Kansas City, KS 5,000+ Employees Healthcare

Overview

The University of Kansas Medical Center aims to elevate the quality of life for individuals and foster community advancement across the state of Kansas. It achieves this by leading the way in educational programs, health-related research, and medical care. With academic campuses located in Kansas City, Salina, and Wichita, the institution also collaborates with healthcare providers and educational organizations across the state. 

The university depends on its digital network framework to facilitate its campus communications, ensure physical safety, and provide necessary academic resources. Recognizing the limitations of its outdated three-tier system, the University transitioned to Nutanix’s Cloud Infrastructure, and worked closely with Choice Solutions.  

As their technology partner and trusted advisor, Choice Solutions specializes in designing streamlined and secure IT environments tailored to meet the specific needs of each customer. Nutanix’s technology allows the University to consolidate various systems onto a single, hyperconverged platform that is straightforward to oversee, administer, and expand.

Specific Technology Challenges 

The University of Kansas Medical Center relies on its IT department to maintain and manage crucial academic, administrative, and safety systems campus-wide. However, like many other institutions, the internal IT team faces the ongoing challenge of accomplishing an increased workload with fewer resources. As the university’s digital infrastructure evolved and grew increasingly intricate, even routine tasks turned into significant challenges. 

What seemed like minor updates began to require more and more resources to complete. As Jeff Blomendahl, IT Manager at the University of Kansas Medical Center said, “One of the issues we would run into with storage and the fiber channel fabric was that whenever we had to do an upgrade on one piece, everything else had to be upgraded. Even a simple upgrade to the SAN often required a lot of prep work.” 

Opportunities for Improvement 

Recognizing that their existing three-tier architecture was becoming obsolete, Blomendahl and his team started exploring alternative solutions. “The network fabric was getting old, and I was invited to a meeting at our hospital with Choice Solutions, our technology partner, who introduced us to Nutanix. The solution looked like it could solve our problems and simplify things quite a bit. So we started with a small cluster, and it grew. As we aged out our compute and storage, we just moved them over to Nutanix.” he said. 

As upgrades became more cumbersome, moving to Nutanix with the support of Choice Solutions not only alleviated the day-to-day headaches, but also allowed for easier expansion and adaptability to future needs, reducing costs and enhancing operational efficiency. 

Solution for Success 

In partnership with Choice Solutions, the university’s IT group transitioned their various technological components—including storage, networking, and computers—into Nutanix’s single hyperconverged infrastructure. Choice Solutions guided the process by recommending the best options and assisting with setup and ongoing support. 

Blomendahl said, “We’ve been working with Choice Solutions since 2015, when we put our first clusters in.” He added, “They’ve been very helpful with purchasing equipment and getting everything installed and up to speed. We’re really pleased with our partners.” 

Leveraging the Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure, the university has incrementally broadened its network to encompass over 40 nodes campus-wide. Nutanix Prism has simplified system management, contributing to more efficient operations. The university continues to shift towards Nutanix’s services to help reduce licensing expenses. 

Why Choose Choice Solutions

Choosing Choice Solutions as your trusted technology partner with the implementation and ongoing support of your Nutanix technology can be a game-changing decision for your organization. With our proven expertise and hands-on experience, Choice Solutions not only helps you navigate the complexities of migration but offers expert support along the way. Contact us today to learn more and see how we can help.