Federal, state and local governments have put regulations in place to protect personal health-related data, and heavy fines and penalties are imposed for violations. Not surprisingly, protecting patient data is a high priority in the health care sector. EMC Ionix Network Configuration Manager’s (formerly VoyenceControl’s) full lifecycle approach to configuration and change management provides holistic assurance that the configuration profile of the network infrastructure is tightly controlled and audited, and meets corporate security requirements at all times. The network is the conduit that all digital data passes over between information systems, so to fully protect patient and other data, the network must be secure and compliant at all times.

In addition to securing the network from security breaches, health care organizations must now demonstrate for internal and external auditors, government entities and other partner organizations that their IT infrastructure meets compliance standards. Network Configuration Manager provides superior reporting to demonstrate continuous compliance with standards and regulations, including HIPAA, and provides the tools to maintain the network in a continuous compliant state.

The continuous availability and reliability of network-provided services is crucial to the success and even the survival of today’s health care institutions. If the consistency of the underlying network infrastructure is not maintained, those services become unreachable and unavailable. Enterprise Management Associates states that between 60 and 80 percent of service-affecting network outages are caused by change, and health care organizations must control how change happens in the network and develop efficient ways to roll out changes so that service availability is not impacted. Network Configuration Manager has been designed specifically with this task in mind. Change management follows ITIL-compatible process and regulates who can change what and when, as well as what changes must be approved by whom. Plus, all changes are audited for compliance with corporate policies and standards, as well as government and other regulatory standards.

Health care organizations live and thrive, as most businesses do, on the margin between the cost of providing a service and what can reasonably be charged for it. Automation provided by Network Configuration Manager reduces the time spent on network configuration tasks from minutes per device to minutes per network, so commonly executed task such as credential rolls, ACL updates and OS updates can be done in a fraction of the time manual processes take. This mean the same staff can be leveraged over many more devices without growth in headcount, accelerating the availability of new services. The resources and time made available by the same automation that reduces your IT operational expense provides the opportunity to accelerate the deployment of new IT-driven business services. Time avoided on repetitive IT tasks can be spent on higher value projects and used to accelerate your company's IT projects.

The resources and time made available by the same automation that reduces your IT operational expense provides the opportunity to accelerate the deployment of new IT-driven business services. Time avoided on repetitive IT tasks can be spent on higher value projects and used to accelerate your company's IT projects.