Secure Manageability for Healthcare Providers

In the healthcare environment, Wi-Fi can literally save lives. Doctors can input vital information directly to a patient's records via a handheld device from the bedside, and nurses can use barcode scanners to ensure proper administration of pharmaceuticals. As a result, major hospitals and leading healthcare providers are rapidly implementing Wi-Fi networks throughout their facilities. AMP is ideally suited to the healthcare industry and is used to manage Wi-Fi networks in leading organizations such as Christiana Care, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, and others.

• Automated application of security policies. Government and legal regulations concerning patient privacy demand that healthcare providers maintain tight network security. Different providers may select different solutions for data encryption and access control. Whatever policies are established, AMP automatically ensures that each component of the Wi-Fi infrastructure is configured properly and that security policies are uniformly enforced.

• Continuous auditing of network configurations to ensure compliance. AMP continuously monitors the network configuration to ensure that all network and security settings conform to the defined policies. When any discrepancies are detected (due either to human error or malicious intent), AMP immediately and automatically restores the appropriate settings to ensure that security is not breached.

• Centralized management across a LAN or WAN. IT administrators in the healthcare industry are often responsible for wireless networks in multiple hospitals, surgery centers, outpatient centers, and other remote facilities. AMP's web-based user interface allows them to monitor and manage the entire network from anywhere they have Internet access.

• Multi-vendor hardware support. Healthcare providers often use computer hardware from different vendors at different times and locations. In addition, an increasing number of medical devices (heart rate monitors, X-ray machines, etc.) include embedded wireless access points that enable portable devices to interoperate with them. The wireless components embedded in these medical devices will not be recognized by the hospital IT staff, but they will impact the performance of the Wi-Fi network and must be managed by IT. AMP provides a single, common interface that lets administrators seamlessly manage heterogeneous devices from multiple vendors.