Cloud Communications

How Cloud Communications is Helping Fight Cancer

By Susan J. Campbell TMCnet Contributing Editor

The medical industry is increasingly becoming more aware of the benefits of cloud communications. In fact, while the commercial sector worries about secure information, medical organizations recognize the inherent protections. A group called Cancer Research UK is the latest to enter into the cloud industry, which is expected to bring more reliability and speed to the company’s critical processes.

According to this Tech Week Europe report, Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is a charity that had for years been tied to a data storage system that was causing too many delays, therefore frustrating workers and hampering their campaigns. After learning of the benefits of going to cloud communications, the company hired a consultant to plan the move. The migration process can come with a few hiccups for a company that’s not prepared; which is where the value of consultants is realized.

CRUK’s history goes back to a time well before the even most primitive of computers were available. Their focus has been on offering newer and kinder treatments as they work on a cure, but technology is helping in that fight in more than one way. Researchers not only need medical technology, but technology is the fundraising department as well.

CRUK was instructed to install a new infrastructure capable of running cloud applications, as well as protect the 200 terabytes of valuable company information. The company also installed an EMC (News - Alert) VNX storage system and a VMware vSphere system for all its applications that were virtualized. 

Employees were given access to solutions such as Siebel, Microsoft (News - Alert) SQL, Oracle, and Citrix XenDesktop for the 1,000-plus desktops in circulation. With any non-profit, the bottom line is closely watched. In order to keep getting donations, the donors have to know that money being used for actual research that cures people, not corporate overhead. 

The cloud communications solution CRUK chose would have to somehow pay for itself over time. The system and the processes that run on the system are fast enough and deliver enough increased productivity to justify the cost.

Part of the improvement in performance was recognized through installing the EMC FAST (News - Alert) as well as the upgraded flash drives that improved performance by about 30 percent. Another valuable piece of the infrastructure puzzle is the VFCache, which delivers a large bit of flash memory in the system. This gave CRUK the ability to increase campaign loads by 400 percent.

The move to cloud communications is now complete, and CRUK is ramping up its fund raising campaigns to deliver the necessary funds to fight the global cancer epidemic. Utilizing cloud communications technologies that ramp up the speed at which employees and volunteers can pull down big sums of money is the organization’s new secret weapon.

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