Anthem Biosciences has deployed Citrix server and desktop virtualisation for secured remote access, enhanced productivity for employees and better business outcomes By Jasmine Desai
The healthcare industry is in a transformative phase with several new innovations being implemented on a regular basis for improving the quality of healthcare and meeting stricter compliances. As these business changes have made the reduction of costs a top priority, IT is being deployed for bringing efficiency and enhancing the productivity of the workforce.
The Anthem Group, which is the holding company comprising Anthem BioSciences, Anthem Collations and Anthem BioPharma, is a start-up on fast track growth path. The company’s applications reside in their in-house data centre. Whenever there is a need, the desktops are delivered to the end user. The Dell SAN connects users to the data centre. “We have end-to-end security including port blocking, firewalls, routers, monitoring tools, web filters, and anti-virus at the gateway level. We manage the critical infrastructure that supports all our operations,” says Ravi Kalla, Senior Manager – IT at Anthem BioSciences.
Meeting the challenge of expansion
The company was in the process of doubling its capacity at the existing facility and there was also an expansion plan for a remote location. The recruitment process was in full swing to bring more talent into the organisation. It was becoming a big challenge for IT to provision enough new desktops every month to keep up with the growing numbers of new employees. “We had to provision 25-50 desktops/ laptops every month, and it was very time consuming for IT,” explains Kalla. He further explains, “Being a start-up, there was no way we could afford to have clustering and patch management software. So while looking for clustering solutions, we thought that server virtualisation and desktop virtualisation could help us address the challenges.”
Recently, Anthem deployed four different server applications. In a traditional model, they would have needed four physical servers for support, because some of them are Linux based and some are Windows based. The IT department would have needed to make substantial investment, if they went for the n+1 concept. Instead they chose the efficient way of virtualisation to address this. “Since we went for server virtualisation, we just created a virtual environment and hosted the servers. The cost of doing this was zero. This was a major business advantage of the Citrix XenServer virtualisation solution for Anthem,” mentions Kalla. The company has now implemented complete virtualisation, from server to hosted shared desktop service all provided by Citrix.
On the other side, Anthem wanted to extend a remote working opportunity to some of its employees but data and information security concerns had prevented them from taking any steps in that direction. The business requires them to send regular updates to their customers, so workflow breakdowns is not an option at all. “We wanted to get better control of data-flow because there was always the fear of security breaches. Whenever we sign a non-disclosure agreement with companies, security is a non-negotiable issue,” said Kalla. “For example, if we are sending an update to the customer and the desktop suddenly crashes, the email client and applications have to be reconfigured in a different location. This would result in a loss of productivity and delay of at least 2-4 hours. This will definitely affect our business continuity,” says Kalla.
Given such diverse business needs and the technology challenges, Anthem BioSciences decided to deploy a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) apart from server virtualisation. Before selecting any product, Anthem did a full due diligence on every worthwhile option. They evaluated various options including VMware. “Of all the options, Citrix came closest to fulfilling our needs. It was cost effective and it had features like hosted shared desktop services. Citrix XenDesktop was also able to provide a much better ROI than VMware,” says Kalla on opting for Citrix.
Anthem BioSciences has purchased 200 licenses of Citrix XenDesktop and is planning further expansion. “VDI is slightly expensive, because you have to buy Microsoft licenses and an annual subscription for VDI infrastructure, Citrix still made the most sense as compared to other products,” says Kalla. Anthem BioSciences opted for a Hosted Shared Desktop (HSD), as it is a lightweight component, and most of the users require only browser and Java.
Benefits of virtualisation
With the implementation, the company has achieved the benefit of reduced costs, secure remote access and business continuity. “Citrix can run on any device. We do not require any WAN optimisation tools to achieve better access speed. We feel virtualisation is the best way of addressing our secured remote access concerns. Now users can access their office desktops from remote locations. Whatever they need to do, will be at the data centre and not on the desktop,” says Kalla. The entire desktop is encrypted and delivered to the user, therefore leaving no room for any internal and external security breaches.
With Anthem being a start-up, keeping cost under control is of immense importance. A well configured desktop costs a minimum Rs 25,000. Plus the cost of Microsoft Windows 7 professional license costs Rs 9,000. So the total cost of the desktop becomes Rs 34,000 before adding the cost of other software like anti-virus, port blocking etc.
“In the thin client model, the hardware cost is just Rs 14,000. Even with the cost of licenses, the cost will not be more than Rs 2200. This is an immediate saving of Rs 12,000,” says Kalla. Since Citrix XenDesktop was deployed the IT team does not have to worry about business continuity. Even in the case of a system crash, the user can log in and start work from where they left. “We have created roaming profiles, so a user can go to any computer and access the applications that are tagged to their ID, including the mailing solution and printer access,” says Kalla.
Lifecycle of a normal desktop is usually three to four years, whereas a thin client can work for as long as seven years. The power consumption of a desktop is 100-140 watts, whereas thin client consumption is only about 40 to 50 watts. “There is a significant saving on power. If 200 conventional desktops run for 12 hours, the cost of power comes at Rs 30 lakh per annum, as opposed to thin clients, which may only cost about Rs 10-15 lakh,” Kalla says. With the Citrix XenDesktop in place, deployment can happen on the same day.
“With Citrix HSD, one physical server with 128 GB RAM and Xeon processor can support 200 users in a lightweight environment. We were initially apprehensive about putting so many users on to the server but after seeing the performance in the last four months, we are confident that it can support more than 200 users,” he states.
In the past around 150 computers were never shut down, which meant that the company had to incur huge electricity bills. In the virtualisation model, the power cost is much lower as the systems are shut down everyday. Other hidden costs are also being discovered and reduced. With the huge expansion plans now underway, the company has recruited 100 scientists in the last few months.
Another advantage is that the Hosted Shared Desktop (HSD) does not consume extra bandwidth, Kalla can now access his desktop with the use of a TATA Photon data card. “I am able to access my entire desktop from a remote location. That is the biggest advantage,” says Kalla.
(This article appeared in Express Computer, July 2015 issue)
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