UC Health brings together the region’s top clinicians and researchers to provide world-class healthcare to the Cincinnati community and beyond. From their flagship University of Cincinnati Medical Center to the state-of-the-art West Chester Hospital, UC Health delivers the absolute best in treatment and care. Continually recognized for excellence and backed by the academic strength of the University of Cincinnati, one of the nation’s top 25 public research universities, UC Health is revolutionizing the way in which discovery driven care is delivered. Because their physicians are teachers and researchers at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, they are able to provide patients with high quality and innovative medical treatment and care.

Working in a healthcare environment, the reliability of critical IT equipment is paramount and the ability of the IT department to identify, isolate and correct any equipment failures is vital. This is what led Matt Kilgus, Data Center Manager, to start researching DCIM solutions that would work for the organization. After researching different DCIM vendors, Matt created a shortlist of key criteria when evaluating different solutions which included: overall price, number of devices that can be monitored and notification capability. “When I met with the representative from Geist I felt their solution met our needs. Their prices were fair and they offered personalized service. I didn’t feel like a number.”

Working Partners

Once UC Health confirmed their selection of Environet® as their DCIM solution, Geist worked closely with them during the planning and build stages to ensure the system was set up to meet their specific requirements. “I was very impressed with Geist,” said Matt. “They sent out a design engineer and assigned a project manager for the planning and build process. They also sent qualified installers to set up the system and then a trainer to teach me how to use it.”

In addition to the planning and building stages, Geist is committed to its customers in the long-term. With a professional and highly trained staff, Geist is ready to respond to a customer’s needs on a moment’s notice. In regards to UC Health, Matt explains, “Geist is very supportive and responsive if we need to call on them for assistance.” Geist understands that the key to a successful DCIM installation is a working partnership between the provider and user.

Accessible and Reliable

While looking for a DCIM solution, Matt kept in mind that he did not have a single access point for his data center, limiting his team’s responsiveness to potential problems. “Being able to monitor and receive notifications on equipment failure is huge,” said Matt. “We had been using a hodge-podge of different devices monitoring different things, but it wasn’t giving us a complete overview and it was still difficult for us to react to failures quickly.” Now that UC Health uses Environet asset, all of the data center monitoring and alarming information is in one, simple program.

The Environet single access point also cuts back on human error. Matt points out, “We were dependent on humans to send out notifications and this wasn’t fool proof.” When problems occur now, Environet sends out automated alarms to the right people depending on the alarm and situation. Matt is able to change who the notifications go to, allowing UC health maximum efficiency in their data center. Environet is the perfect tool for Matt, consolidating his information in an accessible and reliable manner.

Prioritizing Alarms

Now that the installation is complete, Matt and his team can monitor all of the critical equipment on the network from one easy access point. “There are numerous features that we benefit from,” said Matt. “The key benefit is receiving alerts. Being able to drill down to the equipment that alarmed and see the status of that device allows us to prioritize alarms. We can see if the alarm is something serious, something that can wait or just a network issue. This has saved us money when previously we would have dispatched someone to check out the alarm.”

UC Health used Environet to meet their data center solution problems. Matt’s team is able to receive critical alarm notifications which allow the data center to run as efficiently as possible. The Environet solution matched well with UC Health’s needs and is being used to reduce costs and increase efficiency in their Health network. “I am delighted with the solution and am considering rolling it out to another UC Health site in the near future.” says Matt.