The Challenge
One of the largest voluntary healthcare non-profits in the United States needed a solution to replace POTS lines and modems. Dedicated to funding research, finding cures and enabling access to treatments for patients, the healthcare organization had 75 offices across the country that required network connectivity. Using POTS lines, an expensive and inconsistent solution, they continually experienced challenges. Issues with multiple local carriers and moving to new locations led to billing issues. These resulted with lines being shut off or unplugged.
The solution had to meet several criteria:
- Enable the easy set up of new network connections
- Provide a replacement to POTS lines
- Ensure compatibility with current equipment and providers
The Opengear Solution
The healthcare organization chose Opengear for each remote site. With the Resilience Gateway, they are now able to use Smart Out-of-Band (Smart OOB™) and Failover to Cellular™ to ensure networks are online, even during primary connection failures. Having many locations, technicians are able to save time during set up and to remotely access all network equipment if an issue does occur. The equipment is able to be used with a previous cellular provider, Verizon, and with current network equipment from Cisco. Choosing the model with 4 serial ports, the organization has the ability to support multiple equipment connections.
The healthcare organization’s needs have been fulfilled and now:
- Reduced costs by eliminating $50 fee per line, per month using POTS lines
- Has enabled easy set up by pairing with previous vendors Cisco and Verizon
- Ensured resilient connectivity for new network connections remotely