Hershey chose Cisco Systems routers partly because of Cisco's commitment to supporting the future technologies that will become increasingly important in Hershey's delivery of health care. When Cisco adapts a technology, we know they're going to provide the correct solution. In the past, the only way users on the two networks could communicate was via a mainframe located a hundred miles away. Prior to the network upgrade, Brantley, a medical doctor and Hershey Medical Center's Chief Information Officer, analyzed the medical center's information needs and concluded that it needed a routed network to isolate network traffic, provide redundancy, and ensure network security. Brantley favored Cisco routers for several reasons including their security capabilities and superior reliability.
Cisco routers provide that kind of reliability.
Another reason Hershey chose Cisco routers was the ease with which they can integrate IBM Token Ring networks with other heterogeneous network environments, as well as the capabilities the routers afford IBM users. Several network applications are already running, including electronic mail, hospital patient admissions and billing, physician scheduling, medical school admissions, and research computing. Perhaps the most exciting application development effort is occurring in the radiology department, where researchers are designing a system that maintains all x-rays in digital form. What can Hershey Medical Center personnel anticipate five years from now Brantley foresees a raft of new applications requiring the high bandwidth Cisco routers support. Multimedia is high on his list.