"As a result of our partnership with Data-Tech, We were able to implement a hosted SonicWall Global Management Solution that exceeded all of our expectations," stated Lex Harris, IT Director at AHC.
"Not only did it meet all of our HIPAA requirements, the SonicWall solution Data-Tech proposed, presented, and implemented has made our wide area network much more productive. We're able to access applications quicker and easier, and our system performance is 35 percent faster than it was before; while increasing global security for our users and patient information."
Solution
To provide a solution for Access Health Care, Data-Tech leveraged the Cyber-Cats. An elite team of technical innovators unique to Data-Tech, the Cyber-Cats focus on enhancing existing cyber resources to advance business intelligence, operations and objectives.
Access Health Care replaced its mismatched firewalls with Dell SonicWall Generation 2 Firewalls. Data-Tech added 2 high availability failover SonicWALL NSA 3600 firewalls for the hosted AHC infrastructure, and TZ 215w Total Secure firewalls at each remote location.
The new firewalls provide robust security services that protect its patients, doctors, nurses and staff and comply with all HIPAA regulations. In addition, the implementation of the hosted Dell SonicWALL GMS has allowed the organization to gain visibility into and control over global wide area network utilization.
Benefits
Data-Tech's solution:
Delivers 35 percent faster network performance than previous solution
Improves security and HIPAA compliance
Enables deeper security and reporting with IPS, SSL decryption and inspection, gateway anti-virus, content filtering and other security services
Expands access for doctors, pharmacies and vendors with secure VPN access
Lex Harris had this to say: "The security services-intrusion prevention, SSL decryption and inspection and gateway-anti-virus, among others-addresses HIPAA compliance. Dell SonicWALL provides all these features in one device, which is absolutely fantastic."
Tech Challenge: Firewalls that drag down network performance
Access Healthcare is committed to the security of patient information and, as a healthcare organization, is subject to the HIPAA act. Among other things, HIPAA requires healthcare organizations to:
However, Access Healthcare's prior firewall infrastructure was failing to deliver the level of security and HIPAA compliance the healthcare organization required.
"The prior firewall didn't have many of the features we needed-such as content filtering-to prevent users from accessing dangerous websites," explains Harris. "And while the device did have intrusion prevention built in, when we turned that feature on, it would break our network, causing traffic to crawl. As a result, we were forced to turn it off. This left us with a security exposure and the inability to meet the intrusion prevention requirement by HIPAA."
Access Health Care reached out immediately to their dedicated hosting and managed service solution partner, Data-Tech, for a solution that addressed these requirements.
"We needed a cost effective firewall and security solution." explains Lex Harris.
After comparing functionality, usability and performance, Access Health Care selected Data-Tech's SonicWALL Global Network Security Solution. Data-Tech sized the NSA 3600 Total Secure firewalls and deployed them in high availability in AHC's main data center, located at Data-Tech. The Dell SonicWALL NSA Series of next-generation firewalls enables organizations to block even the most sophisticated threats, including an intrusion prevention system (IPS) with advanced anti-evasion capabilities, SSL decryption and inspection, and network based malware protection.
The Dell SonicWALL NSA 3600 is designed to secure large distributed and corporate central site environments, requiring high throughput capacity and performance. Two security services run on the firewall to ensure complete protection.
The Dell SonicWALL Comprehensive Gateway Security Suite provides Gateway Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Intrusion Prevention, Application Intelligence & Control Service, and Content Filtering Service. The Dell SonicWALL Content Filtering Service (CFS) delivers unequalled content/URL filtering enforcement, giving organizations control over which web sites employees can access using their IT-issued computers behind the firewall. Easy on the network and easy to use, Access Health Care found that the SonicWALL NSA 3600 delivered the security features it needed without the performance issues it had experienced with the previous solution.
"The Dell SonicWALL NSA 3600 is the perfect match for us," says Harris. "It gives us a stable platform. We don't have to worry that if we turn on the intrusion prevention, traffic is going to slow down."
