In this three-part series, we highlight European companies that have recently implemented HP ProCurve wireless and communications capabilities, and the benefits they have attained.
Plymouth Health Community (England)
Based in the southwest of England, Plymouth Health Community (PHC) comprises Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust (PHNT) and NHS Plymouth (the Primary Care Trust, or PCT). PHNT provides general hospital services to 430,000 people in Plymouth and the surrounding area whilst the PCT commissions hospital services and provides General Practice (GP), community, mental health, and learning disability services. PHC operates across 100 sites including the main Derriford Hospital, several smaller hospitals and health centres, 45 GP surgeries, and 55 community sites. As an organisation it employs over 10,000 staff and treats approximately half a million patients yearly.
PHC recently took the decision to modernise its facilities in a project worth approximately £300 million. The developments included refurbishing Derriford Hospital, improving cardiac services, expanding existing sites, and building several new facilities such as local care and planned care centres. The increasing volume of medical data generated by this development necessitated a comprehensive upgrade of its network infrastructure. Furthermore, the upgrade required an additional 2,000 telephone extensions, which would place increased demands on the existing network.
“When the NHS took the decision to fund major infrastructure developments in Plymouth, soon after we implemented a ten year convergence strategy to unify all voice and data under a single network,” explains Rob Harder, ICT infrastructure manager, Plymouth Health Community.
“Initially, our primary concern was our network’s capacity and ability to handle the increasing data-centric demands of the NHS,” continues Harder. “We needed a highly resilient and scalable architecture with additional capacity. This was essential should we decide to introduce Power over Ethernet (PoE) and Quality of Service (QoS) to support future IP telephony and video deployments.”
Traditionally, PHC’s network was comprised solely of Cisco switches and routers. After reviewing its infrastructure, PHC decided to evaluate solutions from several network vendors, including Cisco and HP ProCurve, which was represented by its systems integrator partner, Pervasive Networks.
“ProCurve had all the ‘must have’ features at an affordable price and its standards-based approach, backed by the free Lifetime Warranty♦, was an irresistible draw. Moreover, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) was considerably less, configuration was simpler and the ProCurve team worked well with our network team,” says Harder.
At the Derriford site alone, PHC has deployed three next-generation HP ProCurve 8212zl core switches, 5300xl and 5400zl series intelligent edge switches, as well as HP ProCurve 2600 series managed edge switches with PoE. HP ProCurve Manager Plus (PCM+) software monitors the network and all devices connecting to it, allowing PHC network administrators to configure, update, and troubleshoot wired switches centrally and remotely.
After installing its ProCurve Adaptive Network solution, PHC conducted a convergence vendor evaluation and considered several voice, video, and data solutions. Three potential solutions were considered: upgrade PHC’s existing telephone exchange, migrate to a managed Virtual Private Network (VPN) service, or migrate to a Mitel Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solution. Calculated over a 10-year period, the Mitel solution was estimated to be up to 10 percent less expensive than the other options and offered easy interoperability with the open-standards-based ProCurve Adaptive Network. The Mitel solution comprises an Integrated Communications Platform (ICP) and the deployment of more than 6,000 IP telephones.
“VoIP technology is £600,000 less expensive than the other options considered over the 10-year period, can be installed wherever the network is present, offers lower TCO, and is more flexible towards converged voice and data application deployments,” comments Harder. “We selected Mitel [a ProCurve Strategic Alliance Partner] for its product range, integration capability, lower maintenance costs, and excellent relationship with HP ProCurve.”
PHC now has a reliable, high-performance, scalable networking infrastructure with 10 Gigabit connectivity at the core whilst ProCurve PCM+ software aids network management. This comprehensive converged networking deployment links more than 10,000 users across 100 sites to aid staff communications between Plymouth’s hospitals, GP surgeries, clinics, and health centres. The solution incorporates PoE and QoS to support the organisation’s current and future convergence requirements, with PHC having also recently introduced video conferencing.
PHC has also recently installed additional HP ProCurve 5406 switches, 2600 series switches, and 2610 series switches at several sites as it continues to roll out the ProCurve solution. HP ProCurve Secure Router 7000dl series will shortly replace the existing Cisco routers to ensure simple, secure WAN-enabling edge-to-edge connectivity.
The robust, high-availability ProCurve Adaptive Network solution allowed a smooth transition to IP telephony. This technology has significantly improved call clarity and reduced call costs, with outgoing local and national calls now at less than one pence per minute. To maintain high levels of patient care, this scalable solution will readily handle the increasing volume of medical data and will also extend connectivity. Furthermore, ProCurve standards-based technology makes the introduction of new applications, such as speech-to-text for dictation and text-to-speech over the phone, more affordable.
