Ensuring Always-On Availability for Distributed Healthcare Sites with Opengear Solutions

Ensuring Always-On Availability for Distributed Healthcare Sites with Opengear Solutions

Accessing Critical Applications at All Times.

Healthcare organizations require constant connectivity to support the applications and devices needed for each aspect of patient care. Digitally tied together, they are constantly adding new technologies to the network which can increase the likelihood of a disruption.

These bandwidth-intensive applications, such as IoT devices, Electronic Medical Records (EHR) and Picture Archiving Systems (PACS), are critical to healthcare organizations, but place a strain on the network.

Opengear ensures the secure, always-on availability needed to meet strict regulatory requirements, decrease costs and improve patient experiences. Proven to ensure network resilience, Opengear devices address some of the more complex challenges facing healthcare organizations today. Simple to manage, quick to deploy and scalable to thousands of locations, Opengear solutions are compatible with any environment.

To learn more about ensuring maximum uptime for your organization, download the white paper today!

Reducing Downtime During Disruptions

Healthcare systems consist of multiple facilities such as hospitals, labs and urgent care centers. Each having multi-point connectivity requirements, creating a need for higher capacity WAN. If one of these points loses connectivity, without the proper solution in place, the entire network could go down, costing an average of $8600 per hour in revenue.

Outages can be causes by a variety if reasons:

Cyber attacks: One of the top two industries affected by cyberattacks is healthcare with more than 190 million patient records stolen since 2009.
Large amounts of IoT devices: As more IoT devices are added, a greater strain is put on the network edge.
Multiple operating systems: Many healthcare deployments use over 20 different operating systems which can cause interoperability challenges.

If a disruption occurs, engineers are at a disadvantage without the proper network visibility. Unable to quickly reach distributed sites, costs can quickly accumulate. Opengear solutions ensure network resilience, enterprise-grade security, and always-on connectivity during a disruption.

Ensuring Compliance and Maintaining Privacy

The healthcare industry has unique compliance and security challenges because of the large amounts of sensitive patient data that is collected. These organizations must meet the wide variety of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) standards. Governing health-related transactions and procedures, healthcare organizations must adhere to these requirements to ensure that patient information is protected. Fines of up to $1.5 million can be issued for violations, with that number multiplied by the number of years each violation has been allowed to persist.4

The HIPAA security rule requires each healthcare organization to create a contingency plan to ensure that during a disruption, critical business processes are uninterrupted and ensure that electronically protected health information (ePHI) is safeguarded.

Opengear solutions are the foundation of a contingency plan. Lighthouse Enterprise provides full network visibility while Smart Out-of-Band enables engineers to monitor, manage and remediate IT issues at any remote site. Paired with Failover to Cellular which provides always-on availability with 4G LTE, they are able to continue normal business operations while the issue is remediated.

Read our Healthcare Network Solutions Overview to better understand the importance of maintaining a healthy network.

IM7200

Infrastructure Manager

The smart solution for managing critical IT infrastructure.

CM7100

Console Server

Simplify Out-Of-Band Management.

ACM7000-L

Resilience Gateway

Ensure uptime at remote sites and remediate issues with built-in Failover to Cellular technology.

Link to product pages: Opengear – Keeping Networks Running

Ensure Full Network Visibility with Opengear Lighthouse Enterprise

Lighthouse Enterprise provides resilient access and visibility, especially during critical failures. The centralized management platform supports the Big 3 cloud providers, so users have flexibility to choose how they deploy Opengear’s Smart Out-of-Band solution.

Key Features

High Availability

Large enterprise users can maximize availability with redundant systems utilizing the Multi-Instance Operation. It provides the ability to access nodes through multiple Lighthouse instances, at the same time

Remote IP Access

Remote IP access allows for ease of access to all network connected nodes regardless of protocol. Gain access from anywhere over both In and Out-of-Band connections.

Zero Touch Deployment

Opengear’s Lighthouse Enrollment bundles and ZTP provides administrators the tools to automate the configuration and enrollment process.

Lighthouse Centralized Management

Central network hub and management portal for Opengear Smart OOB™ devices for resilient management
Scalable administration and automation – from Day One provisioning to routine operations and disaster recovery
Seamless, always-available connectivity, regardless of remote WAN or LAN health or status
Centralized, secure, end-to-end out-of-band management
Access managed devices by name regardless how they are connected
Purpose-built to “just give me a console” during 3 a.m. network meltdowns!
Tunnel through firewalls, carrier NAT and failover via Lighthouse VPN

FEATURES	LIGHTHOUSE ENTERPRISE	LIGHTHOUSE
Centralized Management of Opengear Console Servers and Third-Party Devices
Web Standard access (No Java / other tools or software required)
NetOps Automation Engine and Orchestration
Administration and Automation for Day One Operations
Routine Maintenance and Disaster Recovery Access
Standardized RESTful API allowing access to aspects of the platform
Smart Tags and Grouping via meta tags directly in LH
User Access Grouping locally and via AAA Servers
Cloud Hosting – Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Cloud Hosting – Microsoft Azure
Cloud Hosting – Google Compute Engine (GCE)
Remote IP Access
High Availability

Link to product pages: Opengear – Keeping Networks Running

DevOps IM7200 Infrastructure Manager Lighthouse Centralized Management NetOps Network Visibility OM2200 Operations Manager Opengear Out-of-Band Visibility Smart Out-of-Band Management Zero Touch Deployment

SD-WAN Deployments Need Out-of-Band Visibility

SD-WAN provides lower cost, secure network connections across corporate and regional locations, based on the simplified architecture of SDN. But without an Out-of-Band backup, SD-WAN has an Achilles heel.