Moreover, Harris found the NSA 3600 to be exceptionally easy to use.
"The NSA 3600 is very intuitive. Once we log in to the dashboard and then log in to the device, everything is easily reachable. Nothing could be simpler than it is-just a few clicks and you're in the right place," says Harris.
Access Health Care also invested in the Dell SonicWALL Global Management System (GMS). Hosted and administrated by Data-Tech, GMS extends SonicWALL security products and services to optimize network security monitoring, enhance network security reporting, manage growth and ease administrative burdens. Access Healthcare found that the GMS platform offered the same ease of use as the NSA 3600.
"With GMS being visual like it is, we can see everything in the charts and can pull the reports literally within seconds," comments Harris. "For example, if we have a bandwidth issue in one of our facilities and we want to narrow down what's happening, Data-Tech's data center engineers and help desk can log in to GMS, look at the live monitor and quickly see the cause of the problem and resolve it before it becomes a work stoppage problem. For example, if a particular user is using streaming media, we can remotely disable the task." (Example Report A).
Example Report A:
Dell SonicWALL firewalls can detect initiator activity. This report details data usage by initiator. Initiator IP addresses are always provided. If known, the initiator host names and user names are also given.
Improved security and reporting for HIPAA compliance with the Dell SonicWALL solutions in place, AHC established the comprehensive security needed to achieve and prove HIPAA compliance.
"The security services-intrusion prevention, SSL decryption and inspection and gateway-antivirus, among others-addresses HIPAA compliance," reports Harris. "Dell SonicWALL provides all these features in one device, which is absolutely fantastic." Advanced features intact, Access Health Care is now able to proactively prevent most security issues.
"With the strong and secure firewalls in place, our end user support no longer has to deal with many threats getting through," says Harris. "For example, the content filtering prevents employees from ever getting to websites where they can pull down Trojans, malware or other threats. And the SSL decryption and inspection gives us better insight into and control over what is happening within the networks, which further improves security."
Access Health Care can even update its application controls immediately when new security weaknesses are discovered.
"We can now monitor application flow in real time to see which applications are being used, and implement policy on the fly to block applications that pose security risks," explains Harris. "For instance, if we see that someone is using public cloud file sharing and storing solutions-which is a major concern for healthcare organizations because it risks exposure of PHI-we can immediately block that application." (See Example Chart B)
35 Percent Faster Performance Enables Higher Productivity
Equally important, the Dell SonicWALL solutions deliver all this security without degrading performance.
"From day one when we put the Dell solutions in place, we began receiving feedback that the speed had increased significantly," comments Harris. "We're more productive because people can access their applications quicker and easier. System performance is 35 percent faster than our previous solution."
Access Health Care now has the visibility into network usage it needs to continue to ensure high performance. "With the great visibility into the network that Data-Tech and SonicWALL provide, we can anticipate our future needs," explains Harris. "For example, when we bring another facility into our organization, we can evaluate whether we need to add more bandwidth."
Secure VPN Access Enables Secure Use of Outside Resources
"We deal with outside vendors and pharmacies, as well as outside coders," notes Harris. "Our VPN access enables us to give them a solid connection, so we can save time and money by using those resources instead of trying to do everything internally."
A Flexible Solution That Will Allow or Block the Addition of BYOD and More
Access Healthcare will not allow a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy at this time. However, if that changes in the future, it will need to comply with HIPAA requirements.
"With the Dell solutions, we are able to start with the next-generation firewall to get the security we need, and then build on top of it; adding BYOD and additional security features as we go, if and when needed," explains Harris. "For instance, the SonicWALL Mobile Connect app will allow us to give doctors secure access to our internal medical applications so they will be able to work practically from anywhere. They will be able to see lab results or other patient information from the outside, in a secure and compliant way".
Example Chart B:
Other Technologies:
Data-Tech uses other technologies to provide enterprise level services to our clients.
