Scott McNealy, as I recall, used to say "There are people who would pay extra to get their bicycle delivered in pieces, so they can assemble it themselves". Last week we organized an Industry Solutions review for health care and government at our EBC in Menlo Park - with very positive feedback from attending solution and channel partners, and also some leading Systems Integrators. I want to take this event as an opportunity to share with you which industry offers and architectures we are working on. And spoiling the punch line, I can already tell you that our goal is delivering integrated solutions that provide the fully assembled "bicycle" at the lowest possible cost, so our customers do not have to spend time and effort assembling it on their own. Because if you do have to assemble yourself, you WILL pay extra, if you want it or not.
Why EDS doesn't like our solutions
The goal of our solutions is to pre-integrate our technology with some leading partner applications and thereby simplify implementation and support. Our technology is usually comprised of server and storage products, but more and more also components of our vast open source middleware portfolio. We architect usually S, M, and L size offers, which cover at least 80% of the deployment cases. For very large engagements, we collect the data, so offering those is easier too. The advantage to customers and partners alike is that with the pre-integrated approach, implementation time can be drastically reduced - and that in itself is a huge cost savings.
EDS, if you care to know, doesn't like this approach very much. They like it when there is a lot of messy integration to do, because that means many billable hours of high margin consulting. Sorry, EDS, we can't please everyone!
As we know from systems design & analysis statistics, hardware and software costs in any IT project are only a small piece of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), while training, integration and maintenance command a lion share. In times of budget cuts, that's where we attack. That doesn't mean our vertical offers do not need integration and consulting. I'm the first to advise anybody in preceding investments in compliance related products, for example, with an assessment, and to combine the product implementation with a strong policy. With this tandem approach, we significantly reduce complexity, and low complexity equals low cost in the Gartner TCO model.
SIs like CSC, CBTS, PWC and BT are on-board with this approach: its good for the customer and good for SIs.
Here are some of the solutions we are working on right now:
1. FairWarning appliance for Healthcare insider security and HIPAA privacy auditing
Find more information here. FairWarning is an automated audit appliance solution that connects already to over 60 popular healthcare applications (new application can be added within 8 business hours), checking audit logs in real time and providing alerts to IT staff if authorized insiders abuse their access rights for non-compliant use. It helps, together with policies and training, to bring organizations in California into compliance with AB 211 and SB 541 (and similar legislation in the U.S. and other countries).
FairWarning uses our line of X64 servers and MySQL. We tested and sized the solution, and this pre-integration makes it possible to install the appliance in minimal time. Which reduces TCO and maximizes ROI.
2. Bridgehead HEAT Enterprise Archive Solution
This is a very interesting solution for Hospitals (especially Meditech HIS customers) who seek a single solution for Enterprise backup, including DICOM data from potentially multiple PACS systems. From scanning of paper records to medical images, all data can be archived in a multi tier storage environment that leverage Sun's open storage platform, including tape for live arcchive and backup.
HEAT comes in three bundles which are available to suit the specific requirements of small, medium and
large healthcare organizations. It consists of three tiers of storage, a Sun Fire™ X4240 server running
Windows 2003 Server, a Sun Fire X4540 server with Solaris ZFS and a Sun StorageTek™ L500 Tape Library integrated with and managed by BridgeHead’s Enterprise Data Archive (EDA) software. This close integration of software and hardware means that compliance concerns can be met but also the solution is self protecting ‘out of the box’ as it automatically protects and backs up the archived data and meta data.
Consolidation of multiple PACS systems into a single Enterprise backup solution has tremendous cost savings potential and a very high ROI - especially when leveraging Sun's unique disk- and tape based products.
3. March Networks IP Video solution
March Networks provides a fully integrated IP video solution. If in a hospital or law enforcement setting, hundreds of video streams can be managed, analyzed and archived with this pre-integrated solution, leveraging a Sun open storage platform. Instead of multiple layers of servers, in many cases a single Sun 4540 Server can control and archive hundreds of video streams, which reduces cost and complexity during implementation and throughout the life time of deployment.
4. Greenplum Datawarehouse Appliance
Greenplum and Sun offer together a very competitvely priced Datawarehouse appliance. Payers who look to identify fraud or redundancies, or analyze their subscriber and provider Network as a foundation for pay-for-performance and consumersim initiative find in this datawarehouse applice a very cost efficient solution with incredible price-performance. Pre-integrated like our other solutions, the Greenplun datawarehouse appliance is based on our open storage platform and can be rapidly deployed in existing datawarehousesettings, replacing much costlier competition.
