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Centralis Case Study
Cardiff University
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Multi-award winning project delivers secure bridge between
education and health
"With this
project we have challenged convention and been able to deliver
our strategic commitment of equality of access to all regardless
of location, device or connection.”
Tony Rucinski, Assistant
Director and Head of the Strategy Group, Cardiff
University
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Features: Citrix Application Delivery, Secure Remote Access,
Flexible Working, Centralis Consultancy |
Summary
Winner of both the UCISA (Universities and Colleges Information Systems
Association) National Award for Excellence and the Best Citrix Project,
Centralis worked with Cardiff University to deliver the first ever
fixed, dedicated link between the disparate worlds of higher education
and health. The project used Citrix application delivery to
provide medical students access to their university data and systems
while on placement in highly regulated and locked down NHS environments.
About the
Customer
Cardiff University's College of Medicine, Biology,
Life and Health Sciences was established as the Welsh National School of
Medicine in 1931. In 1984 the School became The University of Wales
College of Medicine and incorporated the only medical and dental school
in Wales. The institution is a result of the merger between University of
Wales College of Medicine and Cardiff University in 2004. It shares a
53-acre site at Heath Park with the University Hospital of Wales within
the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust two miles north of central Cardiff. The
College currently has around 1,400 staff, 4,000 undergraduate and
postgraduate students and many more pursuing continuing professional
development courses.
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“ Citrix software
is a critical part of a groundbreaking project whose success
will benefit the health of a nation, thanks to the collaborative
research and teaching enhancements it makes possible. "
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Tony Rucinski, Assistant
Director and Head of the Strategy Group, Cardiff
University
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The
Challenge
Many of the College's departments are integrated with those of the
hospital so that medical and dental teaching and research is combined
with leading edge healthcare delivery. Other courses on offer include
nursing and midwifery, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, radiography
and operating department practice. This breadth of health-related
provision is one of the reasons why the College is at the forefront of
developments in inter-professional education.
In addition to undergraduate teaching the College makes a
substantial contribution to postgraduate and continuing
education for healthcare professionals throughout Wales,
enjoying close co-operation with the NHS throughout the nation.
NHS staff contribute to undergraduate and postgraduate education
and training; and hospitals and general and dental practices
provide essential clinical placements for the College's
students.
Although the College shares a very close relationship and a large
campus with Wales’ largest teaching hospital, the campus is only one of
their operational locations. At any one time, around half of its
students and many of its staff are spread among various sites located
throughout the length and breadth of Wales.
The university is committed to a strategic mission of providing equality
of access to information services and collaborative productivity tools
to enable ongoing excellence in healthcare research, learning and
teaching, regardless of location.
To meet these strategic aims, this dispersed user population require
full access to their electronic information when they are away from
their “desk”; whether that is on campus from lecture theatres and
libraries, or remote access from NHS and other sites. Many of the
locations are subject to the strict security regulation of the NHS
however, and high bandwidth connectivity is not always available.
At any one time, around half of these students and many
of its staff are on work and academic placements at
various sites across Wales, including more than 20
district general hospitals. The institution had a number
of obstacles to overcome in providing cost-effective
access to information and collaborative resources -– to
users both on campus and elsewhere. These challenges
included the large number of users in diverse locations,
low connectivity speeds within the National Health
Service (NHS) in Wales -– whose network was essential
for providing access for the hospital’s students and
staff based temporarily at other hospitals -– patchy
bandwidth coverage and the proliferation of different
devices used.
The necessarily secure nature of NHS sites -– which
handle confidential patient data -– was another key
factor. And, while a wireless solution was appropriate
to the campus itself, secure delivery to hospitals and
other remote sites required a broader strategic access
solution. In addition, the project involved a number of
stakeholders, and political sensitivities were a major
factor.
The Centralis
Solution
The university selected Centralis, a Citrix®
Platinum Solution Advisor, as
delivery partner to implement a solution based on Citrix
Application Delivery. To enable access to university resources for the
first time from sites around Wales, the university
approached the Board of the NHS Information Authority,
whose network houses patient-critical information
systems. The proposal was to establish the UK’s first
dedicated link between an NHS network and the Joint
Academic Network (JANet) -– the network used by academic
institutions.