Flexible Networks Across Remote Locations

SD-WAN is the application of Software Defined Networking (SDN) to create a smarter, more agile Wide Area Network, able to support the increasingly sophisticated distribution of networking devices across multiple locations and remote sites, whether that’s branch offices, manufacturing locations or retail stores. It provides the flexibility to change the network configuration and logical topology without changing the physical infrastructure, and allows the creation of virtual network groups across sites, independent of where people are geographically located.

Key benefits of SD-WAN:

Increased flexibility of network configuration, with reduced complexity
Quick deployment of new network locations using zero touch provisioning
Seamless management of distributed team members with Virtual Local Area Networks across multiple locations
Reduced cost by leveraging commodity hardware and eliminating expensive private network circuits
Secure connection of standard broadband via a dynamic VPN tunnel
Balances traffic across multiple technologies (broadband, 4G LTE) without the need for dedicated MPLS circuits

The local router is a more sophisticated device in a SD-WAN deployment, incorporating advanced software capabilities to provide a flexible configuration across the network. Moving away from the vertically integrated ecosystems of the past, these CPE routers can now be based on commodity hardware, reducing costs and expanding the available options.

Smart Out-of-Band for a Resilient SD-WAN

This new flexibility brings with it a heightened need for remote hands to manage the on-site devices. With the increased sophistication of the SD-WAN hardware – specifically the advanced routers located at each site – the need for “always-on” access to that hardware is more critical than ever. In many locations, the level of technical ability will be limited, so when an issue occurs the network team must be able to manage the equipment remotely. An out-of-band network provides that visibility and security.

Initial Implementation

During the initial roll out and migration from the previous WAN, using a console server can avoid an expensive truck roll. Ship an Opengear Resilience Gateway to site, and provision the network from a central NOC without the need to send an experienced network engineer to each location. Embedded cellular in the Opengear unit enables this process over 4G-LTE if the primary network is not available during the transition.

As with any new implementation, the first few months may be unstable with frequent updates and glitches, such as encapsulation issues disrupting connectivity. Smart out-of-band allows you to automate these updates and remediate issues without sending someone to site.

Steady Operation

A benefit of SD-WAN is the ability to aggregate multiple circuits for load balancing and redundancy, but the SD-WAN router can still be a single-point-of-failure. A single event can still cause simultaneous failures in multiple circuits (for example, severed cables into the facility), if a truly separate path is not in the mix. Smart out-of-band offers Failover to CellularTM, to ensure your SD-WAN continues to operate when all other circuits are unavailable.

With an Opengear console server at every SD-WAN location, and each node part of a Lighthouse 5 Centralized Management system, NetOps staff at the Data Center or NOC can remotely manage, automate and orchestrate the network devices without the need for experienced technical staff at each site.

An out-of-band management network provides the guaranteed access and high reliability to make SD-WAN a low-risk option.

SD-WAN + Smart OOB = Secure, Flexible, Resilient Network for your Entire Enterprise

Link to product pages: Opengear Solutions

ACM7000-L – Resilience Gateway IM7200 Infrastructure Manager Network resilience Opengear Out-of-Band Visibility SD-WAN resilience Smart Out-of-Band Management

Secure and Resilient Financial Network Solutions from Opengear

Finance is one of the most regulated industries in the world. Constantly facing newly emerging threats, compliance requirements, and customer demands, a network disruption can dismantle credibility and render systems useless.

To meet these demands, financial institutions are integrating more IoT at branch locations, increasing the usage of mobile apps and creating more distributed sites – all requiring additional network capabilities. As these organizations adjust their operations to accommodate these needs, a new set of network requirements must be met, such as faster bandwidth, increased security and the ability to scale to ensure business continuity.

Ensuring uptime in finance

Opengear solutions are deployed by some of the largest financial institutions in the world. Ensuring always-on network resilience, they ensure that infrastructure can be managed remotely and are scalable.

Watch our video to learn how ATMs, trading platforms and other financial systems continue to run during a network disruption.

To learn more about the security risks of disruptions and how to ensure network resilience, download our whitepaper today!

Creating compliant and secure networks

The average cost of a data breach is $3.86 million, which can result in brand damage, lost customers and thousands of dollars in fines. In finance, cyberattacks, such as malware, mobile apps, and unencrypted data, are one of the largest threats to network security. In an effort to decrease disruptions and safeguard customer information, a variety of regulatory requirements have been created.

Opengear solutions provide enterprise-grade security for edge and core networks. Advanced security and encryption features that are built-in to each device ensure that routers, phones, and ATMs are updated with the latest compliance standards. Lighthouse Centralized Management gives organizations full visibility into their network to detect faults before they become failures.

To better understand threats directly facing financial institutions and how to extend your reach during outages, click the image.

Deploying SD-WAN in financial networks

Financial organizations understand the important role proximity plays when improving customer experiences. To broaden their reach, many are expanding their branch locations and using more kiosks. Deploying SD-WAN establishes secure VPN connections across any service and provides the necessary bandwidth for cloud tools and services, becoming more used within the industry.

However, advanced SD-WAN routers create single points of failure and a network disruption can cause financial institutions many issues. Failover to Cellular™ provides internet connectivity for remote LANs and equipment using 4G LTE in the event of a disruption. Smart Out-of-Band provides an alternate secure pathway so the network continues to operate when other circuits are unavailable.

Watch this video to learn why one of the leading banks in the United States chose to add Opengear to their SD-WAN deployment.

Link to product pages: Opengear Solutions

ACM7000-L – Resilience Gateway IM7200 Infrastructure Manager Lighthouse Centralized Management Network resilience Opengear SD-WAN resilience Smart Out-of-Band Management