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Premier Academic Medical Center Required Enterprise Level Server Load Balancing (SLB) Solution
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
- Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software
Applicable Industries
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Facility Management
Services
- System Integration
- Software Design & Engineering Services
The Challenge
With two data centers and two clusters of existing load balancing equipment coming to their end of life (EOL), the hospital required a proven solution to replace its existing Server Load Balancing (SLB) equipment and support the current corporate design to migrate away from GroupWise and implement Microsoft Exchange across its network. To maintain its current infrastructure and expand to MS Lync for video conferencing and voice services, as well as meet additional needs for virtualization and multi-tenancy in the future, an enterprise-level SLB solution was needed. After looking at a number of vendors, the hospital decided to test A10 Networks® Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs).
About The Customer
The University of Kansas Hospital is the region’s premier academic medical center, dedicated to providing excellent service and compassionate, high-quality medical care. With approximately 5500 employees in 50 locations throughout Kansas, the hospital continues to bring a level of expertise to patient care that comes from leadership in medical research and education. The University of Kansas Hospital has ranked on U.S. News and World Report’s Best Hospitals list for the past seven years with nine of its specialties, ranking among the nation’s top 50. They are home to the largest Physician practice in Kansas, representing more than 200 specialties.
The Solution
The University of Kansas Hospital selected A10 ADCs to support its large-scale Microsoft Exchange deployment and to replace its EOL ADCs. In addition to performance tests providing stellar results, the hospital experienced absolutely no failures, no loss of connections, no end-user complaints and no performance problems after the implementation. A10 ADCs presented The University of Kansas Hospital the following significant differentiators: Superior Performance and Carrier Class Hardware: The A10 ADC is a 1 Rack Unit (RU) mid-range ADC that delivers impressive performance with 19.5 Gbps throughput and 1.1 million connections per second, and includes flexible traffic ASICs (FTAs) to deliver high performance security features such as DDoS mitigation. Moreover, A10 ADCs’ server-grade processor, reliable Error Correcting Code (ECC) memory and solid-state drive (SSD) delivers data center robustness that KU Hospital required. Flexible and Scalable Architecture: All A10 ADCs run on A10 Networks Advanced Core Operating System (ACOS®), a 64-bit, shared memory architecture OS that provides maximum efficiency and scalability to enable multiple features simultaneously without performance degradation. All A10 ADCs include a wide range of virtualization technologies for flexible deployment, such as the ACOS Virtual Chassis System (aVCS®) for multiple device scaling, multitenancy with Application Delivery Partitions (ADPs) and software appliances running atop hypervisors for rapid deployment.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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