Transforming the business with software as a service, powered by IBM FlashSystem
Customer Company Size
Mid-size Company
Region
- America
Country
- Canada
Product
- IBM FlashSystem
- IBM SAN Volume Controller
- IBM Storwize V3700
- IBM Power Systems servers
Tech Stack
- IBM FlashSystem
- IBM SAN Volume Controller
- IBM Storwize V3700
- IBM Power Systems servers
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Customer Satisfaction
Technology Category
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services
Applicable Industries
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Process Control & Optimization
- Real-Time Location System (RTLS)
Services
- System Integration
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
About The Customer
Founded in 1957, Green Shield Canada (GSC) is a not-for-profit organization that strives to make pharmacy and dental services more accessible and affordable for 2.7 million Canadians. While all Canadians have free access to core health services, there are other elements such as pharmaceuticals, dentistry, and eye care that the majority of the adult population are required to pay for themselves, or secure insurance coverage. GSC was founded to provide health plans that allow employers to cover their employees’ health and dental bills. Today, it is Canada’s only national not-for-profit benefits carrier. GSC still embraces the values of its original founders, and is driven to be the most innovative health benefits company in its industry.
The Challenge
Green Shield Canada (GSC) wanted to expand its role in the health administration market by offering claims processing as a service for other health plan providers. However, the company faced a challenge in ensuring its IT systems could meet the demands of new clients. GSC’s first client implementation was set to increase the total workload for its claims processing solution by 70 to 80 percent overnight, which required the company to ensure its infrastructure could handle the increased strain. The company realized that I/O speeds were going to be the biggest bottleneck when the new workload came online, prompting them to start thinking creatively.
The Solution
GSC introduced extreme-performance IBM FlashSystem technology to act as a performance storage layer on top of its existing disk systems. Since GSC’s storage was already fully virtualized using IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller, there was an opportunity to dramatically accelerate both batch and OLTP workloads by adding a relatively thin layer of ultra-fast storage to support its key Oracle databases. By using IBM Easy Tier in combination with SAN Volume Controller, the company can manage the whole virtualized storage landscape easily, and curate its data with optimum efficiency—keeping the most commonly accessed data on the fastest storage, while older or archived data sits on lower-cost disks.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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