120 servers in 30 days: tenders and other nuances of working with government agencies
We have already talked about how Lenovo devices help hurricane hunters and graphic designers . And today we want to share the experience of integrating our solutions into a serious Russian state information system. At the end of 2013, in a very short time - less than a month, we delivered 120 servers to medical organizations in the Krasnodar Territory. All of them are working safely in clinics and hospitals so far, but the most interesting is the process of passing through all the classical formalities. So this story is not only about good technology, but also about how to defeat the system: win the tender, bring a large batch of servers to a large region in a month, configure them and fully satisfy the customer and inspection bodies. Details under the cut.
It all started with the fact that in 2011 the Ministry of Health approved the health care modernization program. On its basis, the regions defended their local programs, including those related to informatization. In the case of the Krasnodar Territory, it was necessary to create a basic information infrastructure of hospitals - to lay local networks, connect communication channels, purchase network, server and computer equipment, office equipment. And then, on the basis of this infrastructure, introduce a medical information system for maintaining electronic medical records and case histories, information from which should be consolidated at the regional and federal levels. The deadline for the execution of all works was determined December 31, 2013.
And everything would be fine if in the middle of the project medics from Krasnodar did not have to deal with an unscrupulous supplier. The winner in the tender brought equipment that does not meet the requirements of the state contract, with lower characteristics. By law, the customer is not only unable, and has no right to take such a technique. And, of course, the representatives of the Krasnodar Territory refused it: this was the beginning of the litigation, which ended in favor of the region, but only in the fall of 2013, when only a couple of months remained before the completion of the modernization program. It was necessary to urgently announce a new tender and look for a new, very fast supplier of servers. Otherwise, the money allocated for their purchase would have to be returned to the federal budget, hospitals would be left without the equipment they needed and the task of introducing a medical information system would not be fulfilled.
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I must say that the tender is a tricky thing. On the one hand, this is simply an auction, in which the one who offers the right equipment for the stated requirements at the lowest price wins. On the other hand, customers do not invent requirements, but first they study the market - they look at all devices suitable for the task from all more or less serious manufacturers. As a result, the technical task requests something averaged with the boundaries “from” and “to”, to which the equipment of several companies falls. In addition, the contract is often drawn up so that warranty service is transferred from the manufacturer to the supplier. This approach allows cutting off obviously poor-quality equipment that someone wants to quickly sell and immediately forget about him.
The technical task for the new tender was made taking into account all these moments. Not only Lenovo equipment, but also other vendors fit the requirements. But in the auctions, the Moscow company "SmartCity" won with the Lenovo servers. The decisive factor was the superior specifications of Lenovo equipment and the ability to meet the extremely tight deadlines: close deals until December 31. That is, bring the equipment to the region, pass the inspection check at the customer, deliver it to the hospitals, install the software, update, run, check the work, sign the transfer certificates and still have time to get the money. Frankly, we did not do anything like this before, but now we know that even the almost impossible tasks can be done to us and our partners.
Of course, Lenovo and Smartsiti did not take on the task of informatization of all hospitals and clinics in the Krasnodar Territory. There were several tenders within the regional program - to create local computer networks, to supply computer equipment, to software, but our task was precisely to supply servers, without which everything else, in fact, cannot work. Here again, it is appropriate to recall the time frame: if you did not have time with the servers until December 31, everything else would be irrelevant.
At that time, the customer already had experience buying servers. In the framework of the same program, at its very start in 2011, about 70 Aquarius servers were purchased for medical institutions of the Krasnodar Territory. Therefore, the customer was able to very accurately identify their needs.
First, in the hospitals and clinics of the region there was practically no information infrastructure. Only scattered pieces of networks and autonomous jobs. Moreover, the option to buy a good computer for each doctor and a set of necessary software was not even considered, there was not enough funding for such a decision. Plus, do not forget about the requirements for working with personal data. Their local storage is expensive.
In fact, there was just enough money to buy one server per hospital. So the basic infrastructure loomed as follows: a server is installed in each medical institution, a virtualization system, a terminal server, an application server, and a database server are deployed on it. And already with this work thin clients installed at the workplace of each doctor. Funds for system software was not allocated, as it was originally intended to use only open source software.