Given that the Obama administration will continue pressure on price-and quality transparency, we think that Providers also will have to create datawarehouse strategies in order to analyze cost structures by disease. Not only can we offer the Greenplum appliance, Sun also offers comprehensive middleware to aggregate data and create a master data index with JCAPS and MDM.
5. Promptu thin identity
In this Blog I have addressed the topic of desktop delivery many times. When we meet with CIOs, this is usually a very critical point because desktop maintenance and refresh requires a major part of the budget right now. It's not unusual that a two-hundred bed Hospital maintains 10x Desktops, over 2,000. While estimates of annual desktop TCO range all the way from $1,000 to $3,000 and more, it is a huge part of the budget.
Anyway - we have been addressing this topic with SunRays and the concept of ultra-thin clients with extremely low TCO. Promptu thin identity grew out of Denver Health and added many very useful features to a standard SunRay environment, for example direct Active Directory support and context management. Care providers can now roam the Hospital and access screens relevant to the location for maximum efficiency.
SunRays are very easy and cheap to deploy, support and maintain, and they use a fraction of energy compared to standard desktops - so all in all very strong ROI with low TCO.
More information about these solutions will be posted on our web site as we prepare the marketing launch kits with detailed infos. All of the healthcare partners mentioned will exhibit with us at HIMSS in Chcago this year, so we're looking forward to a very exciting show.
In the next weeks I will also introduce you to our solution architectures. We're working on two: PLIS and S3ODA. PLIS is our architecture for Health Information Exchanges based on an architected core of Sun open source technology that can be integrated with various applications based on customer demand. The difference between an architecture and the aforementioned appliance types is that appliances based solutions will look identical whereever they are depolyed. We achieve high levels of economy-of-scale and resudce complexity significantly. Architectures will look differently because, as in the case of HIE, there are different integration targets. Some HIEs will want to image enable their environment, others don't. Some want lab data and e-prescribe, others want PHR. An architecture should be able to provide a way to accomodate all this, but still offer a level of pre-integration and testing that reduces risk and complexity compared to a full custom integration project. PLIS will also be featured at HIMSS, so we got lots of info to share before we all meet in Chicago.
![[my boss] about public sector (Government, Education and Health care)](http://www.unitedfeatures.com/ufs/images/comics/characters/cast_dilbert_The_Boss_sm.gif)
As a cyclist and especially as a touring cyclist I can see the benefit of getting your bike in bits. If you put it together then if it breaks when you are in the middle of nowhere you stand a much better chance of being able to fix it so that you are not stranded than if you buy a completed bike and just get on a ride it. By definition you will have the tools to do the job, whether you take those tools on your trip is your choice but if you just buy the bike even if you ask for a complete tool kit for that bike you won't know for sure it is complete unless you take the bike apart. and you can't be sure you know how to use it either.
While that was not my prime motivation for getting my tourer in bits it certainly paid off.
Whether the analogy works with computer systems is another matter.
Posted by Chris Gerhard on February 10, 2009 at 12:17 AM PST #
That's actually a good analogy in two ways:
If the solution breaks, as the bicycle in your experience, we'll be able to fix it better because part of the solution definition process is also a service agreement (which I forgot to mention). Instead of trying to find out who's to blame, this can help expedite problem resolution.
And the second point is that there are and will always be cases when it makes sense to build something from "best of breed" components. You know it will be more expensive, but there can be good reasons to do this, too. Someone who build custom takes more responsibility - you have to make sure all the pieces fit, and if one breaks, you have to take care of it yourself, because there is not one party that is responsible. If that's what you want - Sun has a full shop of components. A line up of servers and (open source) software that you can combine any way you want. And with the architectures I mentioned at the end of the article, we will even deliver blueprints for people who want to build custom solutions, but still leverage some pre-tested components.
One the bicycle side, I'm perfectly fine with my Giant Mountainbike (which came fully assembled). Brought me up and down Mount Eden many times. For my purposes, it's perfectly fine, and it was only $300 at the Off-Ramp. A custom built bike is much more expensive - I live in Morgan Hill, the home of Specialized, and a $2,000 price tag is nothing for the Specialized concept cycle shop.
As for computers - I used to build them myself from best-of-breed components. After I wasted hours and days last time around trying to build a Vista system, only to experience constant crashes (although I changed every component by now twice), I stick with an Apple - it just works and its the epitome of a pre-integrated system.
Posted by Joerg Schwarz on February 10, 2009 at 06:31 AM PST #