Case Study: ProMedica achieves a resilient, multicast-ready, always-on network and rapid site rollout with Extreme Networks Fabric Connect

Smart Healthcare the Remedy for Better Patient Care at Promedica

ProMedica, a nonprofit health system serving large parts of Ohio and Michigan, expanded urgent-care centers and deployed Epic EHR and new IP-based patient monitoring, creating a demand for an always-on, multicast-capable network. Conventional PIM multicast proved unreliable for contact-center dashboards and clinical applications, and ProMedica needed a simpler, more resilient solution from its longtime networking partner Extreme Networks (notably Extreme Fabric Connect and Virtual Services Platform products).

Extreme Networks implemented Extreme Fabric Connect (with Virtual Services Platform 8000/4000 and ERS 4000 series) to deliver service-based networking and native, scalable multicast. The deployment stabilized real-time dashboards, let ProMedica configure new sites in under a week (vs. about a month), allowed maintenance without impacting patient care, and prevented service disruption during a six-hour fiber outage. Fabric Connect’s Transparent UNI avoided buying eight additional links—saving roughly $18,000–$20,000 monthly—while simplifying VLAN/multicast provisioning to just a few commands.

ProMedica

Benjamin Vickers

Director of IT