Kaseya IT Security, Management and Automation
Deliver the highest quality management and security services with Kaseya's extremely scalable, secure and reliable IT management cloud solutions - offering rapid time-to-market and reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). See more at: http://www.kaseya.com
StorageCraft Business Continuity Software
Failure is not an option. Recover from any IT disaster: StorageCraft Recover-Ability provides rapid system and data recovery for physical and virtual Windows machines every time - See more at: http://www.storagecraft.com
PRTG Network Monitoring
Knowing when things break is good. Knowing before they break is even better.
PRTG Network Monitor includes more than 200 sensor types for all common network services, including HTTP, SMTP/POP3 (email), FTP, etc. But what is a sensor? One sensor within PRTG is one particular, individual monitoring entity. It monitors, for example, one network service, one URL, or one port of a switch.
With PRTG, Data-Tech can alert you to outages before your users even notice them, including via email, SMS, or pager. Even better, after you use PRTG to track request times and uptime for a few months, you can optimize your network such that the pager never rings again. PRTG can print reports showing how good a job you are doing. (Tell your boss that your 100% uptime last quarter deserves a raise. We'll even print you the report to do it with.) See more at: http://www.paessler.com/prtg
CyberCATS Division - Computer and Advanced Technical Services
Cyber-Cats, a specialized division of Data-Tech, is an elite team of technical innovators focused on enhancing existing *cyber resources to advance business intelligence, operations and objectives. Merging multiple aspects of technology with people into an integrated solution for business by combining hardware, software, people and automation. Cyber-Cats create a symbiotic relationship between business, people and advanced technology. See more at: https://www.datatechitp.com/computer-advanced-technical-services/
About Data-Tech Cloud Services
Since 1996, Data-Tech has been providing complete IT computer services in Tampa, Fla. as well as nationally and globally. Our clients represent a diverse cross-section of industries and rely on Data-Tech for a wide variety of computer and technology services. We believe in providing every client, big or small, with reliable IT support and services. Data-Tech has become a leading Managed IT Services company in the Tampa Bay and surrounding areas.
Data-Tech's private cloud computing packages combine the flexibility and cost-savings of cloud computing with the security and high availability hosting needed to meet today's stringent compliance standards. Choose from an affordable, dedicated private cloud package to a fully replicated private cloud, ideal for full disaster recovery in under an hour. Whatever your company's needs, Data-Tech can work with you to customize your private cloud.
Data-Tech's Private Cloud services are a cloud computing solution built on fully dedicated (not shared or multi-tenant) infrastructure powered out of our state-of-the-art data center. The private version of Data-Tech's cloud is the ideal solution for businesses that have heavy regulatory compliance requirements in place. With Private Cloud, you can take advantage of the benefits of virtualization, like improved utilization and performance, but in a more secure, dedicated environment that still meets your compliance requirements.
The Private Cloud computing option is based on Hyper V; this platform allows one or more physical servers to be partitioned into multiple self-contained virtual machines, each with its own operating system and its own set of applications to meet your needs.
Data-Tech offers a variety of cloud-based email, productivity, and data backup solutions to the Tampa Bay area that are tailored specifically for your business' needs. Not only can we help with the selection and implementation of cloud services, but we also provide 24-hour support for all your cloud-based software applications.
Why Choose Data-Tech?
Every opportunity lost to failing technology prevents your business from successfully moving forward. Don't risk the success of your company-leave it to the IT professionals at Data-Tech. It's important in today's age to have a qualified IT partner with dedicated resources, experience and a pro-active approach.
Partnering with Data-Tech allows you to reduce your IT operating costs and delivery risks, while improving IT service levels and performance. At the same time, our flexible approach and expertise allows you to increase your IT capabilities when you need to, with scalable, proven, `world class' services.
We want to become your technology partner not just provider. As such we will spend a great deal of time getting to know you and your business. This is how we can transform your company from a "basic technology user" into a company that uses "technology to grow your business". It is our ultimate goal to grow with our partners and achieve a mutually beneficial relationship through technology.
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Lietz Development, Inc. 1996. All Rights Reserved.