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Increased regulation equals IT complexity.
There are certain industries that are always going to have more complex IT requirements. Healthcare is one such sector. With the ever-growing volumes of sensitive consumer data being shared across locations, practitioners and technologies, it has become a prime target for bad actors.
Virtual IT Group (VITG) is a managed IT services provider that specialises in supporting healthcare providers of all sizes to safeguard their access to e-health markets. With the strict focus on data security, sovereignty and compliance in this market, VITG places enormous value on its five-year relationship with Macquarie Cloud Services to deliver a highly secure, sovereign private cloud hosting environment for its customers.
"Over the past five years, Macquarie Cloud Services has helped us expand and scale up our offering without having to invest in-house resources in cloud infrastructure management."
Mark Farrell,
Head of Security and Compliance at VITG
Managing the complexities of healthcare IT compliance.
With more mandatory data breach reports than any other sector, it’s little wonder the Australian Government has introduced new cloud security standards to ensure world-class, end-to-end protection for sensitive data in the healthcare sector.
These requirements include using sovereign onshore Australian cloud solutions, employing a cloud provider that has been certified by the Australian Government, using dedicated private clouds instead of public and implementing government NV1 security vetting for personnel accessing sensitive data and systems.
There is also increased scrutiny on data sovereignty (where the data is stored and handled). Healthcare organisations must be able to demonstrate this all occurs on Australian shores and in Australian facilities in order to qualify for (and importantly, maintain) cyber insurance.
“With increased regulation and scrutiny of cloud infrastructure in Australia’s health sector, in 2018 we made the strategic decision
that it was time to bring in an expert partner to manage the core infrastructure so VITG could focus on adding value to our clients,” said Mark.
“Macquarie Cloud Services ticked all those boxes with their LAUNCH private cloud offering. We knew we’d be able to support our expanding client base in the small-to-medium health sector, helping them to meet all their security and compliance benefits in a cost-effective way.”
The Technical Solution.
Development of customised private for VITG in Macquarie Cloud Services’ LAUNCH platform, built on a robust Dell technology stack.
Migration of technical assets from self-managed colocation environment to Macquarie data centre over a six-month period.
Private cloud supports VITG customers with security updates and patching, 24/7 support, monitoring, provision of insights and alerts.
Flexibility for VITG to scale compute resources up and down with overnight online ordering.
Data sovereignty assured with all data located and managed in Australian facilities.
Results.
From the initial project to co-design the customised LAUNCH private cloud environment back in 2018, right through to the day-to-day management of the environment for both VITG’s team and their customers in 2023 – several common themes are apparent. These include seamless collaboration and flexibility.
“Right from the start of the relationship, the team at Macquarie Cloud Services worked closely and collaboratively to understand our business model and the individual needs of our customers, to ensure the offering was commercially viable,” said Mark.
“Then came the six-month project to migrate from our self-managed colocation environment to Macquarie LAUNCH, which was seamless and well-managed with minimal interruption to us or our clients – despite it being such a big move.
“And the environment has been running seamlessly for the past five years, thanks to Macquarie Cloud Services’ exceptional support. Our customers benefit from having their security and compliance needs taken care of without a hitch, because the offering is completely tailored to their requirements as healthcare providers.”
If the VITG team needs to move quickly to accommodate a customer, Macquarie Cloud Services is ready to move with them, according to Mark.
“We’ve had numerous instances where we need to stand up more resources very quickly, and Macquarie Cloud Services was able to match that for us,” he said. “There’s a high level of flexibility and scalability that most public clouds can’t deliver, which makes things commercially viable and operationally efficient for VITG.”
"The partnership allows us to deliver high-quality services while addressing the complex and ever-changing security and compliance requirements of the healthcare industry."
Mark Farrell,
Head of Security and Compliance at VITG
Working together so everybody wins.
Mark considers himself an enthusiastic advocate for Macquarie Cloud Services, not just because of the technical service provided but also because of the cultural alignment between the two businesses.
“The team at Macquarie Cloud Services always provide a level of care that shows they are invested in our business, which is also the end objective we have for our customers at VITG. The relationship we’ve built together is all about working together and winning together, because then the customer wins.”
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Service we supplied for Virtual IT Group.
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How Macquarie Cloud Services helped Virtual IT Group.
Learn how Macquarie Cloud Services has helped VITG expand and scale up their offering without having to invest in-house resources in cloud infrastructure management.