backup and restore data from our HP ProLiant servers. It simplifies backup operations and boosts capacity—without taking up much space."
The HP StorageWorks NAS B3000 provides data-protection safeguards and no single point of failure, ensuring secure access to the bulk of the research data. The network-interface cards and power-array components are all redundant. "I tested the system by taking out a hard drive to see if it would automatically rebuild the missing component, and it worked," Diep acknowledges.
In addition to expansion capabilities and redundancy, the HP StorageWorks NAS B3000 system satisfies TCCC's need for high performance in a computing environment nearly 700 employees use. "Our storage environment is available throughout the cancer center," notes Poplack.
HP Services helped Diep implement and initialize the NAS hardware. "The consultants walked me through a simple installation, which was similar to setting up another HP ProLiant server," he acknowledges. "The HP system engineers were helpful and knowledgeable. They answered all of my questions. The HP StorageWorks NAS B3000 unit integrated well into our environment, and has been running maintenance-free ever since."
First-Line Treatment with No Side Effects
The long-term effects of the HP solution are appealing, especially its comparatively low cost and inherent management efficiencies. TCCC now has fewer computer resources to purchase, track and manage, because HP NAS technology allows the cancer center to consolidate data for easy management, expansion and reliability. TCCC is able to leverage its current hardware investments, recover floor space and manage one storage device instead of several.
While TCCC may not be immune from the epidemic of data growth, thanks to HP it's better prepared to handle an outbreak. "The HP storage solution provides us an efficient storage environment with rapid access to data and easier backup capabilities," says Poplack.
