Dedicated London to Woking fibre infrastructure to be used by Nuffield Health for the critical transit of patient and care systems data
LONDON, 30 October 2012: Today, leading provider of bespoke fibre networks Geo Networks Ltd (“Geo”) announced a three year project to supply Nuffield Health, the UK’s largest not-for-profit healthcare and employee wellbeing organisation, with a new fibre network.
Nuffield Health treats over 300,000 corporate and individual customers each year, and has 1,345 beds and 111 theatres across its 31 hospitals. The dedicated fibre will enable the swift and secure transit of key patient information and data from within its critical care systems.
Geo has provided Nuffield Health with a managed gigabit fibre connection running between data centres in Woking and central London, and a further gigabit connection from central London to Docklands. However, the fibre is entirely dedicated, enabling Nuffield Health to scale up to terabit capacity as and when its business requires, and at minimal additional cost.
During negotiations, Geo took Nuffield Health executives down into London’s sewers to see the security and diversity of the fibre infrastructure that would form its network. Buried at depths of up to 12 metres below ground, Geo’s network is safeguarded from the problems typical of street-level networks, such as disruption through maintenance works or cable theft. The existing sewer network also enables the rapid delivery of new projects, by simply lighting fibre that currently lies in wait.
“There is an ideal fit between the needs of Nuffield Health and Geo’s dedicated fibre proposition,” said Geo’s Sales Director, Andy Tipping. “Today’s organisations rely on the rapid, safe transit of priority data, and a private dedicated network is the optimum transit method. Our new network supports Nuffield Health’s strategy of focusing on network and data security, minimising risk and making its infrastructure resilient.”
“After opening a second group data centre, it was critical to us to find an infrastructure partner that could link the two, providing us security and scalability. We were under time restraints; we needed a company which could roll out a quick implementation and also be with us every step of the way,” said Nuffield Health CIO, Claire Myerson. “Geo delivered on all counts. The trip down into the sewers was unusual but entertaining, and feeling so involved in the project made the bespoke nature of the network even more apparent.”
The initial circuit was procured to very tight timescales and delivered in just 5 weeks; Nuffield Health began migrating data in June 2012 and is now fully switched over with 100% uptime to date.
ENDS
About Geo Networks
Geo is the only company in the UK solely focused on the designing and building of bespoke dedicated fibre network solutions. Geo’s revolutionary and flexible approach means that for the first time, organisations can own and control their networks, ensuring that security, high bandwidth and resilience are guaranteed. By allowing its customers to directly own and control the underlying optical fibre that is at the heart of their data network, Geo is the only truly open access network provider in the UK. It provides an extensive range of solutions including fully managed networks, dark fibre and co-location services. Geo enables network solutions throughout the UK and in the London area. Customers include media companies, service providers, major banks and gaming organisations. Geo is a finalist in the 2011 UK Customer Experience Awards, listed 46th in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 list for 2011 and Geo was also shortlisted for the 2010 Sunday Times Tech Track 100: Barclays Corporate Performance Excellence Award. Visit www.geo-uk.net or follow @geonetworks for more information.
About Nuffield Health
Nuffield Health provides expert, joined-up healthcare defined by and created for UK health consumers. We are the largest healthcare charity in the UK, providing health services for over 50 years. We are independent of Government, have no shareholders and reinvest our surplus to improve our facilities or provide public health education. We provide access to 15,000 health experts through our 31 hospitals, 65 fitness & wellbeing centres, 200 corporate facilities and 20 medical clinics to help people get healthy, and stay healthy. Nuffield Health is an award-winning not-for-profit, having won Health Investor Social Enterprise of the Year in 2010 and Private Hospital Group of the Year in 2011.
For further information please contact:
Caroline Beer
+44 (0)20 3100 3796
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