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" When engaging with Centralis, we expected competence in specific
areas because that's why they had been recommended to us - and that's
what the contract promised! What we didn't expect however was the level
to which the consultant assigned took it upon himself to own issues and
deliver resolutions in associated areas that would have a major impact
on deliverables "
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Tony Rucinski, Assistant
Director and Head of the Strategy Group, Cardiff
University
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The university is now connected to the NHS Wales
network via a 100MB link that supports the delivery of a
secure Citrix-based service to more than 20 district
general hospitals in Wales. Authorised users can also
now access applications and information from Wyse
terminals at post-graduate library sites, using
individual hospital trust networks as a conduit. The
solution thereby extends access to the University’s
various remote users, while preventing any unauthorised
access to the NHS network. For security, the system
relies on Citrix’s own 128-bit encryption technologies
coupled with Novell log-in procedures.
“With this project we have challenged convention and
been able to deliver our strategic commitment of
equality of access to all -– regardless of location,
device or connection,” said Tony Rucinski, Assistant
Director and Head of the Strategy Group, Cardiff
University Information Services Directorate.
The accessibility and security of the solution were
critical -– it had to win the confidence of all
stakeholders, including officials within the Welsh
government. Citrix was essential to
the solution, because it is secure and enables
applications to be delivered to users with high
performance over low-bandwidth connections and on any
type of client device. The solution is significantly
less costly to install and maintain than another option
that was considered for extending access across Wales
which would have involved providing additional leased
lines to a small dedicated network at each of the
district hospitals.
The big benefit of this project is that it enables a
dispersed university community to pursue
inter-disciplinary healthcare research, learning and
teaching -– just as though everyone was on campus. There
was no access from these remote locations before. Now,
via an open Internet Web browser, users can access the
university server network, share files, submit work,
collaborate online and use all the applications they
need, including software specific to their disciplines.
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“ The progress
made will allow others around the UK to build on the confidence
that has been established within the NHS community to deliver
more effective information systems and services — and
potentially a more comprehensive approach to public sector
information service provision in general. "
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Tony Rucinski, Assistant
Director and Head of the Strategy Group, Cardiff
University
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The decision was taken to go out to tender for a Citrix solution, and
from the responses select a strategic delivery partner capable of
providing a solution which would meet the full spectrum of the college’s
access requirements.
Tony Rucinski took the lead in reviewing prospective suppliers and bids,
and selected Centralis, a Citrix Platinum Solution Advisor, as the
supplier best able to work with all the board members to deliver the
complex, strategic requirements of the project.
The
Benefits to the Customer
Tony Rucinski comments "When engaging with Centralis, we expected
competence in specific areas because that's why they had been
recommended to us - and that's what the contract promised! What we
didn't expect however was the level to which the consultant assigned
took it upon himself to own issues and deliver resolutions in associated
areas that would have a major impact on deliverables. This emphasis on
providing a solution as opposed to a set of completed tasks has been a
major "plus" in our experiences to date."
The project has enabled the customer to deliver their strategic
commitment of equality of access to all – regardless of location, device
or connection.
This will directly improve the access provided to students and staff in
two key areas, through the provision of wireless access across the
campus, and by providing improved facilities for the staff undertaking
research and training work on NHS sites.
The project was awarded the Universities and Colleges Information
Systems Association National Award for Excellence for its breadth
of access provision, and for the ground breaking progress in delivering
collaboration with the NHS.
The University has developed proposals to build on the
project, for example by providing secure information
services to all junior doctors, by providing access for
NHS staff to grid and mass computing services, and by
enabling inter-disciplinary activity across sectors as
well as within academic disciplines. A major success
already, this project has the potential to deliver even
greater benefits.
“Citrix is a critical part of a
groundbreaking project whose success will benefit
the health of a nation, thanks to the collaborative
research and teaching enhancements it makes
possible. The progress made will allow others around
the UK to build on the confidence that has been
established within the NHS community to deliver more
effective information systems and services — and
potentially a more comprehensive approach to public
sector information service provision in general.”
Tony Rucinski, Assistant Director and Head of the
Strategy Group, Cardiff University Information
Services Directorate
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