Asisa: How to migrate more than 100 databases to Azure without service interruption
The servers of healthcare centres host highly sensitive data about their users and their illnesses. The storage and processing of this type of information is delicate, due to its intimate nature.
Thus, when this information has to be transferred to new servers, there can be fears: transmission failures, losses, leaks…
Fortunately, there are ways to carry out this process without fearing all this.
From Plain Concepts and in full collaboration with Microsoft Spain, we took charge of designing and implementing a migration of all databases to Azure, allowing Asisa to access an innovative, optimal environment that allows them to manage their resources and investments with agility. With the added value and great weight in the health sector, such as offering maximum security to the stored data.
Con más de 7,5 millones de asistencias anuales, casi 19.000 usuarios y 2,3 millones de historias clínicas, Asisa tenía dificultades para trabajar de forma ágil, flexible y segura sus más de 100 bases de datos (con un volumen de 3TB) que se encontraban alojados en un Data Server físico.
La falta de agilidad, escalabilidad y especialmente las posibles fallas de seguridad, amenazaban la gestión y confidencialidad de más de dos millones de historiales clínicos de sus clientes. Y ese riesgo debía ser subsanado de forma urgente ante el creciente flujo de datos que creaba la propia actividad de la compañía mediante su proceso de expansión internacional.With more than 7.5 million attendances per year, almost 19,000 users and 2.3 million medical records, Asisa had difficulties in working in an agile, flexible and secure way with its more than 100 databases (with a volume of 3TB) that were housed in a physical Data Server.
The lack of agility, scalability and especially the possible security failures threatened the management and confidentiality of more than two million clinical records of its clients. And this risk had to be urgently corrected in view of the growing flow of data created by the company’s own activity through its international expansion process.
Our Process
The data migration was an extraordinary challenge due to a number of particularities. We had to work with a critical system running 24/7, integrated in 14 hospitals and more than 20 clinics, and a migration window of just a few hours.
The data migration was an extraordinary challenge due to a number of particularities. We had to work with a critical system running 24/7, integrated in 14 hospitals and more than 20 clinics, and a migration window of just a few hours.
“The successful migration of more than 100 databases to Azure, in collaboration with Plain Concepts, highlights how technology can improve data management in the healthcare sector.”
Results
- Asisa’s analytical platform has ceased to constantly affect the OLTP system, thus eliminating the physical restrictions of a data centre.
- Its SQL Server 2007 servers have been optimised, achieving a saving in resources of over 50%.
- They have positioned themselves in a technological scenario conducive to the incorporation of new technologies such as VR, AR, Machine Learning, Big Data and Blockchain.
- The service to their patients has been optimised at all stages, with structured information available in real time.
- The management and collaboration of the group’s employees, medical centres and hospitals has been simplified thanks to the homogenisation of the data environment.
- The Asisa Group has moved from working its databases on a physical Data Server to an environment formed by Azure, a productive and up-to-date scenario with high-availability solutions.
We are ready for a new challenge.