“HP ProCurve and Mitel have provided us with cost-effective, high-performance, feature-rich network solutions that complement each other well. The ProCurve network supports our 24/7 operation admirably, bears emerging technologies, and its switches are easy to install, configure, and deploy, saving time and money. The financial benefits are also compelling; with the Trust now free from expensive maintenance contracts, TCO for the Derriford site LAN has fallen by 80 percent,” concludes Harder.
Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe (Germany)
Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe (FME) GmbH is a major European provider of advanced electronic devices for the automotive, networking, telecommunications, multi-media, industrial, and home appliance markets. Based in Langen, approximately 10 kilometres south of Frankfurt, FME continues to drive technologies forward to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for new and innovative electronics.
FME originally controlled its business and IT operations from an office in Frankfurt where its networking infrastructure had steadily evolved to handle increasing sales, marketing, and engineering design activities. Of those who use the network, approximately 60 percent of users are engineering designers who require constant access to data and complex applications. To cater for growing business demand, FME made a strategic decision to relocate its headquarters to Langen.
“Before moving, we were questioning whether our network could cope with current and future business growth,” explains Neil Hare, principal system and network administrator, Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe GmbH.
“But after examining the new building layout, it became apparent we needed a modern network based on a 10 Gb core infrastructure that offered increased performance, reliability, scalability, and manageability. We also needed to address wireless technology, our future IP telephony requirements, and to achieve a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).”
Although FME had previously employed Cisco switching technology, it decided to benchmark HP ProCurve partly because FME was already using HP server technology.
“We wanted to link all our engineering departments with good bandwidth but unfortunately, Cisco could not offer a 10 Gb backbone to our workroom switches without resorting to switches costing many thousands of dollars. Cisco’s solution also lacked vital support elements,” comments Hare.
“However, HP ProCurve could offer us a 10 Gb infrastructure with intelligent edge switches and Power over Ethernet (PoE) ports at an attractive price/performance ratio, backed by ProCurve’s comprehensive Lifetime Warranty♦. It no longer became a question of why we should choose HP ProCurve but why we should not.”
At the centre of the HP ProCurve Adaptive Network solution are two next-generation ProCurve 8212zl series core switches in a redundant configuration located in the main and backup server rooms. Based on the industry-proven HP ProCurve ProVision™ ASIC, they suit FME’s requirements well due to their reduced complexity, lower TCO, and core-to-edge wireless networking capability. The ProCurve Switch 8212zl is the industry’s first core switch with a lifetime warranty♦.
Twelve highly reliable, award-winning ProCurve 5400zl series switches provide intelligence to the edge of the network in addition to wireless capability and PoE, which powers 300 Siemens IP phones connected to FME’s network. To aid redundancy, trunking links each edge switch to both servers, and 10 Gb Ethernet ports provide connectivity and supplementary redundancy. Each floor of the five-storey main building is equipped with a ProCurve Radio Port 230 unit to satisfy FME’s mobility requirements.
To aid network management, the solution incorporates ProCurve Manager Plus (PCM+), a software package that allows administrators to configure, update, monitor, and troubleshoot the switches centrally and remotely. Moreover, flexible software licensing and free software updates will provide FME with scalability as its network grows.
Today, FME has a reliable, high-performance, and manageable network. The 10 Gb architecture provides scalability and the ProCurve 5400zl series edge switches with PoE have enabled the smooth deployment of IP telephony, significantly improving call clarity and reducing call costs.
“Switch manageability and installation is so easy. I did not even open the handbook,” adds Hare. “We also have the flexibility to introduce additional security packages in the future such as ProCurve Identity Driven Manager (IDM).”
FME is already assessing a ProCurve Wireless Edge Services Module (WESM), which, once installed, will deliver secure, advanced wireless services, simplified management, and unified wired and wireless operations across the network.
The ProCurve Adaptive Network solution deployed at FME enables its engineers to handle the large data volumes generated by complex applications more productively as they design new electronic devices to satisfy modern market demands. The solution’s scalability caters for current and future business growth, and the company is already benefitting from lower TCO.
“In the past, we spent a significant part of our support budget on contracts, software updates, and, when a switch failed, replacement fees. With HP ProCurve, all these come at no extra cost. I estimate support costs have fallen by 15 percent,” concludes Hare.
*** IDC: The Business Case for a Unified Wired and Wireless Solution, 2008
