Durham-based injury claims services provider Insurance Medical Group (IMG) is on track with plans to push through the £12m turnover point, after calling in technology experts ITPS to put a virtual ring of steel around the way it manages and stores millions of pieces of highly sensitive medical data on people pursuing compensation claims.The project will see IMG save around £75,000 over the next five years, through a combination of reduced running costs and the ability to increase the capacity of its technology framework 20-fold, without the need for big investment.
The company handles 110,000 medical reports and therapy bookings a year on behalf of its legal and insurance clients. Based at Belmont Business Park, last year saw IMG launch two new service arms in addition to its core business, and it aims to create additional jobs over the next two years.
Gateshead company ITPS beat competition from several rivals to land the contract to help IMG boost its IT resilience and disaster recovery arrangements.
The new solution is based on IBM System Storage DS3300 virtualised servers using VMware software and supported by a storage area network (SAN). IMG now has eight virtual servers shared across two physical machines, either of which can manage the entire load if necessary. The new infrastructure gives IMG the tools to expand capacity by another 36 disks, giving a storage capacity of up to 25 Terabytes – 20 times more capacity than its original system.
The backup system has been moved from tape to a direct disk-to-disk system and is done in a fraction of the previous time. An extra level of security is provided through DataDomain technology, which replicates the main storage backup system offsite, at ITPS’s secure data centre.
ITPS consultant John Birch said: “We are pleased to have been able to create a solution that meets IMG’s need for a secure, easily scalable IT infrastructure that can be expanded in line with anticipated growth, and at very nominal cost.
“Server virtualisation was the obvious choice for a multi-faceted business with ambitious expansion plans. By reducing the number of physical servers into a virtual bank, we’ve been able to help IMG dramatically cut the cost of purchasing, maintenance and support of their previous server estate.
“Because it’s such a data-heavy business, we incorporated de-duplication technology to cut costs even further. Traditional methods of backup and storage can easily eat away at a company’s IT budget, particularly in the face of ever-increasing amounts of data.
“De-duplication is like squeezing a quart into a pint pot. It works by only backing up new and changed data rather than taking a system-wide backup. It allows us to compress 6.6 Terabytes of data into just 389 Gigabytes.
“This saves IMG money at every level. The system requires fewer storage devices, it takes less time to carry out the backup, and once de-duplication has condensed the storage requirement, it cuts the cost of transferring and storing the data off-site.
“If disaster should strike, the virtual servers can easily be activated and the data seamlessly retrieved without any discernable downtime.”
Tony Maxwell, IMG’s IT manager, said: “We’re very happy with the results of the project. We take data security very seriously and we chose ITPS because of its technical capabilities and track record in this area. Its experts have helped us to create a highly resilient, future proof foundation on which to take the business forward.
“Our growth plans require IT that is flexible enough to constantly adapt alongside the business, and without the need for us to continually make large investments. Because we now have that in place our in-house team will have more time to spend on activities such as software development to help us continually improve business efficiency and customer service.”
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