Krasnodar region is quite large. Inside it there are 44 municipalities and medical institutions in them: from small district dental clinics to huge regional hospitals with a large number of buildings. The variation in the number of jobs per institution was very significant: from 5 to 300 and more. Therefore, from the very beginning, all points were divided into six types according to this criterion. The choice of equipment characteristics depended on the number of users (and the allocated budget).
Software server equipment typical. The operating system uses Linux CentOS. Each server is virtualized on the basis of the Citrix XenServer hypervisor, on the basis of which the virtual servers of the NXSERVER terminals, the MySQL database server and the application server of the medical information system MIS KPS SAMSON are deployed.
Actually, it was to ensure the possibility of working with the IIA and the modernization program was conceived. All hospital activities are tied to the medical information system. It creates invoices for payment of services, which are then rented to insurance companies. Stopping the program means the risk that the health facility will not receive money for the treatment provided to patients in a timely manner.
For 120 servers brought to the Krasnodar Territory at the moment there were only 2 warranty requests. Both are associated with data storage systems: one at the launch stage, and the second about six months after installation, that is, in mid-2014. For its part, the supplier turned to Lenovo service centers, and we solved the problems as soon as possible. But the users, that is, the doctors, did not even notice anything - their work was not interrupted, we received no complaints about the quality.
For the past year and a half, 120 Lenovo servers have been working safely in hospitals and clinics in the Krasnodar Territory. And, we are sure, they will work for a long time, especially since the possibility of functional expansion was laid initially. You can install new hard drives, increase memory, but the customer has not had such a need yet.
The success of the campaign was ensured by the experience and well-coordinated work of the staff of Lenovo’s Russian office, our partner, and the full cooperation of the hospital's IT specialists. In short, exactly as it should be.
Our previous posts:
» ThinkServer RD650: Anatomy of a New Generation Server from Lenovo
Federal program
It all started with the fact that in 2011 the Ministry of Health approved the health care modernization program. On its basis, the regions defended their local programs, including those related to informatization. In the case of the Krasnodar Territory, it was necessary to create a basic information infrastructure of hospitals - to lay local networks, connect communication channels, purchase network, server and computer equipment, office equipment. And then, on the basis of this infrastructure, introduce a medical information system for maintaining electronic medical records and case histories, information from which should be consolidated at the regional and federal levels. The deadline for the execution of all works was determined December 31, 2013.
And everything would be fine if in the middle of the project medics from Krasnodar did not have to deal with an unscrupulous supplier. The winner in the tender brought equipment that does not meet the requirements of the state contract, with lower characteristics. By law, the customer is not only unable, and has no right to take such a technique. And, of course, the representatives of the Krasnodar Territory refused it: this was the beginning of the litigation, which ended in favor of the region, but only in the fall of 2013, when only a couple of months remained before the completion of the modernization program. It was necessary to urgently announce a new tender and look for a new, very fast supplier of servers. Otherwise, the money allocated for their purchase would have to be returned to the federal budget, hospitals would be left without the equipment they needed and the task of introducing a medical information system would not be fulfilled.
')
Nuances and tenders
I must say that the tender is a tricky thing. On the one hand, this is simply an auction, in which the one who offers the right equipment for the stated requirements at the lowest price wins. On the other hand, customers do not invent requirements, but first they study the market - they look at all devices suitable for the task from all more or less serious manufacturers. As a result, the technical task requests something averaged with the boundaries “from” and “to”, to which the equipment of several companies falls. In addition, the contract is often drawn up so that warranty service is transferred from the manufacturer to the supplier. This approach allows cutting off obviously poor-quality equipment that someone wants to quickly sell and immediately forget about him.
The technical task for the new tender was made taking into account all these moments. Not only Lenovo equipment, but also other vendors fit the requirements. But in the auctions, the Moscow company "SmartCity" won with the Lenovo servers. The decisive factor was the superior specifications of Lenovo equipment and the ability to meet the extremely tight deadlines: close deals until December 31. That is, bring the equipment to the region, pass the inspection check at the customer, deliver it to the hospitals, install the software, update, run, check the work, sign the transfer certificates and still have time to get the money. Frankly, we did not do anything like this before, but now we know that even the almost impossible tasks can be done to us and our partners.
Task
Of course, Lenovo and Smartsiti did not take on the task of informatization of all hospitals and clinics in the Krasnodar Territory. There were several tenders within the regional program - to create local computer networks, to supply computer equipment, to software, but our task was precisely to supply servers, without which everything else, in fact, cannot work. Here again, it is appropriate to recall the time frame: if you did not have time with the servers until December 31, everything else would be irrelevant.
