Blue Coat Systems announced that BT, one of the world’s leading communications solutions and service providers has selected Blue Coat SG appliances to accelerate internet content to the broadband network it is rolling out for the National Health Service (NHS) in England. The network, known as N3, replaces NHSnet, and forms part of what is believed to be the world’s largest civilian IT project, the National Programme for IT in the NHS. N3 links NHS sites throughout the country to shared health applications and the internet and is part of a major strategic initiative to deliver improved healthcare to patients at lower costs and with the highest standards of privacy.

Health professionals have experienced enhanced performance from this service when accessing the internet due to Blue Coat’s acceleration technology, which has lead to reduced response times, improved performance of applications and faster file access. N3 is simultaneously receiving bandwidth savings of around 30%, which has enabled a greater return on the investment in the network infrastructure.

“Blue Coat is pleased to serve such a central role in accelerating internet content for N3 users and reducing overall bandwidth consumption,” said Craig Stewart, vice president for EMEA, Blue Coat Systems. “In the future, we look to individual health care provider offices and Primary Care Trust groups to install Blue Coat appliances to speed applications and provide security for their patient data and systems.”

The N3 operations centre routes internet traffic to and from health care provider offices and Primary Care Trust groups through its internet gateway. Blue Coat SG appliances are deployed in-line at this primary gateway to speed content delivery and decrease bandwidth consumption. The N3 internet gateway has a current capacity of 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps), but it is expected to scale to 2.5 Gbps as demand increases.

About BT

BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Our principal activities include networked IT services, local, national and international telecommunications services, and higher-value broadband and internet products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

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About the NHS and N3

The NHS was set up in 1948 and is now the largest organisation in Europe. It is recognised as one of the best health services in the world by the World Health Organisation but there need to be improvements to cope with the demands of the 21st century. The NHS is changing the way it works to make sure patients always come first. This has brought about some fundamental changes in the way the NHS is structured and the way in which the different organisations within the NHS relate to each other.

http://www.nhs.uk/Aboutnhs/howthenhsworks/Pages/HowtheNHSworks.aspx

N3 is part of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT). It will provide the entire NHS with fast broadband networking services. Without N3 it would be impossible to deliver other components of the Programme, all of which rely on greater bandwidth than the earlier networks NHSnet and N2 gave.

http://www.n3.nhs.uk/aboutn3/whatisn3.cfm

Marc Jacob B  

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July 2007