Backing up data is critical for any organization, but for the healthcare industry, this process takes on another level of importance.

Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene, Texas, serves a 200-mile radius area and is the official disaster management center for a 10-country area. According to Jonathan Stinson, system administrator for Hendrick Medical Center, there is “always a lot in motion, a lot changing.”

Speaking with Dave Vellante of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, at VMworld 2015 in San Francisco, Stinson said that his largest challenge is maintaining cost effectiveness and “providing high-quality services without creating a management nightmare.”

Stinson described the current systems at Hendricks Medical, which are 80 percent virtualized. Plans are in place to triple the current installed capacity in next few weeks, and Stinson has his eye on some other purchases. “I’m hoping that when I get back from VMworld I have new hardware waiting for me … that would be great,” he told theCUBE.

Catalogic foundation of back-up system

Back-ups take, by far, the largest amount of space, and Vellante asked about the hospital’s use of Catalogic Software for data back-up. “Catalogic makes it very easy for us,” responded Stinson, who likes the simplicity of Catalogic’s reportin, and ease of duplication and back-up transfer. Agreeing with Vellante’s assertion that Catalogic provides “almost-live data” Stinson said, “With Catalogic, it’s very easy to have access to that data where we need it. … It’s just a few clicks, and I can get it in there.”

Stinson cited a recent situation where a key developer became sick and was away from work, forcing the other members of the department to jump in and take over his workload. However, thanks to Catalogic, there was no issue accessing the data and making it available as needed.

Vellante brought up the issue of security, and Stinson agreed that due to regulation, Clouds can be a “thorny issue” for medical facilities. He is interested in the capabilities of VMware’s NSX Network Virtualization Platform. As his role encompasses both systems and storage admin, Stinson is also excited about VMware’s Virtual Volumes Storage, especially the ability to assign at the VM-level.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of VMworld 2015.

Photo by SiliconANGLE