Performance Boost for Busy Malaysian Medical Center

Oriental Melaka Straits Medical Center, a brand new hospital in Malaysia, selects an Allied Telesis solution to build their high-performing, future-proof network.

Opened in early 2015, Oriental Melaka Straits Medical Center is a modern, 300-bed, fully-integrated medical specialist center in Malaysia. It is located at the beach resort area of Klebang, Melaka, 10 minutes from the heart of this Heritage City.

Connecting Two Medical Buildings

In 2014, the time came to design and build the network for this new facility. The network had to cater for, and connect, two new buildings: the main building, which houses the main medical center; and another which houses the Nilam College of Nursing and Allied Health Science.

The Center required a brand new, non-stop network to achieve their critical objectives—high availability of medical data, and high performance with no network downtime.

Key requirements for the new network were:

• High performance – the network needed to provide high-speed access, and be able to cope with high traffic demands. Instant access to patient records, medical imaging files, and other online services are a critical part of providing quality patient care in modern hospital environments.
• High availability – it was essential that all departments have seamless non-stop access to online resources. It was also imperative that the network be resilient to any failure, removing any potential downtime.
• Ease of management – the new network needed to be well supported, so hospital staff would be confident in its day-to-day operation, and technical staff assured of easily keeping the new systems operating.

Onsite Support & Hands-on Training

The new network core uses SwitchBlade x908 Advanced Modular Chassis Switches, which utilize Allied Telesis VCStack™ technology. VCStack creates a single virtual unit out of the two individual switches to increase resilience and performance.

The distribution layer of the network uses Allied Telesis x610 Series Advanced Gigabit Switches. The units in the new medical centre are connected in three high-speed rings using Allied Telesis EPSRing, which provides high-speed connectivity to the network core, with failover in a little as 50ms to maximize network uptime. The units in the nurses’ college are also using the power and reliability of VCStack, connected to the core with 2 x 10 Gigabit links using link aggregation. Link aggregation partnered with VCStack provides a solution with no single point of failure.

The network access layer is provided by Allied Telesis 8000GS and x210 Series Gigabit switches, providing Gigabit to the desktop, for a high-performing hospital and training college solution.

The new Oriental Melaka Straits Medical Centre network has more than met the key requirements:

High Performance

The new network is extremely high-performing, with high-speed connectivity between the medical center and nurses’ college utilizing 10 Gigabit Ethernet, as well as high-speed EPSRing connectivity within the medical center.

High Availability

Powerful features from Allied Telesis ensure the new hospital network is always available and resilient against any problems that might occur.

Ease of Management

The new network runs very smoothly and is well supported, with initial hands-on training and ongoing technical support from Allied Telesis providing confidence for hospital staff.

The Center now enjoys the power and performance of a high-functioning Allied Telesis network, with access to online resources guaranteed. The solution was also cost-effective, and being very “green” with low power consumption will continue to provide low ongoing cost-of-ownership.