Busamed, a private South African hospital group, successfully consolidated seven on-premise data centers into a central, hosted private cloud environment, achieving power consumption savings that covered approximately 80% of the project costs, along with other benefits.
Busamed partnered with Datacentrix, a hybrid ICT systems integrator and managed services provider, for the cloud migration. According to Group IT Manager Servesan Moodley, Busamed, founded in 2015, focused on quality patient care. Initially established in the Western Cape, Busamed expanded through four greenfield projects and three hospital acquisitions, now operating seven hospitals across various provinces.
A Seamless Move to the Cloud
Moodley explained that Busamed’s previous data center setup was challenging due to inherited technologies from acquisitions. The organization phased in migration opportunities over four to five years, resulting in multiple minor data centers. The siloed infrastructure was inefficient, with duplicated tasks and complicated cybersecurity.
Loadshedding and technology upgrades became increasingly difficult to manage, with existing technology reaching end of life and disaster recovery becoming challenging. Busamed engaged its EXCO early to forewarn potential risks and conducted independent studies on cloud technology. Ultimately, they partnered with Datacentrix for the project due to the time and effort the team invested in understanding Busamed’s requirements.
An Outcomes-driven Approach
Datacentrix measured power consumption across the data centers, showing significant cost savings through a hosted cloud model. By moving to the cloud, Busamed achieved a seamless transition with no downtime, reducing Capex spend, power usage, and cybersecurity risks. The hosted private cloud also improved licensing and support efficiencies, and met disaster recovery requirements.
Datacentrix provided Busamed with a fixed five-year cost for its cloud infrastructure, offering transparent billing and future needs prediction. Moodley praised Datacentrix for their consultative, outcomes-focused approach and urged healthcare businesses to find a long-term partner for cloud migration.
