The software solution we implemented needed to meet our stringent requirements for continuous availability through faults and failures. We chose Marathon’s everRun software because of its unique ability to protect at the application level, ensuring no interruption of service. It was a perfect fit for our environment.
MASCO Services, Inc. Calls on Marathon to Protect Communications System for Five Hospitals
THE COMPANY
MASCO Services, Inc. (MSI) is a provider of managed communications services to several leading hospitals, colleges, and museums in Boston’s Longwood medical and academic area. MSI provides its customers with a full range of telecommunications solutions including centralized attendant services, radio paging, data networking, physicians’ message center, and network savings plans.
THE SITUATION
MSI manages a unique multi-institutional shared telecommunications system, which processes over 3.6 million calls annually. All calls, doctors’ pages (from multiple page vendors), alert codes, and operator functions for all of these hospitals are managed by MSI through a central call management system. Since 1991, MSI has used the MediCall software from XTEND Communications Corp. to handle all incoming calls and provide reliable communications between functions. This software is protected from faults and failures by Marathon’s everRun™ software.
In the healthcare environment, many calls are life critical, making reliable, no-fail communications a mandatory part of everyday operations. MSI embarked on a major upgrade of its server systems, operating systems, while moving their database structure to Microsoft SQL. Another important component of this upgrade was the implementation of a simple, effective way to keep this system running through faults, failures and site disasters.
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE FOR DOWNTIME
With patient care at stake, MSI wanted to ensure that its business-critical call center would not go down due to server component failure or dropped network connections. They needed the highest level of availability, but did not want to add complexity to their data center.
To meet this need, MSI consulted XTEND Communications, who suggested the use of Marathon’s everRun software.
THE RESULTS
“We looked at several alternatives for protecting MSI’s systems,” said Howard Bendrot, Senior Systems Engineer, XTEND Communications. “The Marathon everRun software is simpler to implement and provides a higher level of availability than any other technology we considered.” XTEND implemented everRun with MSI’s MediCall system. The technology was used to protect two Dell 2650 servers used by MediCall from downtime.
MARATHON DELIVERS CONTINUOUS AVAILABILITY
Marathon’s everRun software creates a virtual Windows environment running on two standard x86 servers, yet appearing as a single instance for all applications. If one physical server or server component fails, the virtual Windows environment continues to operate without interruption.
THE SOLUTION
A single call that does not reach its destination could result in a fatality or life endangering situation. In addition, downtime costs money in lost productivity. There is simply no room for error. “It is our business to ensure that every communication between providers, patients, and healthcare facilities is immediate. The software solution we implemented needed to meet our stringent requirements for continuous availability through faults and failures. We chose Marathon’s everRun software because of its unique ability to protect at the application level, ensuring no interruption of service. It was a perfect fit for our environment,” said Gary Dupont, Director of Telecommunications at MSI’s telecommunications operations division.
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