Another benefit is the simplification of the main hospital's 2007 move to its new facility, presently under construction at a new biomedical park being developed at the closed Fitsimmons Air Force Base. "This is a huge move for us," Oriol says. "We are putting in 28 new systems, including [voice over IP], cell phone replication, 802.1x for user identification over the network and even some creative things like a patient portal to provide entertainment and educational programs for our long-term patients."

The Ciena core network has already been connected to the new site, and even though plans are still being finalized, the hospital intends to move the disaster site to this new facility to become the main data center, while the present data center stays downtown. "We plan to maintain a presence downtown, including an emergency department and inpatient rooms, to serve downtown residents," Oriol says.

Children's has already created a "hospital within a hospital" concept in two other hospitals in the region to bring specialized pediatric care closer to patient populations, and it plans a similar facility for its downtown presence. The present data center will probably stay in its existing location to support that effort. With the split-cluster architecture, this will provide full IT support for medical systems at both sites, transparent to users. And in the meantime, either site can serve both facilities through the Ciena core network with no noticeable lag times. This ensures full IT service at the new site from Day One.

The high-end core application has other dividends. Because the hospital owns the network down to the fiber, it does not need to encrypt patient data flowing between the two sites. It does encrypt all data going over public networks, for instance, from satellite locations it maintains in several states surrounding its Denver base.

Oriol also notes that the instant service improves patient care, but it is impossible to quantify. "We left it as a quality issue. Obviously, we want to be sure we can deliver the information clinicians need to provide the best care possible."