Grupo Santa Casa BH cuts costs and obtains security using Compute Engine and Cloud Storage
About Grupo Santa Casa BH
Grupo Santa Casa BH is a benchmark in healthcare, education, research, and funeral services in Minas Gerais. It is the oldest healthcare institution in Belo Horizonte and a leading provider of high-complexity care for transplants, oncology, cardiology, neurosurgery, and obstetrics.
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About Qi Network
Qi Network, a Google Cloud Premier Partner in Brazil, helps businesses leverage their results using innovation and cloud computing. Through people, processes, and technologies, Qi Network understands business challenges and creates tailored solutions to solve them together with its customers.
In partnership with Qi Network and Google Cloud, the institution cut file-storage costs, simplified work processes, and increased data security.
Results
- Cost savings of 35% since migrating the Compute Engine service
- Improved delivery times for services running in the cloud
- Increased security for data storage
Use of Cloud Storage led to cost savings of 60%
Founded in 1899, Santa Casa BH is the oldest healthcare institution in Belo Horizonte. With 122 years in the field, it is the largest philanthropic service provider for Brazil’s Single Healthcare System (SUS) in Minas Gerais, and it ranks among the largest in Brazil. It is also a benchmark for high-complexity care in transplants, oncology, cardiology, neurosurgery, and obstetrics.
The institution is part of Grupo Santa Casa BH, which also comprises São Lucas Hospital, Santa Casa BH Center of Medical Specialities, Santa Casa BH Education and Research, Santa Casa BH Funeral Services, and Afonso Pena Geriatric Institute. Combined, these institutions employ almost 7,000 staff and provide nearly 1,300 beds for patients.
As Grupo Santa Casa BH’s mission is to improve people’s lives, it is a mainstay for the healthcare of the communities it serves. To perform that purpose more efficiently, the Group decided to promote digital transformation in its operational units.
Applying tools to innovate
In 2018, the institution invested heavily in technology, focusing on an on-premises data center. However, by the following year, the hardware was already having issues and suffering performance loss. Unsatisfied with this scenario, the institution’s IT team assessed the potential costs involved in updating that equipment and started mulling alternatives, this time cloud-related options.
The group took its first steps in that direction in 2019 when it adopted Google Workspace, supported by Qi Network, to modernize its way of working and to evolve digitally.
Besides support throughout the deployment process, the online training sessions and in-person courses provided by the partner proved essential for the group’s professionals to learn about the communication and collaboration capabilities facilitated by the solutions. The topics covered in the sessions included settings, sharing information, and how to use tools properly.
Regarding its infrastructure, the institution had already tested tools from another provider, but it still faced cost and support challenges. To overcome those, based on the successful experience with Qi Network, Grupo Santa Casa BH decided to start migrating a part of its services to Google Cloud.
That is how a major transformation began in June 2020. With comprehensive support from its partner, Santa Casa began migrating to the new environment. Among the chosen solutions, the main highlights were Compute Engine, which enables services to run in virtual machines (VMs) in Google Cloud, and Cloud Storage , which handles some data storage and backup.
Currently, the cloud hosts patient images and examinations in compliance with applicable laws, has VM instances to support the websites of every institution in the Group, and other applications, as well as a server that analyzes every voluntary hospital in Brazil and compares the data with that of Santa Casa BH.
“We needed storage space. With Qi Network’s support, we started assessing scenarios. We now discern between investments in data centers and what may be stored in the cloud. Google Cloud provides us with an excellent service in that regard, at an extremely low cost.”
—Ewerton Louzada, Administrative IT Management Coordinator, Santa Casa BHAn easy migration process with tangible results
Migrations were performed assertively and efficiently. Google Cloud is now the Group’s main cloud service. The benefits provided by the available resources include the convenience of uploading new VMs and getting an operational system up and running for emergency troubleshooting. In case of maintenance, disasters, or urgent demand, having a readily available tool to manage the cloud environment and the data center is a differentiator.
The accelerated delivery times for services running in the cloud, the security and reliability for storing general information and confidential data, and the cost savings noticed by the company are other important factors of note.
The migration of Compute Engine services from the other provider to Google Cloud led to a 35% cost-savings rate. As for Cloud Storage, where 20 TB of data are stored, the reduction peaked at 60%.
Cloud Storage has also allowed the Group to significantly cut costs compared with the on-premises scenario, as it no longer needs to invest in physical drives. Backups are performed directly in the cloud with help from a tool compatible with Google Cloud. If the entire infrastructure was still located in physical servers, the institution would need to invest around 400,000 reais just to add 30 TB in storage.
“The positive results from adopting Google Cloud are palpable. They include storage cost savings in Cloud Storage—an extremely competitive edge against rival companies—and the fact we have a backup of the images and don’t need to invest in physical drives.”
—Ewerton Louzada, Administrative IT Management Coordinator, Santa Casa BHNow that its services are running stably in the cloud, the intention is to increase that scope. The Group has a continuity project together with Qi Network to look for updates and solutions to make a difference in working routines, ensuring quality delivery. That is why the next steps are consolidating the entire backup in Google Cloud and using BigQuery to handle data from Grupo Santa Casa BH and enable more decision-making by the board.
“We plan to use BigQuery in the future. We want to go further in artificial intelligence, hone diagnostics, and improve customer experience. Without going over budget, we want to leverage other Google tools to improve our work and our patients’ lives.”
—Ewerton Louzada, Administrative IT Management Coordinator, Santa Casa BHTell us your challenge. We're here to help.
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About Grupo Santa Casa BH
Grupo Santa Casa BH is a benchmark in healthcare, education, research, and funeral services in Minas Gerais. It is the oldest healthcare institution in Belo Horizonte and a leading provider of high-complexity care for transplants, oncology, cardiology, neurosurgery, and obstetrics.
About Qi Network
Qi Network, a Google Cloud Premier Partner in Brazil, helps businesses leverage their results using innovation and cloud computing. Through people, processes, and technologies, Qi Network understands business challenges and creates tailored solutions to solve them together with its customers.