Clinique de La Source
Long-term Backup and Compliant Archiving in a Single System
The challenges
Clinique de La Source was facing a reorganization of its data storage and . The backup sets of the newly deployed Rubrik backup appliance had to be replicated to a second, independent system. In addition, the PACS data needed to be archived in a compliant manner. Together with system integrator Eurebis AG, they decided for the Silent Brick system as the target storage for replication and as storage for compliant archiving of patient data.
3-2-1-1-0 Backup Rule
The 3-2-1-1-0 rule is the current standard for ransomware-resilient backup strategies: three copies of data, on two different media types, at one off-site location, with one copy physically isolated from the network (offline/air-gapped), and zero unverified backups.
WORM
WORM (Write Once, Read Many) refers to a storage principle in which data is written once and can technically no longer be altered or deleted — in hardware WORM, this immutability is a physical property of the storage controller, independent of software, operating system or user privileges.
»The flexible scalability of the Silent Brick system convinced us.«
Etienne Marchand
Head of IT
New technologies have always been the basis for Clinique de La Source to improve its treatment and care activities. So, it is obvious that the company also stays up to date in the area of IT. Modern PACS solutions such as Visus JiveX for documentation and laboratory data, and Telemis for radiology and oncology data, support the clinic‘s staff in their work for their patients. And the amount of data has grown in recent years as new generations of equipment offer higher resolution and increased data processing throughput. Regular backups are standard practice. But Etienne Marchand, head of the IT department at Clinique de La Source since 2010, and his seven colleagues were increasingly coming to the limits of the previous solution. The existing backup storage was too inflexible and could not be expanded easily. In addition, they were interested in a backup appliance solution from Rubrik. Furthermore, the PACS data needed to be backed up to storage in a compliant manner to meet all compliance-relevant standards. Together with the system integrator Eurebis AG and its system engineer Daniel Tessié, the IT team developed a new data in 2020 that should last for the coming years.
New backup strategy for a broad architecture
The IT infrastructure of Clinique de La Source has three data centers, one is located in the clinic itself and another in a separate building and section. In addition, it relies on an off-site one that is housed in a separate data center. Almost all applications are provided virtualized on Nutanix hypervisor. Nutanix file storage is used as data storage, gradually replacing the previous storage solution. Primarily, patient data and all radiological data generated by the PACS systems are stored here. But the various databases of the clinic are also stored on this data system. Replication of Rubrik backup data to Silent Bricks Etienne Marchand and his colleagues chose Rubrik‘s backup appliance solution because it met their backup software and storage requirements and could be easily integrated into the Nutanix infrastructure. However, the storage solution to which the backup data was previously sent could not be easily expanded as data volumes increased rapidly. Based on Eurebis‘ recommendation, they selected FAST LTA‘s Silent Brick system for replication because it is highly configurable and easily expandable at any time. Eurebis has already implemented several storage projects at Clinique de La Source and is a partner and distributor of FAST LTA in Switzerland. In total, the storage experts have implemented around 300 installations, mainly in the healthcare sector and for industrial enterprises. The Silent Brick system implements the solution and media break for a secure . Daily incremental backups of clinic data are stored locally on the Rubrik appliance. After 30 days, the full backup sets are replicated to the Silent Bricks and archived. „The Silent Brick system has been working together excellently with the Rubrik appliance from the start,“ says Etienne Marchand. Thanks to the flexible extensibility and the easily removable Silent Bricks, it can be used to securely store backups. „We were also impressed by the flexible expandability of the Silent Brick system,“ adds Etienne Marchand
PACS data audit-compliant on Silent Brick WORM
The second area of use of the Silent Brick System was the radiology department. The data generated there is stored together with the patient data in the Visus JiveX PACS. Correspondence on paper is scanned and integrated into JiveX, as well. In parallel, all files from imaging procedures are stored in the Telemis PACS archive. After 30 days, they are deleted from JiveX and archived only via Telemis so that the data is not kept twice. Etienne Marchand and his colleagues are also relying on FAST LTA after project planning with Eurebis. This is because the Silent Brick system can also be equipped with -sealed Silent Bricks, which enable unerasable and compliant data archiving. „The solution is very transparent for us. We have obtained enough storage capacity for the next 5 years,“ delighted Etienne Marchand says. A total of almost 80 terabytes of data can currently be archived in an audit-compliant manner – with a rising tendency. Daniel Tessié from Eurebis says: „The Silent Brick System convinced Clinique de La Source because you can physically remove each individual Silent Brick (, protection against ransomware). In addition, different formats, such as , but also NAS, as well as different storage media can be used in one system. Our customers were impressed by the philosophy behind it right from the start.“ Data amounts are increasing from year to year. New systems are added that also generate large amounts of data that need to be secured. The flexible options offered by FAST LTA make Clinique de La Source and Etienne Marchand confident looking into the future.
3-2-1-1-0 Backup Rule
The 3-2-1-1-0 rule is the current standard for ransomware-resilient backup strategies: three copies of data, on two different media types, at one off-site location, with one copy physically isolated from the network (offline/air-gapped), and zero unverified backups.
WORM
WORM (Write Once, Read Many) refers to a storage principle in which data is written once and can technically no longer be altered or deleted — in hardware WORM, this immutability is a physical property of the storage controller, independent of software, operating system or user privileges.
3-2-1-1-0 Backup Rule
The 3-2-1-1-0 rule is the current standard for ransomware-resilient backup strategies: three copies of data, on two different media types, at one off-site location, with one copy physically isolated from the network (offline/air-gapped), and zero unverified backups.
Air Gap
An air gap is the complete physical interruption of all network connections between a backup system and the rest of the IT infrastructure, so that the system has no addressable network interface in its offline state and is therefore unreachable by ransomware and attackers.
WORM
WORM (Write Once, Read Many) refers to a storage principle in which data is written once and can technically no longer be altered or deleted — in hardware WORM, this immutability is a physical property of the storage controller, independent of software, operating system or user privileges.
WORM
WORM (Write Once, Read Many) refers to a storage principle in which data is written once and can technically no longer be altered or deleted — in hardware WORM, this immutability is a physical property of the storage controller, independent of software, operating system or user privileges.