Faced with a staggering influx of information from patient medical records and billing and claims to data on medical discoveries, Health care organizations are turning to Dell and virtualization to help cure their data storage and management challenges. Current server utilization in many data centers is hovering around 10 percent to 20 percent, according to a recent report by Forrester Research. These IT environments, by adopting virtualization, can increase efficiency and reap the maximum benefits of an efficient IT infrastructure. As the influx of data continues to grow as the number of devices connected to the network, including RFID devices, PCs, and tablet and notebook computers expands, this efficiency becomes even more critical.

Reducing its number of physical servers by 20 percent, resulting in easier maintenance and management and lower power and cooling costs, the largest healthcare system in the Baltimore/Washington region, MedStar Health, has worked with Dell on a virtualization solution. Ultimately, this results in better patient care because the IT staff can focus on strategic priorities, such as electronic medical records and computerized physician order entry.

Dramatically decreasing the number of physical servers in the data centers, the MedStar Health team and Dell implemented a VMware solution. Of the over 1,000 servers, 335 have been virtualized onto 18 VMware® servers, clearing several server racks.

To reduce its number of physical servers by 58 percent, operators of more than 200 skilled nursing, long-term care, assisted living and mental health facilities in 25 states, Sun Healthcare Group, worked with Dell to virtualize its data center. The company, built on Dell™ PowerEdge™ 1855 and 1955 servers, expects to see a 100 percent reduction in third-party break-fix costs, and has already achieved a 50 percent reduction in space requirements for the data center worth a projected $21,000, and significant improvements in power and cooling costs. Sun reports that it has also achieved real improvements to its disaster recovery plan, including a 99 percent faster server recovery and 100 percent success rate in disaster recovery testing.

inVentiv Communications, to simplify its IT infrastructure, is virtualizing 90 percent of its servers, with the goal of cutting power and heat by 35 percent during the next 12 months and avoiding $95,000 in costs. inVentiv Communications is one of four core business divisions at inVentivHealth, a company that provides a range of clinical, communications and sales services to take health care products from development through launch to commercial success.