Apria scales up productivity while centralizing server apps |
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By Mark Baard, special to Search400.com
09 Sep 2002 | Search400.com |
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Apria Healthcare Inc. is just one example of an iSeries customer that is taking its iSeries to new levels. It eliminated 175 of its AS/400 servers and now runs one iSeries i890. Not only is management simpler, but worker productivity has increased. If you're doing something similar -- or more advanced -- submit a nomination to Search400's IT Excellence Awards Program.
Not every swing of the scalpel has to hurt.
At Apria Healthcare Inc., a home health services provider with 1.2 million patients, the IS department is paring its lot of 175 AS/400 servers down to just one iSeries i890. The move will boost worker productivity and improve the oversight of technology assets at hundreds of the Costa Mesa, Calif.-based company's branch offices.
The i890 server will run Apria's time clock and payroll applications, and it will serve as the back end for Notes/Domino and WebSphere applications. Not only will the single, centralized server give IT less to worry about, but it will also get non-techies off the hook from their daily IT chores.
"We've mostly had non-technical people managing these servers," said George Suda, executive vice president of information systems at Apria. "And we were having trouble keeping track of how the tape backups were being executed and where the tapes were being stored."
But by centralizing its server applications, Apria also centralizes its risk. Instead of servers at hundreds of locations, the company will have just one at its corporate headquarters. Suda is reducing that risk, however, by mirroring Apria's server at a remote location, through high-availability provider Vision Solutions Inc.
"When you centralize, you've got to mirror your server," Suda said. "If someone pulls up in front of our office and cuts the fiber, we'll have a hot site to flip over to."
The company will also have redundant circuits networkwide, as well as "good facilities for monitoring the network," Suda said.
At Apria, which has made few technology changes in recent years, a centralized, i890 server will speed the delivery of new applications, while supporting the company's consistent growth.
The i890 supports up to 32 POWER4 processors (they have 16 turned on), 256G bytes of memory and up to 72T bytes of disk space. Replacing Apria's older servers -- and the two tape drives used to back up each one of them -- will free up financial resources and give the IS department time to experiment with new technologies.
Apria is already redesigning its user interfaces, and it is considering wireless data access for its healthcare workers in the field. But Suda also hopes for fewer surprises on his visits to Apria's branch offices.
"By centralizing our servers, we've taken the unknown out of what happens in the field," Suda said. "We've taken control of the uncontrollable."
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About the author: Mark Baard is a freelance writer in Milton, Mass.
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