Expand Networks Accelerates and Secures Disaster Recovery Efforts for Hunterdon Healthcare System; Solution Enables Leading Hospital Network to Mirror Data in Real Time by Eliminating 10-30 Minute Data Queues

Business Wire, Nov 21, 2005

ROSELAND, N.J. -- Hunterdon Healthcare System has chosen Expand Networks, a leader in applications acceleration over the wide-area network (WAN), to support its disaster recovery efforts. Expand's Accelerators and TCP (Transmission/Transport Control Protocol) acceleration technology have been deployed over the Flemington, NJ-based healthcare provider's WAN to speed data replication to Hunterdon's remote disaster recovery site. Expand's unique integrated, multi-service platform proved to be the ideal combination of compression and acceleration needed to transmit larger amounts of data more quickly and frequently over Hunterdon's WAN.

Hunterdon's WAN connects its 17 practices and additional locations, and transports sensitive patient data such as test results, insurance materials and billing information, as well as crucial corporate data. For business continuity purposes, the data is then replicated using QuadraMed Corp.'s Affinity(R), a disaster recovery application housed in a remote facility. Before deploying Expand's technologies, Hunterdon used a router-based compression solution, but found it did not meet the organization's needs for timely data replication. Today, with Expand's multi-service approach, data replication that used to take 10-30 minutes happens in real time.

"To lose data during a network outage would be disastrous to our organization and potentially harmful to our patients," said Glenn Mamary, chief information officer for Hunterdon. "Now that Hunterdon has deployed Expand's compression and acceleration solutions to increase the volume, frequency and speed of data replicated, we can ensure that this sensitive information is updated and secure; and we can also avoid errors caused by out-of-date information--all the way from billing to patient care. Protecting this information also helps us continuously maintain a HIPAA-compliant facility, which is crucial to our organization."

Prior to deploying Expand's TCP acceleration technology, Hunterdon's WAN experienced latency that prevented synchronization of data between the hospital's WAN and its remote site.

"Unlike basic router compression, which reduces the amount of data sent over the WAN but does not speed replication to Hunterdon's disaster recovery site, Expand's integrated multi-service platform ensures that the WAN can handle any amount or type of data deployed while eliminating latency through data acceleration," said Jason Tahaney, network engineer for Hunterdon.

Expand Networks' innovative approach to solving the latency helps customers such as Hunterdon make the best possible use of existing bandwidth, better tolerate intermittent WAN connectivity and adapt to environmental challenges posed by connecting remote locations.

"We are happy to be working with Hunterdon to ensure the effectiveness of its disaster recovery initiative," said Amir Chitayat, president of Expand Networks. "In using Expand's acceleration solutions, Hunterdon is fulfilling its commitment of service excellence to patients, partners and staff by ensuring that sensitive information will be current, secure and available in the event of a disaster."

About Expand Networks

Expand Networks is the pioneer and leader in helping organizations simplify their IT infrastructure while delivering remote offices fast, reliable and secure access to networked applications. This results in improved user productivity and cost-effective IT management. Expand offers a multi-service integrated platform that ensures superior performance for any application over any network. From its headquarters in Roseland, NJ and its global locations, Expand Networks (www.expand.com) serves more than 1,200 enterprise customers including: Hitachi Capital, Motorola, Continental Airlines and the United States Department of Defense.

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