O.L.V. van Lourdes Hospital Waregem chooses VMware NSX to increase internal security

O.L.V. van Lourdes Hospital Waregem is a general hospital that is part of the regional hospital network E17 and offers almost all services. They have 264 licensed beds and approximately 800 employees. With the slogan ‘together we guarantee the best possible care’ they are fully committed to providing their patients with excellent care, tailored to each individual’s needs and wishes. In order to fulfill and keep this promise, they invest in innovative projects to improve quality systems and optimize processes.

O.L.V. van Lourdes Hospital Waregem is a general hospital that is a part of the regional hospital network E17 and offers almost all services. It has 264 beds and approximately 800 employees. With the slogan ‘together we guarantee the best possible care’ they are fully committed to providing their patients with excellent care, tailored to each individual’s needs and wishes. In order to fulfill and keep this promise, they invest in innovative projects to improve quality systems and optimize processes.

No progress, means regress. Especially when it comes to security. Until now, all our network traffic passed through one firewall and all the systems were connected. We saw the need to divide this in separate segments, limit east-west traffic and improve security.

Bart Vanden Driessche | IT Director at O.L.V. van Lourdes Hospital Waregem

THE CHALLENGE

O.L.V. van Lourdes Hospital Waregem has an ISO27001 certificate that verifies their compliance with the latest information security requirements. No progress, means regress. Especially when it comes to security”, says Bart Vanden Driessche, IT Manager at O.L.V. van Lourdes Hospital Waregem. “Until now, all our network traffic passed through one firewall and all the systems were connected. We saw the need to divide this in seperate segments, limt east-west traffic and improve security.”

THE SOLUTION

“Together with ePact we have looked into the different options to further optimize our Network security. They told us about NSX and the possibility of doing micro-segmentation,” said Koen Verhulst, DPO & Security Consultant at O.L.V. van Lourdes Hospital Waregem. Separate, internal firewall rules can be used to define which systems may or may not communicate with each other. Thus, lateral movement can be managed and stopped if necessary. As we started the implementation stage during the second half of last year, we are currently in the final stage/ completion stage of the process

The advantages

Central Management

“We can define and manage the different firewall rules from one management console. Before, we could barely do this, if at all, so this has given our security a huge boost,” says Bart Vanden Driessche.

Network virtualization with NSX was a logical next step that seamlessly integrated with the VMware solutions we were already using in our environment. Besides that it fits perfectly within our vision to move towards a cloud infrastructure in the coming years.

Koen Verhulst | DPO & Security Consultant at O.L.V. van Lourdes Hospital Waregem

Integration with existing VMware solutions

We were already using VMware vSAN and vSphere to virtualize servers and storage.Network virtualization with NSX was a logical next step that seamlessly integrated with these solutions and our vision to work towards a cloud infrastructure in the coming years,” explains Koen Verhulst.

Improved Insights

“The network traffic is accurately mapped so we can see perfectly what is going in and out. This has the advantage that potential threats are easily identified and we know exactly how to respond,” explains Bart Vanden Driessche.

FUTURE VISION

“Currently on our agenda is the further rollout of the NSX implementation. All the assets have been purchased, but now it’s a matter to implement, finish or update all these things. In a next phase we want to implement the NSX Advanced Threat Prevention (ATP) module with IDS & IPS, also called Intrusion Detection & Prevention,” conclude Koen Verhulst and Bart Vanden Driessche. This SaaS module integrates with the current NSX setup and will further elevate (internal) security in the future.

Click here for more information about our VMware NSX offering.