How PinkRoccade Delivers Always-On, Scalable Storage for 24/7 Healthcare Systems

Seamlessly integrating IT into healthcare isn’t just beneficial; it’s essential. Modern, scalable digital systems give healthcare providers instant access to critical information, empowering them to deliver the best experience for patients. Together, healthcare and IT drive progress, ensuring every patient receives high-quality care in an environment where every second counts.

This fusion of advanced IT infrastructure and medical services powers our business at PinkRoccade Cloud Solutions. We support healthcare providers across the Netherlands with critical IT infrastructure. Hospitals, GP surgeries, mental health centers, and nursing homes rely on our data centers so their healthcare professionals don’t have to worry about technology. Our sister company, PharmaPartners, also depends on our infrastructure. We keep their software online for pharmacies and GPs so these essential services run smoothly.

From storing patient records that need to be available at a moment’s notice to managing prescription details for pharmacists, we operate in a 24/7 world that depends on stability and high availability, and we’re accumulating more data by the millisecond.

The high stakes of healthcare

I’ve been with PinkRoccade for more than 15 years, and I remember the constant challenges we used to have with storage platform stability. We spent many long nights maintaining the availability of our storage platforms and keeping them online as demand grew. It was high-stakes work, as any outage could potentially disrupt hospital or pharmacy operations. These systems supported our virtualization, virtual desktop infrastructure environments, electronic health records, and mission-critical database workloads such as Oracle, PostGreSQL, and Microsoft SQL Server.

The consequences of those outages can be severe. I’ve seen situations where emergency rooms have struggled to keep running, which profoundly impacts patient care. I’ve also seen pharmacies close, preventing people from accessing critical medication when they need it. Every minute matters in an emergency, and delays can worsen outcomes.

Apart from the real-life impacts of availability and capacity issues, we also experienced hefty upfront expansion costs that made budgeting difficult.

We relied on HPE’s powerful storage solutions, particularly HPE 3PAR Storage and HPE Primera, to overcome these challenges. Eventually, however, customer demand continued to grow, and it became harder to manage our storage infrastructure on our own. We realized that we needed a more scalable and ultra-reliable storage solution to support customers around the clock.

Facing growing storage demands, we found seamless scalability

A significant part of our work involves making sure data is stable and available. We own our own storage, and adding capacity isn’t as simple as flipping a switch—it takes time and effort. We found ourselves constantly concerned about how much capacity we needed and worrying about over-provisioning.

At the same time, managing costs is a top priority. We’ve expanded largely through acquisitions, and we need liquidity to make these moves. Investing heavily in hardware just didn’t make sense anymore.

A big revelation for us was the arrival of HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000, which was a great fit for several reasons:

• HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 is modular by design
• The flexible, pay-as-you-go service lets us scale our storage according to our circumstances
• It provides the ability to expand quickly and on demand
• HPE's commitment to 100% uptime is well-suited to our fast-paced environment
•  By paying only for the capacity we use, we free capital to allocate toward core operations and future acquisitions

Leveraging HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000, we don’t have to worry about long lead times to purchase more storage. We simply call HPE, and they quickly provide the storage we need without any surprises or hidden costs. This on-demand scalability is critical as we continue to grow.

Simplifying management and reducing cost

The improved performance, seamless scalability, guaranteed 100% availability, and remote management features of HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 enable us to meet our customer demands. As we bring new customers online, we can expand effortlessly without worrying about outages, over-provisioning, or sudden costs. The system lets us size our storage just right, avoiding large upfront investments and making it much easier to plan for the future. We’re confident that it will help reduce our total cost of ownership over the long term.

Another advantage of our partnership with HPE is their range of additional services. They take care of maintenance, predict problems quickly, and resolve issues before our customers realize they exist. This swift response ensures a seamless experience for our customers and improves our operational efficiency.

Customers also benefit from faster deployment. We can deploy storage much quicker in our new environment, meaning we can meet the needs of both new and existing customers in our data center faster than ever.

Accelerated deployment improves customer satisfaction and solidifies our relationships with hospitals and pharmacies. In fact, they tell us we’re a more trusted partner because they know they can depend on us for the reliability and performance they need.

Meeting the demands of a 24/7 environment with ease

We’ve seen how healthcare and technology can work in perfect harmony, and our partnership with HPE guarantees that. It has revolutionized how we manage storage and deliver our services at PinkRoccade. I’m not exaggerating when I say it has helped us be a hero to our customers, who can now focus on their jobs and the patients in front of them. Hospitals, GPs, pharmacies, and other customers know they can rely on us—and we can rely on HPE—to provide seamless, 24/7 access to vital data.

When it comes to patient care, downtime should never be an option. Adopting HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 means it never is.