COVID-19 vs. our Networks

Mike Bolitho mikebolitho at gmail.com
Tue Mar 17 17:03:46 UTC 2020


>The answer is don't shove application traffic that has tight service level
requirements onto the public internet at large and expect the same
performance as private circuits or other SLA protected services.

I keep seeing this over and over again in this long thread. What's your
suggestion? How does a hospital, with dozens of third party
applications/devices across multiple cloud platforms do this?

We have two redundant private lines out of each hospital connecting back to
primary and DR DCs and a metro connecting everything together in each
region. But for things we do not own that are not hosted locally, what are
we supposed to do? We have to go out DIA to get there. Everything we own is
connected via fully SLAed private lines. We have zero issues there. I think
people vastly underestimate just how much in the healthcare vertical is
outside of a medical providers control/ownership.

- Mike Bolitho


On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 9:54 AM Tom Beecher <beecher at beecher.cc> wrote:

> The answer is don't shove application traffic that has tight service level
> requirements onto the public internet at large and expect the same
> performance as private circuits or other SLA protected services.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 11:40 AM Mike Bolitho <mikebolitho at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> If an x-ray machine won't work because the Internet is down, I'm not sure
>>> that is responsible. As inefficient as it may be to have a license server
>>> on-prem if there is an option to check against one in the public cloud,
>>> for a medical use-case, that would make more sense to me.
>>
>>
>> Totally agree with you. Unfortunately it's not a problem with the medical
>> providers, it's a problem with the medical devices. Anybody who works in
>> the healthcare vertical will tell you just how bad medical devices are to
>> work with from an IT perspective. And that is part of my original comments.
>>
>> In your case, I am not sure I have an answer for you, unfortunately. The
>>> public Internet is what it is, mostly best-effort. Your applications and
>>> use-cases certainly deserve better than that. I'm not sure how to achieve
>>> that as your industry shoves more and more activity into the public
>>> Internet domain, for one reason or another.
>>
>>
>> I don't know what it's going to take either. A general shift in mentality
>> from the vendors we use I guess. I'm not sure how you get a bunch of
>> medical providers to tell these companies they need to fix their stuff. You
>> can't exactly use your wallet to force change either. There are only a
>> handful of vendor options out there so there isn't a ton of choice. It's
>> not like you can buy one of 50 different models of CT machines or EHR
>> systems.
>>
>> Generally speaking it's not an issue. It's just in crazy times like these
>> where, if congestion on the public internet gets too crazy, that certain
>> platforms might need to be deemed "unnecessary". Is playing Fortnight a
>> right? Is streaming a movie in 4K a right? In cases like San Francisco they
>> have decided that leaving your home for anything other than work or medical
>> care is no longer a right because you're now infringing on other's rights
>> by potentially getting them sick. Maybe 4K Netflix fits into that category
>> if you're causing problems for first responders and hospitals trying to
>> save lives.
>>
>>
>> - Mike Bolitho
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 2:22 AM Mark Tinka <mark.tinka at seacom.mu> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 16/Mar/20 16:54, Carsten Bormann wrote:
>>>
>>> > I recently had to reschedule an X-ray because the license manager for
>>> the X-ray machine was acting up.  I don’t think people have a grasp for how
>>> much of the medical infrastructure no longer works when the Internet is
>>> down.
>>>
>>> I get this, to some extent. But also, there is a reason hospitals,
>>> airports and military installations are either put on special power
>>> grids or invest plenty of money in backup power.
>>>
>>> If an x-ray machine won't work because the Internet is down, I'm not
>>> sure that is responsible. As inefficient as it may be to have a license
>>> server on-prem if there is an option to check against one in the public
>>> cloud, for a medical use-case, that would make more sense to me.
>>>
>>> Mark.
>>>
>>
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