From: Chel van Gennip <chel@hiscom.nl>
To: lwn@lwn.net
Subject: Hiscom introduces Linux for large scale transaction processing in 
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 12:44:12 +0200

Hiscom introduces Linux for large scale transaction processing
First Dutch Hospital on Linux

Leiden, the Netherlands, October 11, 

The "Vlietland" hospital based in Schiedam (near Rotterdam) has successfully
switched over to Linux for their HIS (hospital information system) on sept 30.
After a moderate downtime of 20 minutes, the 600 bed hospital experiences the
effects of a instantaneous 600%! Increase in processing capacity which speeds up
their clinical workstation 10 times, shortens their batch processing to a
fraction and even allows them to run heavy duty management information reporting
during the day together with the transaction use of the system.

The Vlietland Hosital is the second institution switching over. In July the
Academisch Medisch Centrum (The largest University hospital in the Netherlands)
launched Linux as a database server for the patient database containing 20 years
of data about 2 million patients).  At this moment seven other hospitals are
planning the same switch to this Linux-based HIS. The Linux-based HIS is a
continuation of the well known Hiscom-HIS which is used by nearly half of the
Dutch hospitals. The system has a broad range of application software: from
direct patient care to care-planning and materials logistics. 

A lot of attention and effort has gone into the migration path. The huge
data-volumes of the hospitals, the uptime demands (99.97%) and number of users
did ask for a bit-compatible, instantaneous and reliable switchover. The answer
was the introduction of  multi-platform executables. Programs that run as well
on VAX systems as on a Intel based Linux machine. Compiled from the same source.
Adaptations in the Hiscom DBMS made it possible to offer a bit-compatible
database on disk level. The resulting switchover thus becomes very simple: 
- Turn your current software into MPE's
- Get yourself a Linux machine (Hiscom uses Compaq proliant servers)
- Remove the the hot-swap disk units with the databases and programs 
  from your VAX machine and plug them into the Linux-"box"
- Start up and continu working

For the Vlietland Hospital more processing speed is to follow. During the coming
weeks Vlietland guarantees a fast switchback to the VAX machines in case of any
unexpected problems by using the same disks and programs that allowed for the
transfer to Linux. After this period the data is moved to a set of fibre channel
RAID array's. This will increase the database speed about 1000%! The system then
will use one RAID array for on-line transaction processing, and will maintain a
software mirror backup in a safe location on a distant RAID array. 

For more information about this Linux Implementation please contact Hiscom at
info@hiscom.nl 


-- 
______________________________________________________________
  .~.     |     M.J.T. (Chel) van Gennip <chel@hiscom.nl>
  /V\     |         Principal Technical Consultant
 // \\    |   Tel +(31) 71 5256 762     Fax +(31) 71 5219 856
/(   )\   |        HISCOM  -  Healthcare Solutions
 ^^_^^    |   Schipholweg 97,   2316 XA Leiden,  Nederland
Listen to my son at http://www.mp3.com/SergvanGennip