MCH+ offers support for primary healthcare processes with its Careware+ software platform and has been a satisfied LeaseWeb customer for over six years. The company switched to virtualized hosting in 2009. “LeaseWeb’s VMware solution is stable and their engineers are knowledgeable.”

THE ORGANIZATION

MCH+ has been supplying total planning, registration and communication solutions for the healthcare industry since 2002. Based in Leiden, the ICT specialist provides total support of the primary healthcare processes through its Careware+ software platform. The use of PDAs and mobile Internet connections for working in the field are characteristic of its services. MCH+’s systems are used 24/7 by hundreds of concurrent users, which means that the ICT infrastructure – including the hosting – needs to comply with high requirements. MCH+ employs 20 people. Its customer base includes Omring Thuiszorg Kop van Noord-Holland, Thuiszorg Het Friese Land, ATAL Medisch Diagnostisch Centrum and GGD West-Brabant.

HOSTING IS PART OF THE PRODUCT

In the Den Helder area, home care provider Omring has been using the MCH+ Careware+ platform for two years now. The platform runs on servers hosted by LeaseWeb. Over 400 field nurses and care providers use their PDA every day to consult their schedules, register activities and communicate with colleagues around the clock. The transparency of data for all users (field workers, planners, managers and the executive board) has improved productivity significantly.

“High system accessibility and availability is vital,” says Hereward Burgers, CEO and co-founder of MCH+. “So the hosting needs to be impeccable.”

WHY LEASEWEB?

MCH+ has a lot of ICT knowledge. And because MCH+ knows what is needed for a good hosting environment, the ICT specialist has been letting LeaseWeb handle its hosting for the past six years. “Hosting is a specialization,” explains Burgers. “That is why we always tell customers to turn to LeaseWeb for our hosting. It is safer, more stable, and also more cost-effective in the longer term.”

Burgers continues: “At the time, we selected LeaseWeb because of their good price/quality ratio. They also have a high server level, particularly when compared to other market parties. One time they provided additional computer power, for instance, so that we could have some space to work on the software for a customer. And LeaseWeb also stands out because it is innovative, especially in recent years. VMware hosting in a climate neutral hosting environment is a good example.”

VMWARE HOSTING

Early in 2009 MCH+ switched from traditional dedicated servers to a virtual server environment based on VMware. “VMware makes application management and upgrading to more powerful environments much simpler,” explains Burgers. “You usually buy hardware with some space to grow because reinstalling applications on a new machine is complex and time consuming. Which is a waste, really. We don’t have to do that anymore with VMware. The LeaseWeb solution has made expanding the virtual environment with processor power and memory a much more flexible and efficient process.” The storage capacity can also be expanded virtually via LeaseWeb’s shared virtual Netapp storage platform (SAN).

“Virtualization is a relatively recent technology; it took some time for us to have faith in its stability, performance and bandwidth allocation before we switched to production environments based on virtualization,” says Burgers. “These issues have now been solved, and the first VMware-based production systems have gone live. We are very pleased with the LeaseWeb VMware solution, which offers exemplary stability and performance. In practice, the uptime is higher than for dedicated hosting. The solutions are more easily scaled up or down, and management efficiency has been improving.”

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

“Virtualized hosting also has a smaller impact on the environment. “I do make sure I communicate this to customers as an additional argument. Using VMware means you need fewer physical servers, so you save energy. This is in line with EvoSwitch, the energy saving data center in which LeaseWeb hosts our servers. You can tell that EvoSwitch is a data center created by people with a vision. Combined with virtualization, you get an energy efficient total concept for our customers,” concludes Burgers.