PacificSource Health
Plans, one of the largest independent,
non-profit health plans serving the Pacific Northwest in the US,
has deployed a
file storage virtualisation solution as the basis of its file
storage management strategy.
The new Acopia ARX
system from F5 Networks allows PacificSource to perform
non-disruptive migration of file data such as business, individual,
and family health plan information, as well as its own internal
business data. The health firm reports that the result has been
streamlined and automated data movement with zero down time,
yielding
significant operational and capital savings.
PacificSource
provides medical and dental benefits to more than 4,000 Pacific
Northwest employers and covers more than 151,000 people with its
group and individual health insurance plans. It also provides
self-funded employee benefit plans and assorted administration
services through its subsidiaries.
The move to a new
storage system came about when the firm faced a significant data
migration challenge during a system upgrade of its direct-attached
disk environment to a clustered Windows storage area network.
Explained Network
Administrator, Tim Wolfe, "Any interruption of access to health
plan information or even our own internal business data would be
completely unacceptable. The file storage virtualisation solution
allowed us to perform all data migration tasks without any downtime
and without the need to manually reconfigure client systems and
applications. Moreover…we have been able to streamline and automate
all future data movement."
PacificSource
believes that having the ability to move data whenever it wants to,
to whatever storage technologies it may choose to use in the
future, translates into significant savings in both operational
resources and capital expense. In addition to continued data
migration initiatives, future plans for the file storage
virtualisation solution includes its use in data replication for
disaster recovery (DR) efforts.