Bycast and IBM Selected by Richardson Regional Medical Center

Regional Healthcare Provider Standardizes on Bycast Storage Software, Part of IBM’s Grid Medical Archive Solution



ORLANDO, FL - Feb 2008: HIMSS 2008 Conference -- Bycast Inc., a leading provider of grid-powered storage management software, today announced that Richardson Regional Medical Center has standardized on Bycast StorageGRID(R) storage management software to store and protect Richardson Regional’s mission critical reference data within its enterprise archive. IBM’s Storage business delivers the Bycast software to market as part of its Grid Medical Archive Solution (GMAS).

When its Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) archive needed additional capacity, Richardson Regional turned to Bycast and IBM (NYSE: IBM) to provide a solution that ensures the integrity, availability, and security of its confidential data in accordance with the federal government’s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.

Richardson Regional is now utilizing Bycast StorageGRID software within IBM GMAS configurable information lifecycle management policies to store the data automatically at the right location, on the right storage tier, at the right time -- creating a cost-effective storage solution. The storage system distributes data across two campuses, allowing doctors and other medical personnel fast access and highly available service from both Richardson Regional locations using the existing wide-area network.

“Previously, we used to mirror PACS images to our Bush/Renner campus. This required a high bandwidth connection and did not insure that the images remained unchanged over time,” says Ron Franquiz, Richardson Regional Chief Information Officer. “The automatic and efficient replication of images to our second campus and the long-term data integrity that StorageGRID provides were extremely important to us. Leveraging existing storage resources was also a key financial factor in our decision.”

Bycast StorageGRID, running within the IBM GMAS solution, allows Richardson Regional to utilize its current storage infrastructure, leveraging its existing investment and ensuring future storage requirements can be integrated seamlessly. Richardson Regional purchased eighteen terabytes of additional online protected storage, which will all be managed by GMAS.

“We are pleased that our storage management system helps Richardson Regional improve patient care by ensuring critical data is always available quickly and reliably,” said Tim Chunn, Director Strategic Accounts, Bycast Inc. “StorageGRID is ensuring the protection and availability of their data on a large scale -- their users trust the system to pull both new data and older data quickly without any worry about data corruption or performance issues -- their vital data is always there when they need it.”

“The seamless integration of Bycast StorageGRID software and our industry leading servers, storage, services and solution support is what truly delivers value to growing healthcare clients like Richardson Regional Medical Center,” said Hugh Rivers, Business Line Executive, Healthcare and Life Sciences Solutions, IBM Systems and Technology Group. “GMAS delivers our customers a solution that is cost effective, highly automated and easy to manage over time.”

About Richardson Regional Medical Center: Based in Richardson, Texas, Richardson Regional Medical Center has been offering a broad scope of compassionate medical, surgical and behavioral health services to the Richardson community for more than 25 years. Its 205-bed acute care hospital serves residents of Richardson, Plano, North Dallas and the surrounding communities. It was the first health care facility to receive the Texas Award for Performance Excellence, patterned after the renowned Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. For more information, please visit www.richardsonregional.com.

About Bycast: Bycast is the leading provider of grid-powered storage management software that simplifies the management of massive fixed-content storage systems. For organizations whose business depends on access to mission critical data, Bycast software preserves and protects fixed-content assets over their lifetime. Bycast StorageGRID® software enables organizations to optimize their storage infrastructure and ensure the integrity and availability of their valuable data. StorageGRID also enables the formation of regional archives that can scale to petabytes of data across hundreds of sites. StorageGRID is sold globally through OEM relationships with two of the world’s major storage vendors. Bycast Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in Vancouver, BC. To learn more about the company and its solutions, visit www.bycast.com.