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Puget Sound Blood Center Relies on NetFlow-Based StealthWatch by Lancope to Improve Network Visibility, Availability and Security, Potentially Saving Thousands of Lives

Monday, July 12, 2010 Hospital News
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Nation's Leading Blood Center Uses Best in NetFlow Analysis Solution to Speed Problem Resolution, Prevent Network Downtime for Critical Blood Establishment Computer System
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ATLANTA, July 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Lancope, Inc., the leader in NetFlow™ collection and analysis and the provider of the StealthWatch® System for flow-based network performance and security monitoring, today announced that Puget Sound Blood Center (PSBC) relies on StealthWatch for improved visibility across fixed and mobile networks supporting critical blood delivery and saving thousands of lives.
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PSBC is an independent, community-based blood center in Wash. that is internationally recognized as a leader in transfusion medicine.  The blood center operates the world's largest transfusion service, serves patients in more than 70 hospitals and clinics in 14 counties, and provides tissue and transplant support to 185 hospitals across the Northwest. With more than 1,200 devices connected to a network serving fixed and mobile donor centers, PSBC demands a high level of network visibility to ensure that its Blood Establishment Computer System is available 24x7x365 to support patients.

"Before StealthWatch, our IT team was frustrated by lengthy problem resolution, a lack of audit trails and the inability to monitor user activity for HIPAA compliance," said Peggy Dunn, IT director for PSBC. "Identifying and solving network problems quickly is critical to our patient care. Moreover, StealthWatch has also benefited PSBC in other ways—from increased user accountability to improved cross team collaboration between helpdesk, network services and developers. We even use StealthWatch to train new IT employees."

PSBC has deployed StealthWatch Xe for NetFlow™ and sFlow®, the StealthWatch IDentity appliance and the StealthWatch Management Console (SMC). By leveraging flow telemetry from routers and switches, StealthWatch delivers a high level of visibility and behavior-based protection in a cost-effective, scalable manner. StealthWatch's proven NetFlow and sFlow analysis also provides PSBC with detailed insight into network traffic patterns, link utilization and performance. Lancope's StealthWatch IDentity appliance links individual users and specific network events. PSBC administrators simply request the username(s) and IP address associated with an event from the SMC, and the system returns the appropriate information in real-time. StealthWatch enables PSBC to monitor network traffic in real time and instantly drill down to any segment, device, application, host or user.

According to Dunn, "Our team relies on StealthWatch to quickly identify a problem, distinguish between network and application cause and notify the right resource for expedient resolution. The powerful NetFlow analysis enables us to verify a network connection centrally without traveling to remote sites, without hooking up to switch ports and without following the cables. And because StealthWatch provides historical context of IP activity, we have the audit trails needed to definitively resolve even the most sporadic network issues."

"In StealthWatch, we have an efficient, convenient tool to monitor and enforce our acceptable use policy," said Dunn. "While this obviously helps us comply with HIPAA mandates, in the larger context, we are creating better network citizens by educating people about how their behavior affects critical applications."

"The Puget Sound Blood Center truly delivers a life-saving service, and as a result, it requires vigilant network visibility and incident response," said Mike Potts, president and CEO of Lancope. "Properly analyzed NetFlow from StealthWatch is helping IT teams like PSBC keep a watchful eye on user activity, changing conditions, host behaviors and more. This enhanced visibility can help you regain control of the network and improve performance."

StealthWatch has delivered tangible business benefits to PSBC, including cost savings from reduced network downtime and documented increases in IT employee productivity. "As opposed to constantly trouble-shooting and network monitoring, our high-level IT resources are now able to focus on strategic projects that will enhance patient care and support growth," said Dunn. "This is the goal of every IT department and StealthWatch is helping us achieve it."

About Puget Sound Blood Center

Puget Sound Blood Center is an independent, community-based blood center with a long and unique tradition of blending community volunteerism, medical science and research to improve patients' lives. Patients with leukemia, cancer, burns, hemophilia and traumatic injuries depend on the breakthrough discoveries made by Blood Center scientists. Internationally recognized as a leader in transfusion medicine, the Blood Center operates the world's largest transfusion service, serves patients in more that 70 hospitals and clinics in 14 Western Washington counties and provides tissue and transplantation support to 185 hospitals across the Northwest.  For more information about Puget Sound Blood Center, please visit psbc.org.  

About Lancope

Lancope®, Inc. is the leader in NetFlow™ collection and analysis and the provider of the StealthWatch® System for flow-based network performance and security monitoring. Delivering unified visibility across physical and virtual networks, StealthWatch eliminates network blind spots and reduces total network and security management costs. Both OPSEC and Common Criteria-certified, StealthWatch monitors the networks of Global 2000 organizations, academic institutions and government entities worldwide. Lancope also partners with fellow best-of-breed solution providers through its Technology Alliance Program, which includes Cisco Systems, Brocade, Blue Coat, VMware, IBM Tivoli, Check Point, TippingPoint, ArcSight and A10 Networks. Lancope is a privately held, venture-backed company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information, visit http://www.lancope.com/.

©2010 Lancope, Inc. All rights reserved. Lancope, StealthWatch, and other trademarks are registered or unregistered trademarks of Lancope, Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.

SOURCE Lancope, Inc.

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