Client story El Camino Health Leverages Trusted Partner for Networking and Security Refresh
By Insight Editor / 25 Sep 2020 / Topics: Zero Trust Networking Data protection
Facts at a glance
Client industry:
Healthcare
Challenge:
Update aging network infrastructure and security model without impacting patient care
Insight provided:
- Long-term consulting and strategic support
- Unified communications, network and security servicing
- Wireless Architecture and Radio Frequency Assessments
- Network and security architecture
- Cisco Identity Services Engine deployment and phased implementation of network access control
- On-site networking engineers and project management
Insight services:
- Consulting Services
- Professional Services
- Residency Services
Benefits:
- Fast, reliable, and secure network access across campus and remote facilities
- Highly qualified on-site residents and project leads providing critical support and ensuring success at every turn, resulting in contract-to-hire scenarios
- Collaboration across multiple Insight project teams on separate but related tasks for effective modernization across the entire campus
- Deep relationship with skilled IT services provider for emerging needs
El Camino Health is a multi-facility healthcare system situated in the heart of Silicon Valley. The system's two hospital locations, one in Mountain View, and one in Los Gatos, have provided best-in-class care since 1961, growing steadily and substantially over the previous decades. El Camino shares the innovative spirit of its environment, establishing unique partnerships and technology-based offerings to distinguish their healthcare services and the patient experience. El Camino Health encompasses seven pavilions and a treatment center that span wound care, maternity, women’s health, imaging, laboratory, oncology, surgery and outpatient.
The challenge: Update aging network infrastructure and security model without impacting patient care
Similarly to patient care, sometimes needs in IT are less acute. Challenges may appear on a rolling basis, requiring longer-term solutions that support systemic health, as opposed to brief interventions.
El Camino Health is just such a case. Over the past 20 years, their IT organization has leveraged support for data center design, networking, and security, as well as on-site technical expertise and residents. Working with established vendors enables the hospital to benefit both from a dedicated working relationship and from novel approaches, models and technologies that only a specialized IT services provider would be able to provide.
Most recently, El Camino Health was looking to refresh their network infrastructure and enhance the security of their network — a massive project across their campuses. The client's facilities have also grown quite substantially over time, both organically and through acquisition of other local health groups and facilities. Throughout these and other changes, the client always needs to ensure IT systems are available and secure, as downtime can be a matter of life and death.
The solution: Multiphased network refresh and Cisco ISE implementation
The Insight team has worked with El Camino Health for more than 20 years. Members of our Consulting Services, Professional Services and Residency Services teams have all contributed to the hospital’s success. Our team members have established rapport with the client's IT director and managers and many of the clinical leads across the campuses. We were a natural choice when it came time to embark on an ambitious network refresh.
As some networking components were nearing end of life, Insight supported the hospital with a refresh of their Palo Alto Networks® firewalls, voice and call center upgrades and deploying the latest Cisco® Catalyst® switches throughout the healthcare organization’s multiple locations.
This refresh was the hospital’s largest outsourced IT project ever. The upgrade was fairly involved; the hospital setup is multitenancy, including spaces for hospital departments that are not clinical. Relationships had to be built and managed well to ensure our team could access telecom closets and infrastructure and deliver on uptime promises to each specific department all without impacting patient care. We also provided assessments of their existing wireless and Radio Frequency (RF) service components, in order to perform a complete refresh and prepare for the needs of a new campus building under construction.
Another driver of their network refresh project was the client's interest in taking advantage of the latest advances in secure networking. Their IT organization had set their sights on Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), which would provide them with better context and visibility into endpoints on their network, secure network access across a multitude of device types and user groups, and the foundation for dynamic network segmentation capabilities. Maintaining patient data privacy while ensuring convenient network access for authorized users, patients and guests is a delicate balance that ISE can help the hospital achieve.
With on-site residents and project leads, we were able to dynamically solve complex workforce problems while providing innovative and transformational solutions throughout the hospital campuses. Insight has led the effort on a comprehensive ISE implementation, which included decommissioning their legacy Cisco ACS system and deploying ISE for wireless network access control and device administration as well as wired network visibility and monitoring across their IT environment. Our project management team carefully coordinated with all clinical departments to ensure the distinct security and device connectivity requirements of each department were clearly captured and understood. We ran initial requirement and device type discovery in conjunction with ISE reporting to build security policies for all endpoint types (BYOD, workstations, medical Internet of Things (IoT) devices, guest access, etc.), and are now in the process of creating and enforcing new network access control policies at all points of entry to the network (access switch layer, wireless network and VPN).
The benefits: Next-gen secure network and a trusted partner — the foundation for continued excellence
With Insight’s help, El Camino Health's campuses have an updated and robust network that delivers the reliability and performance they need. Their voice, call and wireless infrastructure has been refreshed with minimal downtime. The Cisco ISE platform, once fully implemented, will give the hospital unprecedented control and visibility of their network and its activities for a next-gen, zero trust approach to network security.
El Camino Health is unlike many others. Historically, the organization has embraced technology and innovation — ranging from the use of robots to deliver, track, and store medicines, to their original partnership with Lockheed Martin to implement one of the first electronic medical record systems after its founding. El Camino Health is always working to deliver modern, seamless, and differentiated experiences for patients and their families. Insight helps make it possible.
