Healthcare Provider Replaces Cisco with Aruba Networks to Support Growing Number of Wi-Fi-Enabled Medical Devices, Provide Secure BYOD and Guest Access
Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN) today announced that Slocum Dickson
Medical Group, P.L.L.C., a leading provider of patient-centered,
physician-directed, quality care based in upstate New York, has replaced
its Cisco wired and wireless network with an Aruba Mobility-Defined
Network. The new Aruba infrastructure will allow Slocum Dickson to
connect the increasing influx of Wi-Fi-enabled medical devices to their
network, enable doctors and staff to provision and use personal devices,
and provide secure guest access for the 2,500 patients the provider sees
daily.
Slocum Dickson Medical Group employs approximately 70 physicians and 500
staff including medical assistants, many of whom work in both the
provider’s main facility as well as its two satellite locations. The
organization’s IT group had previously deployed a Cisco wired and
wireless network across its three locations, but it was challenged with
meeting bandwidth demands due to the increasing number of new
Wi-Fi-enabled devices coming onto the network. In addition, consistent
with Aruba’s recent #GenMobile
findings, Slocum Dickson’s physicians and staff, as well as
patients and guests, expect to use their personal mobile devices anytime
and anywhere. The existing Cisco network was unable to deliver the kind
of secure, easy-to-manage Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) connectivity that
Slocum Dickson required.
“We have a lot of physicians using iPads and we found that the process
for getting them connected was cumbersome with our Cisco solution,” said
Charles Spinelli, Director of IT for Slocum Dickson Medical Group. “Our
employees had to bring their devices into IT to have them configured,
taking up valuable time for our doctors and staff, as well as the IT
department.”
To address its growing needs, Slocum Dickson determined that a network
and security upgrade was in order. After a thorough evaluation of
solutions from Cisco, Extreme Networks and HP, and with help from
channel partner, CDW, the organization selected Aruba Networks to
provide a Mobility-Defined Network. The new network incorporates Aruba
AP-225 802.11ac access points and mobility controllers, Aruba
Instant controller-less access points, Aruba
mobility switches, the AirWave
Network Management System and ClearPass
Network Access System.
With the new Aruba network in place, Spinelli says his IT department has
immediately benefited from easier, centralized management, while the
business has been rewarded with a faster, more secure and reliable
network; the latter, he noted, has a direct impact on enabling
physicians to provide better patient care and services. ClearPass, in
particular, now allows physicians to simply bring their device into any
of the three Slocum Dickson facilities where it is quickly authenticated
so they can have immediate access to all of the information and
resources they need – including patient data – just as if they were
connecting with a corporate-issued device.
“The process is so much easier now,” said Spinelli. “We don’t need a
dedicated Cisco engineer to define policies on our network. Our
employees can very quickly and easily on-board their own devices.”
While simplicity and ease were key, Spinelli noted that security is the
provider’s “number one priority”, so ClearPass’ ability to connect the
myriad of personal devices securely was crucial to Slocum Dickson’s
decision to choose Aruba. The centralized management afforded by Aruba
AirWave, as well as the availability of Aruba’s 802.11ac solution were
also important factors in their decision.
“Because we are only able to upgrade our network every five to seven
years, future proofing is crucial,” Spinelli added. “With the Aruba
802.11ac infrastructure, we feel we’ve accomplished that.”
“Slocum Dickson is really a textbook example of what is happening in so
many organizations, across a wide variety of industries, today,” said
Jeff Dolce, Area Vice President, Aruba Networks. “These organizations
are finding ways to answer the needs of both their #GenMobile employees
and customers who want secure and easy connectivity for the mobile
device of their choice, while meeting the objectives of the organization
which, in this case, include ironclad security, ease of management and
of course, the bottom line – improved patient care and services. Slocum
Dickson demonstrates why more healthcare providers and organizations of
all types are turning to Aruba Mobility-Defined Networks.”
About Aruba Networks, Inc.
Aruba Networks is a leading provider of next-generation network access
solutions for the mobile enterprise. The company designs and delivers
Mobility-Defined Networks that empower IT departments and #GenMobile, a
new generation of tech-savvy users who rely on their mobile devices for
every aspect of work and personal communication. To create a mobility
experience that #GenMobile and IT can rely upon, Aruba Mobility-Defined
Networks™ automate infrastructure-wide performance optimization and
trigger security actions that used to require manual IT intervention.
The results are dramatically improved productivity and lower operational
costs.
Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in
Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas,
Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more,
visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com.
For real-time news updates follow Aruba on Twitter
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and for the latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba products
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© 2014 Aruba Networks, Inc. Aruba Networks’ trademarks include Aruba
Networks®, Aruba The Mobile Edge Company® (stylized), Aruba
Mobility-Defined Networks™, Aruba Mobility Management System®, People
Move Networks Must Follow®, Mobile Edge Architecture®, RFProtect®, Green
Island®, ETips®, ClientMatchTM, Virtual
Intranet AccessTM, ClearPass Access Management
SystemsTM, Aruba InstantTM,
ArubaOSTM, xSecTM,
ServiceEdgeTM, Aruba ClearPass Access
Management SystemTM, AirmeshTM,
AirWaveTM, Aruba CentralTM,
and “ARUBA@WORKTM. All rights reserved. All
other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Aruba Networks, Inc.
Pavel Radda
Director of Corporate Communications
+1-408-419-0294
pradda@arubanetworks.com
OR
LSH Communications for Aruba Networks
Lori Hultin, Principal
+1-818-879-4651
lhultin@arubanetworks.com