Zerto chosen by HBL ICT Shared Services to protect data of 1.5 million patients

Zerto has announced that HBL ICT has invested in Zerto Virtual Replication (ZVR) to extend its business continuity and disaster recovery offering to the NHS.

A leading provider of shared technology services and solutions to the UK healthcare industry, HBL ICT quickly implemented Zerto’s software to protect IT infrastructure and critical healthcare applications to improve patient safety, while ensuring compliance with rigorous regulatory demands.

HBL ICT is an NHS organisation supplying foundation trusts in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Luton with leading IT solutions and services across a population of 1.5 million.

After realising the 300 virtual-machine-strong architecture needed optimised disaster recovery, HBL ICT decided to reassess its environment and look for a solution that could help it offer uninterrupted services.

After an evaluation of competitive products, HBL ICT selected Zerto to protect its virtualised infrastructure while keeping costs low, providing piece of mind and allowing the IT team to focus on more strategic projects.

“Doctors and their support staff rely on critical data and applications every day to treat their patients – there is no opportunity for downtime”, said Phil Turnock, ICT director at HBL ICT

“Since the implementation of Zerto, we can confidently provide IT services to all of the GP surgeries and clinics who rely on us and in turn help them provide better patient care.

“Implementing ZVR was easy, quick and the everyday management is minimal. What started as a disaster recovery plan has now helped us to improve our overall approach to IT.”

Following the successful installation of Zerto, HBL ICT can provide industry-leading IT resilience, onboard new customers 90% faster, and offer disaster recovery testing that’s non-intrusive to normal operations.

Internally, HBL is also able to reduce its management overhead by 50%, allowing more freedom for strategic business objectives and creative projects, as well as significantly reducing recovery time objectives (RTO) from days to minutes.

“Every company we work with has mission-critical data and applications that they cannot work without, but in the healthcare industry the stakes are even higher”, said Peter Godden, vice president of EMEA at Zerto.

By helping HBL ICT ensure they can provide constant availability to their customers in the NHS, Zerto is supporting every patient that comes through the doors.

“Zerto has become more than just business continuity software. Our software is transforming the ways in which our customers view their IT strategy by focusing on a proactive approach to uninterrupted business – which is especially important in the healthcare sector.”

In 2015/16 NHS England began a multi-year £1billion investment programme, the Primary Care Transformation Fund, to support general practices to make improvements across a range of areas.

Designed to target both physical and IT infrastructure, the scheme focuses heavily on technology and is linked to digital roadmaps for the NHS in local areas.

The programme, aimed at enhancing patient care and experience, will continue through 2019.