Nordic Medtest IT Project Runs on Nexenta

Nexenta Systems, Inc. has been chosen by Nordic Medtest, a Swedish healthcare IT project, to meet its demand for a safe, stable, and flexible SAN solution.

Nordic Medtest has a range of testing services that help customers to develop, test and safely implement IT services in healthcare.

Nordic Medtest is a project funded by Vinnova, the Swedish agency for innovation, and involves three key groups – the Council of Värmland, Compare – an umbrella organization that provides a community for IT companies to collaborate with each other, and the University of Karlstad, which helped secure the grant for Nordic Medtest. The aim of the project is to provide an independent and open competence centre where healthcare organizations can develop, test and safely introduce IT services in healthcare in cooperation with IT system and software suppliers.

The pre-study for the Nordic Medtest project began in September 2012, with a view of securing grant funding by April 2013 and having a technical infrastructure in place by September 2015. The organization’s existing SAN, used for the Compare Testlab, was based on open source software and standard hardware but concerns over its stability grew, particularly around functionality and performance.

Torbjorn Wiger, CTO, Compare and Nordic Medtest, approached Layer 8 IT-Services AB, Nexenta’s partner in Sweden, to discuss NexentaStor. He was interested in NexentaStor as it is a cost-effective solution, based on open source software.

“We wanted a safe, stable, flexible, high performing SAN solution, but we did not want to be locked into a proprietary storage solution. Having an open system on standard server hardware was an important factor for us,” he said.

For the hardware, Layer 8 installed two Dell PowerEdge R720s to run NexentaStor, interconnected with a PowerVault MD3060e storage array in a HA configuration. The NexentaStor/Layer 8 system ensures that Nordic Medtest can enjoy high capacity and performance to meet the requirements when the project comes into service in September 2015.

“A high capacity, high performing and flexible solution is vital for Nordic Medtest to grow and succeed. With this project, it’s not just a simple business organization, the IT infrastructure performance can directly affect the welfare of sick and vulnerable people,” explained Mark Jordan, VP and GM, EMEA, Nexenta. “NexentaStor allowed for a secure, stable and more importantly an open source SAN solution with no vendor lock-in.“

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