Mid-America Orthopedics Finds Value in Virtualization with Aventis Systems

"Aventis Systems has been a true technology partner," said Mark Janzen, Chief Technology Officer at Mid-America Orthopedics. "I am pleased with the knowledgeable staff and quality of work. I especially appreciate how honest and upfront they are when recommending products or solutions. They match products to our budget and needs, with the added assurance that there is a solid company standing behind the hardware we are purchasing. I also know if I need something, quick and helpful support is just a phone call away. Aventis Systems knows what I need, and I have it within 24-hours."

Founded in 2000, Mid-America Orthopedics is a one-stop destination for orthopedic services —from evaluation and diagnosis to surgery, rehabilitation and therapy. Mid-America is known for providing smarter surgical methods, resulting in less pain, quicker rehab and more function for patients following procedures. Utilizing cutting-edge technology including a full-body, open MRI and state-of-the-art digital x-ray facilities, Mid-America has more than 115 employees and serves four locations in the Wichita, Kansas area. Like many healthcare organizations, Mid-America Orthopedics maintains an electronic medical records (EMR) system that allows them to turn over patient notes between branches or to referring parties within 48-hours. Their goals are to transform the way healthcare is delivered, raise the benchmark, and heighten patient expectations.

Building the Backbone

To achieve these goals, Mid-America Orthopedics needed to construct the technical backbone to support its rapidly growing business and EMR data. Mid-America looked to Aventis Systems, Inc. in early 2009 when they made the decision to move to a virtualized environment. The company had grown to over 25 employees and was operating on a single physical terminal server. "We were occasionally maxing out our server at about 25 or 30 users, causing the server to stop functioning properly. It was at that point, virtualization became a viable option for us," said Mark Janzen, Chief Technology Officer at Mid-America Orthopedics. "Through virtualization, we could take that very same machine and make it do so much more."

Time to Virtualize

Janzen was knowledgeable about virtualization technology from his consulting experience prior to joining Mid-America, but was interested in finding a solution provider that could help identify the best hardware for his performance needs and established budget, as well as assist in implementing the solution. "I began researching the hardware I would need and found Aventis Systems to be extremely price competitive,” added Janzen. "I was especially intrigued by Aventis Systems’ three year warranty on refurbished equipment, as it helped meet my budget and was better than the warranty on some of the new equipment I was considering. They also offered the knowledgeable customer service and technical support that I needed to deploy the virtualized environment."

"My Aventis Systems presales engineering team helped me determine the best hardware for our virtualized environment and budget, as well as the ideal VMware and Veeam software licensing for our network," said Janzen. Mid-America Orthopedics purchased two HP DL380 G6 servers with VMware vSphere Essentials Plus and Veeam Essentials Standard as a foundation for their virtualized environment.

"A common small business trend within operations departments is to make do with what you have," said Ben Yampolsky, Director of Information Technology Services, Aventis Systems. "We have found many of our customers outgrow old processes for their growing IT environment, but are unaware of the tools available to them to simplify many tedious tasks they have taken for granted. It brings joy to introduce customers to best practices that simplify their day-to-day IT operations and release them from menial work which up to now they considered inevitable. We then help them use the extra time for forward planning so they are self-sufficient and can avoid similar dead-ends in the future."

Taking It to the Next Level

Over the next several years, the company continued to grow rapidly and quickly found themselves with more than 70 employees. With this growth, their storage capacity needs increased, and Mid-America Orthopedics aimed to minimize downtime and the risk of data loss. Janzen again turned to his trusted IT solution advisor, Aventis Systems. "It was now time to take virtualization really serious and think about backup and storage," said Janzen. Mid-America Orthopedics took their virtualized environment to the next level by purchasing another HP DL380 G6 Server to add to the cluster and adding an HP P2000 storage array for shared storage. "Aventis Systems provided excellent administrative support and training so we knew how to effectively manage the environment using VMware vSphere Essential Plus and Veeam’s management tools," added Janzen. Aventis Systems handled the VMware vSphere installation, virtual machine configuration, including VMware’s vMotion and High Availability features and consulted Janzen throughout the process.

"Aventis Systems worked with me throughout the virtualization rollout, and even staggered the project to meet my budgetary requirements. The solution automated backup processes provided me with higher storage availability and helped me structure our backup and storage process to prevent data loss, with easier management tools to monitor the system."

Aventis Systems also recommended that Mid-America Orthopedics switch over to solid state drives to take advantage of the faster boot rate, increased speed and higher overall performance. While Mid-America was hesitant to switch, they trusted their IT partner and made the change. "The added speed made any hesitation disappear almost immediately after installation," added Janzen.

Endless Benefits of Virtualization

The benefits of virtualization have been endless for Mid-America Orthopedics. "Virtualization was a no brainer for us and has saved us a lot of money in equipment expenses, not to mention greater efficiency, server consolidation, and high availability," said Janzen.

Prior to having VMware and Veeam, the process involved having Janzen routinely shut down every server each weekend and make an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) template copy and take the backup off site. That process took Janzen two to three hours throughout the weekend. This procedure gave Mid-America the confidence to know that if anything happened they had the ability to build and recover, with the worst case scenario being that they lost a week of data. Now with the VMware and Veeam virtualized solution, this weekly backup process is automated to occur every Friday night and requires no supervision. Veeam's Backup Copy Jobs feature automatically archives the virtual machine backups to offsite storage.

"VMware simply made it possible for us to handle a whole lot more with a higher level of security. The Veeam backup and recovery is also phenomenal. This incredible technology has streamlined our entire process, giving me the confidence and peace of mind that our data is secure," adds Janzen. "It integrates robust availability and fault tolerance right into our platform to protect our virtualized applications."

Finding a Technology Partner

Janzen attributes much of the successful virtualization migration to the partnership formed between his team and Aventis Systems. "Aventis Systems has been a true technology partner," said Janzen. "I am pleased with the knowledgeable staff and quality of work. I especially like how honest and upfront they are when recommending products or solutions. They match products to our budget and needs, with the added assurance that there is a solid company standing behind the hardware we are purchasing. I also know if I need something, quick and helpful support is just a phone call away. Aventis Systems knows what I need, and I have it within 24-hours."

Aventis Systems is a VMware Professional Solution Partner and a Veeam Silver ProPartner, offering the complete portfolio of VMware and Veeam products. Aventis Systems’ team members also hold both VMware and Veeam certification credentials and are certified to design, plan, and deploy VMware and Veeam virtual solutions.

About Aventis Systems

Aventis Systems, Inc. is one of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. The Atlanta-based company specializes in Dell and HP lines of servers and storage units, as well as Cisco networking equipment. The Company also offers a full suite of business class workstations, desktops, laptops and all hardware components necessary for upgrades.

Aventis Systems' mission is to build long-lasting relationships with customers by offering an extensive plan designed to cover their IT needs. Aventis Systems starts by leveraging experienced sales and engineering professionals to evaluate customers’ infrastructures in order to craft the most cost-effective solutions. Due to the company’s expansive inventory, Aventis Systems delivers these solutions with the shortest build and ship times in the industry. Additionally, the Company offers onsite installation services for customers across the continental U.S. so that they can implement their projects as quickly as possible. All Aventis Systems customers are covered by comprehensive warranties which include access to dedicated, domestic technical support. Optional maintenance service plans are provided by certified technicians with onsite response times as short as two hours. Finally, to further simplify the purchasing process, Aventis Systems offers equipment trade-in and financing options. For more information on Aventis Systems, please contact 1-866-528-9313, visit www.AventisSystems.com, or connect with them on LinkedIn.