The Medical University Simplifies Network Management with BlueCat

With nearly 3,000 students in six colleges, 1,500 full and part-time teaching staff and a 750-bed medical center, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) is the only comprehensive academic health center in South Carolina. MUSC offers educational programs in the biomedical sciences, dentistry, health professions, medicine, nursing and pharmacy. Each year, MUSC admits almost 33,000 patients to its hospitals, while its outpatient facilities serve 800,000 patients. MUSC’s network spans 30+ remote sites and its IP address space is comprised of approximately 30,000 IP addresses. The network must support the diverse needs of both the hospital and university, as well as the intensive demands of medical researchers for online collaboration.

In March 2011, MUSC’s network and UNIX administration teams, who co-administer DNS core network services for the university, began to look at options to replace their defunct Nortel NetID system. They needed a new solution that would simplify and automate IP Address Management (IPAM) and DNS/DHCP core services for all networks across the organization, while also allowing tasks to be delegated among administrators and field engineers. They chose BlueCat based on its ease of use, track record of reliability, system redundancy, Anycast DNS support and built-in ability to delegate workflows with approval controls and auditing.

• [Data Management - Cyber Security]
  With tightly integrated IP Address Management, DNS and DHCP, the BlueCat solution has provided MUSC with real-time visibility across its highly dynamic IP address space and greater core services reliability and resiliency.
• [Efficiency Improvement - Operation]
  BlueCat Address Manager allows us to delegate workload while still maintaining visibility and control.