The solution

Secure and resilient internet WAN

To support the animal care hospital group with connectivity for growth, GTT set a timeline and identified resources enabling an on-time project roll-out schedule for the implementation of a resilient, secure wide area network. GTT migrated the local access services used at each of the group’s 150 hospitals and office network locations into one managed network and security service, enabling the team to meet the current and future demands of the business. The group’s digital transformation also included the implementation of reliable 5G network technology powered by Ericsson for on-site backup. In the event of a failure on primary connection, the network switches over to the 5G service without interruption.

Advanced 5G network technology allows lightning-fast download speeds across cellular networks, ideal for the data demands of healthcare providers serving numerous geographies in urban, suburban and rural areas alike. At the same time, the GTT team proactively monitors and manages the company’s network connectivity for each of the group’s sites and ensures firewall updates and security patches are performed on time, all the time.

The results

Fit for accelerated growth with a trusted partner

• 150+ site WAN with broadband and 5G network redundancy
• 99% network uptime guaranteed
• Effortless automatic 5G connectivity failover powered by Ericsson
• Speed to open new hospitals accelerated and simplified
• One GTT EnvisionDX dashboard for tailored 24/7 visibility and monitoring of the entire network
• Automatic firewall updates – zero calls, emails or reminders needed
• Number of local access providers reduced from 100+ to one – GTT
• Professional, knowledgeable customer service
• One monthly bill

With GTT managed connectivity, guaranteed uptime with 5G redundancy and advanced managed firewall services, the animal care hospital group’s network is perfectly designed for its growth plans. Now its IT team can quickly add new hospitals and offices to its network wherever required. Whether through mergers, acquisitions, partnerships or newly built hospitals, its network expansion is greatly simplified and more nimble, with reduced strain on the IT team and finance departments. Adding hospitals no longer takes months to onboard but just days.

Should the primary service go down, the managed router recognizes the degradation of service and automatically fails over to the 5G service. This allows the group’s IT staff to save time and focus on other objectives to meet its mission-critical goals.

Its finance team has also experienced benefits from working with GTT. Before, each of the group’s 152 hospitals had at least two ISP providers, at least two contracts and two invoices for each location. GTT supported the group in organizing and managing its local internet access providers, including providing a clear billing breakdown for the finance team to manage. GTT delivers one bill and one contract with guaranteed service level delivery, enabling the group’s network applications to run swiftly and smoothly.

With GTT managed firewalls, the group’s IT team doesn’t need to constantly watch the network and worry about updates. The GTT EnvisionDX dashboard allows team members to see when GTT has successfully updated the firewalls on the network.

The group’s IT team enjoys continual visibility of its network and knows when network upgrades are needed and when they have been performed through GTT EnvisionDX. The real-time insights are displayed on an expansive flat screen showing the IT team’s preferred metrics, which hangs on the office wall at the group’s headquarters – complementing the team’s access via desktops and mobile phones.

The connected future

Today the group’s network is always at the ready to add new hospitals and clinics because GTT and Ericsson make it simple to add resilient internet services and secure new sites.

Planning for the future is a constant when developing a dynamic, secure and growing network. With continual vigilance and care, the GTT team will ensure the group’s scalable network remains future-proofed. When hospitals or clinics need to increase bandwidth, one quick call or ticket to the GTT team will accomplish this.

The IT team will continue to have GTT as a trusted partner for managed network and security services to secure this animal care hospital group’s infrastructure, and to consult with as innovative practices are tested and evolved for years to come.