Challenge
Rainbows provides care and support for children, young people and families living with serious and terminal illnesses during their short lives. Improvements were needed in the quality and availability of digital connectivity and IT services used across the hospice, at shop locations, and for mobile staff. For example, nursing and care staff needed more reliable connectivity and access to care regime and clinical information, particularly during patient handovers (while at bedside and out in the community), and broadband access needed to be improved for children's enrichment activities and for family members.
Solution
A fully managed private network was created (based on Communicate Technology's Fortinet SD-WAN offering, together with Fortinet's Security Fabric platform) providing a fully integrated technology stack covering firewalls, switches, and wireless infrastructure across the Hospice and their retail locations. This provided a solid foundation so that Communicate Technology could then look to migrate workloads from aging on-premises server infrastructure to Communicate Technology's Azure stack HCI offering (Communicate Technology Cloud).
As part of the project, Communicate Technology continues to digitally evolve the hospice with modern Microsoft Cloud technology (including applications such as Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive). The use of SD-WAN technology enhances the Microsoft 365 implementation by adding advanced visibility and awareness of applications traffic across the network. This enables the network to be aware of different types of application (layer 7) traffic and for the traffic to be intelligently routed down specific paths (for example, to maintain quality of service levels for video communications and voice services when there are spikes caused by bursts of data-intensive SharePoint or email traffic).
The solution includes:
- A Private Network, with comprehensive cybersecurity
- Configuration of an integrated security fabric, including firewalls, WiFi integration, switches, and Operational Technology (OT) elements such as door access, CCTV, and EV charge points
- Improved cybersecurity of network and data, including Unified Threat Management (UTM) security provided by the Communicate Technology Private Core Network
- Delivery of a complete service: deployment, security, management and support, across both IT and Networks
- New wireless infrastructure including re-cabling and new access point positioning based on detailed wireless surveys conducted by Communicate Technology
- Migration of all on-premise services to Communicate Technology Cloud
- Direct link to the NHS SystmOne database via a dedicated leased line
- Connectivity for the hospice, used to connect to all cloud services and the internet: a 1 GB Leased Line with automatic failover to a secondary 1 GB leased line, using new SD-WAN capability to provide active/active paths
- Fortinet Firewalls with inbuilt Wireless in each shop
- Fortinet Next Generation WiFi 6-enabled Access Points
- Fortinet SD-WAN Full Power over Ethernet (FPoE) switches
- Network operations services covering the full stack, fully managed with direct support for staff
- WiFi based on SD-WAN and Security Fabric enables mobility and secure connectivity to cloud services.
Results
A reliable, secure, agile, and easily manageable private network infrastructure has been established based on a future-proof design and leading technology, with visibility and control across the network. Communicate Technology's proactive service desk fully manages and monitors the private SD-WAN network 24/7, with Communicate Technology providing direct support for the Rainbows team.
Site-wide WiFi connectivity has simplified the delivery of seamless care team handovers and extended connectivity to all parts of the Hospice grounds. This means Rainbows' dedicated team can ensure families get the highest standard of care and support at all times, with minimised IT issues.
The move to a secure cloud has improved the availability of core services and strengthened data security. This means Rainbows can be confident that their care records and family information is secure, up to date, and protected at all times.
Improved cybersecurity measures have enabled more demonstrable compliance with security policies, resulting in substantially reduced insurance premiums. The money saved can be used to help even more families, going through the most difficult of times, from across the East Midlands.
Full digital connectivity has been provided to children's rooms, with better support for entertainment and interactive devices, improving children's experience. This means that Rainbows families can spend more vital quality time, watching films together and making precious memories during the time that they're with Rainbows.
The network is based on SD-WAN technology, so changes or updates required can be applied remotely and quickly. This means there is minimum disruption for families and staff.
"Communicate Technology has created a high-availability SD-WAN network and WiFi infrastructure which greatly assists nurses and care staff to look after the children. Communicate Technology 'gets' and delivers on how important IT services are to the children's care and is highly responsive to our needs. The improvements Communicate Technology have made mean our teams aren't busy dealing with IT issues anymore. Instead, they can concentrate on providing the vital care and support that our families need, when they need it the most."
Glyn Rees-Jones, Director of Business Resources, Rainbows Children's Hospice
