Data|WARE™ Enterprise CD Have you addressed your expanding data storage needs? Company:        OSF HealthCare Business: Healthcare Challenge: Address increased data storage, access and publishing needs of OSF patients and employees Technology: Data|WARE™ Enterprise CD Results: "The Data|WARE™ Enterprise CD system offers us a lot of flexibility for future growth in data distribution." - Dick Brooks, MIS Operations Manager, OSF HealthCare

OSF HealthCare provides state-of-the art, patient-focused healthcare to more than one and a half million people. For years, OSF's patient information was stored on microfiche. With gross revenues of over $1 billion and over 500,000 physician visits per year, OSF's long-term storage requirements surpassed the limited capabilities of microfiche. OSF needed a secure, high quality and cost-effective replacement for microfiche.

CD media was the ideal choice. "Organizations had started to migrate to this medium once the State of Illinois approved the use of CD as a long-term archival method to be used in normal business practice," said Dick Brooks, MIS Operations Manager of OSF HealthCare.

OSF selected Luminex's "Data|WARE™ Enterprise CD" Compact Disc authoring system as their new archival solution. The transition from the microfiche to CDs was smooth. "Although a parallel system was used for a short period of time," commented Mr. Brooks, "all we had to do was FTP the data to the CD Server from the mainframe."

New Business Applications

Although OSF HealthCare began with a need for data archiving, the company soon began to leverage Data|WARE Enterprise CD into other areas. "We're always looking for new ways to improve our business and reduce costs," said Mr. Brooks.

Fast Nearline Access

OSF performs monthly maintenance on their mainframe system, necessitating periods of scheduled "down time". In order to ensure superior service, OSF uses Data|WARE Enterprise CD to create backup CDs to mirror patient information. The CDs are then used by the Operations Support department to provide uninterrupted service to patients during the scheduled maintenance periods. These backup CDs also contribute to a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy for OSF.

In addition, OSF provides their employees with backups from the mainframe report system. With the implementation of Data|WARE Enterprise CD, the data are now delivered on CD. The staff quickly accepted the new medium. In fact, OSF noted that an increasing number of employees had begun to perform report queries from the CDs in lieu of logging into the mainframe. The internal users had discovered that it was much easier and quicker to locate the needed information on CD than to query the mainframe system.

Cost-effective CD Distribution

"More and more of those we serve are coming to us to help them with their data publishing needs ever since we started this service," commented Mr. Brooks.

Luminex develops distinctive data storage products based on proven technologies that tackle the complex challenges of storing, archiving, distributing and protecting data. As the leader in optical-based data storage and distribution for the UNIX environment, Luminex's Data|WARE™ product family reduces costs and streamlines processes for the small business to the largest enterprise. With a history in mainframe I/O and control unit emulation, Luminex's Virtual|BLUE™ product family bridges the protocol and connectivity gaps between mainframes and open systems, thereby transforming the economics of mainframe storage.

Luminex was founded in 1994 and has expanded its worldwide customer base across various industries to include financial, healthcare, government, higher education, and prepress. Luminex is privately held and is headquartered in Riverside, California, with additional offices in San Diego, California, and Beaverton, Oregon.