Aruba Intelligent Edge Switches + Core Switches helped Kingsway Hospitals deploy an enterprise-grade network on their premise

Nagpur’s Kingsway Hospitals knew they wanted a capable and secure network to be the foundation of the healthcare IT since they began planning of the operations. From operational requirements to providing employees and patients a state-of-the-art experience, having seamless network connectivity and Wi-Fi was crucial.

For the hospital the need for a dependable, modern network was quite evident from the get-go. HMIS Services were a key part of their operations and their employees needed easy access to it. They also wanted a simple, fast and reliable network for transmitting radiology data.

“In today’s world where digital needs are more immediate than ever, we needed a radically simple approach to the design of our IT environment. Intelligent, simple, manageable infrastructure has saved us money during the initial rollout at the edge and core,” explains Unmesh Deshpande, Chief Technology Officer, Kingsway Hospitals.

Selecting the Right Networking Partner

What the hospital needed was a strong, secure, and speedy solution that can make the hospital more efficient. “Offering a great experience to employees and patients was paramount. So, we started looking at networking solutions that can help us with this,” says Walmik Wankhede, Manager (IT Infra), Kingsway Hospitals.

Being a hospital, spending a fortune on a network was never an option. The hospital did not want to select just another network without accounting for technology they would need in the future. As patient and hospital data are quite sensitive, they did not want to compromise on security.

That is not all. Simplicity was also critical. If deploying and managing the network required specialized skillsets and training, it would be a challenge for the hospital. So, they explored multiple options in the market that could suit their requirements and zeroed in on IT networking solutions from Aruba.

Building the Right Network

They needed a modern, efficient, secure, and cost-effective network. That is exactly what Aruba’s Wi-Fi, with Core and Intelligent Edge Switching, brought to the table. Its non-blocking architecture and wire speed brought to life nearly 3,500 ports to transport data in a flash.

“This is the first time that I have designed a network around Aruba Switching. As an IT Architect and the CTO of the organization, working with the HPE Aruba tech team on freezing the BoM was quite interesting,” adds Deshpande.

It not only personalized healthcare for its patients, but also expedited the records and diagnostics processes. Since the rollout was planned well in advance, it went through with minimal hitches. After the installation, the benefits were immediately visible.

“Aruba tech team did a good job delivering the required solution that would align our vision with technology and business needs,” says CA Amit Somani, Managing Director Emerging Business, SMS Ltd. and Business Unit Head, Kingsway Hospitals.

Benefits of the Right Network

It helped optimize their health care infrastructure and provide a great experience to all stakeholders. Additionally, the centralised control gave the IT team complete visibility on the network. Being able to predict and prevent issues as opposed to being reactive.

But what is a network without reliability? Aruba scored highly here too! “Centralized monitoring of the network devices and segments is helping us be prepared for any emergency. It’s been a year since installation and the uptime has been 100%,” notes Deshpande.

The network is now a fully multi-role network that drives high-speed image transfer from PACS, VoIP, CCTV, entertainment services, in-room video conferencing for each of the patients, and seamless Wi-Fi across the hospital.

“With the choice of Aruba Core switches, Access Switches, and Wi-Fi network, we now have a fully manageable and resilient network backbone. The adoption of Aruba Switching fabric has enabled us to be future-ready,” explains Somani.

Gearing Up to Become Future-Ready

As the healthcare sector accelerates on the digital transformation journey, scalability and adaptability are crucial for hospitals. They need to be capable of meeting increasing demands, with minimal downtime.

With Aruba’s solutions, Kingsway Hospitals got a flexible networking fabric, which lay the core groundwork for their platform. Now, the hospital is looking at taking it up a notch. The first thing on the cards is adding branch management to the mix.

This will be followed up by enabling a function which is a lot more innovative and ambitious – remote medicine. For Kingsway Hospital, Aruba solutions helped in simplifying healthcare while putting them on a journey of becoming truly future-ready.

It made sure that they have everything they need with respect to cutting-edge connectivity, laid the groundwork to meet every changing requirement, and instilled the confidence to innovate for the future.