At that time, the customer already had experience buying servers. In the framework of the same program, at its very start in 2011, about 70 Aquarius servers were purchased for medical institutions of the Krasnodar Territory. Therefore, the customer was able to very accurately identify their needs.
First, in the hospitals and clinics of the region there was practically no information infrastructure. Only scattered pieces of networks and autonomous jobs. Moreover, the option to buy a good computer for each doctor and a set of necessary software was not even considered, there was not enough funding for such a decision. Plus, do not forget about the requirements for working with personal data. Their local storage is expensive.
In fact, there was just enough money to buy one server per hospital. So the basic infrastructure loomed as follows: a server is installed in each medical institution, a virtualization system, a terminal server, an application server, and a database server are deployed on it. And already with this work thin clients installed at the workplace of each doctor. Funds for system software was not allocated, as it was originally intended to use only open source software.
Decision
Krasnodar region is quite large. Inside it there are 44 municipalities and medical institutions in them: from small district dental clinics to huge regional hospitals with a large number of buildings. The variation in the number of jobs per institution was very significant: from 5 to 300 and more. Therefore, from the very beginning, all points were divided into six types according to this criterion. The choice of equipment characteristics depended on the number of users (and the allocated budget).
- Type 1 (over 200 users) and Type 2 (from 100 to 200 users). Under this contract, the servers in these institutions were not delivered, they have already been purchased earlier.
- Type 3 (from 50 to 100 users): ThinkServer RD540 (2 x Xeon E5-2620v2)SpecificationsTwo Xeon E5-2620v2 processors, 6 ECC Low Voltage RDIMM DDR3 memory modules with a capacity of 8 GB with a clock frequency of 1600 MHz, 4 hard drives of 300 GB each (2.5 ", 15K) with a SAS 6 Gb / s interface, hot-swappable, 1 LSI 9240-8i controller, 2 80 PLUS Gold power supplies, 800 W each, hot swappable, 1 BMC Management Controller with iKVM function.
- Type 4 (up to 50 users): ThinkServer RD540 (1 x Xeon E5-2603v2)SpecificationsOne Xeon E5-2603v2 processor, 4 ECC Low Voltage RDIMM DDR3 memory modules with 8 GB capacity with a clock frequency of 1600 MHz, 4 500 GB hard disks (2.5 ", 7.2K) with hot-swappable SATA interface , 1 LSI 9240-8i controller, 2 80 PLUS Gold power supplies, 800 W each, hot-swappable, 1 BMC Management Controller with iKVM function.
- Type 5 (organizations using type 1-3 servers): Lenovo-EMC 70BN9001WW px12-400r , 12TB (4x3TB).
- Type 6 (organizations using type 3-4 servers): Lenovo-EMC 70BJ9007WW px4-300r , 8TB (4x2TB).
Software server equipment typical. The operating system uses Linux CentOS. Each server is virtualized on the basis of the Citrix XenServer hypervisor, on the basis of which the virtual servers of the NXSERVER terminals, the MySQL database server and the application server of the medical information system MIS KPS SAMSON are deployed.
Actually, it was to ensure the possibility of working with the IIA and the modernization program was conceived. All hospital activities are tied to the medical information system. It creates invoices for payment of services, which are then rented to insurance companies. Stopping the program means the risk that the health facility will not receive money for the treatment provided to patients in a timely manner.
For 120 servers brought to the Krasnodar Territory at the moment there were only 2 warranty requests. Both are associated with data storage systems: one at the launch stage, and the second about six months after installation, that is, in mid-2014. For its part, the supplier turned to Lenovo service centers, and we solved the problems as soon as possible. But the users, that is, the doctors, did not even notice anything - their work was not interrupted, we received no complaints about the quality.
What is the result?
For the past year and a half, 120 Lenovo servers have been working safely in hospitals and clinics in the Krasnodar Territory. And, we are sure, they will work for a long time, especially since the possibility of functional expansion was laid initially. You can install new hard drives, increase memory, but the customer has not had such a need yet.
The success of the campaign was ensured by the experience and well-coordinated work of the staff of Lenovo’s Russian office, our partner, and the full cooperation of the hospital's IT specialists. In short, exactly as it should be.
Our previous posts:
» ThinkServer RD650: Anatomy of a New Generation Server from Lenovo
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/257417/
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