Stratus Technologies Helps Nova Scotia Make Its Emergency Medical Services System Disaster Proof

MAYNARD, Mass., Oct. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Stratus Technologies Inc. fault- tolerant systems are helping the Canadian province of Nova Scotia maintain disaster-proof 24x7 emergency medical services by providing 99.999 percent uptime for computerized dispatch software at its primary and backup communications centers, Stratus announced today.

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Emergency Health Services (EHS) of Nova Scotia uses Stratus(R) ftServer(R) continuous availability systems to run TriTech Software Systems' computer- aided dispatch (CAD) software at its only communications center in Dartmouth and backup center in Fall River. As the CAD system runs on an ftServer system at the Dartmouth communications center, it is backed up over a network connection on another ftServer system at the Fall River site. This constant "hot" backup enables the Fall River site to kick in immediately and maintain uninterrupted service if a natural disaster, accident or attack knocks out the Dartmouth site.

EHS is Nova Scotia's only emergency medical agency, responsible for 973,000 residents spread over almost 40,000 square miles of largely rural landscape. It contracts with EMC Emergency Medical Care Inc. to provide ground and air ambulance services. With no other agencies to back it up and many residents depending on it as their sole link to emergency medical care, EHS puts a high value on reliability, continuous availability and readiness throughout its organization, including equipment purchases.

"We considered high-availability server clusters, but when TriTech introduced us to the Stratus machines we realized they were less complicated and more reliable than clusters," said Paul Gareau , manager of IT services, EHS Nova Scotia CAD support. "There were limitations to clustering and Stratus seemed less risky. We were using clusters previously when the CAD system crashed during a change to a SQL database. We saw Stratus as a way to avoid flaws in clustering designs that could cause another crash. Also, with Stratus support services we don't have to be experts in maintaining the server. If something breaks, the server 'phones home' and Stratus sends a fix. But that doesn't happen too often because the servers don't break."

The Stratus Technologies ftServer family provides cost-effective fault- tolerant technology in markets as diverse as public safety, telecommunications and financial services. In the event of a component failure an ftServer system continues to run, automatically providing zero failover time and protection for critical data in memory as well as on disk. The ftServer systems are based on industry-standard components and support the Windows and Linux operating systems.

"Public safety agencies like EHS Nova Scotia are aggressively building disaster recovery into their operational plans, and Stratus ftServer systems can be an important component in those plans," said Jim Harris , Stratus' director of segment marketing. "Our reliability and remote monitoring and management capabilities are an attractive combination for public agencies that need to prepare for extreme situations while dealing with the day-in, day-out realities of finite budgets."

About Stratus Technologies

Stratus Technologies is a global solutions provider focused exclusively on helping its customers achieve and sustain the availability of information systems that support their critical business processes. Based upon its 27 years of expertise in server and services technology for continuous availability, Stratus is a trusted solutions provider to customers in manufacturing, life sciences, telecommunications, financial services, public safety, transportation & logistics, and other industries. For more information, visit www.stratus.com.

Stratus, and ftServer are registered trademarks of Stratus Technologies Bermuda Ltd. The Stratus Technologies logo is a trademark of Stratus Technologies Bermuda Ltd. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.