Assurance Maladie is Growing
Assurance Maladie attends to more than 59 million policyholders in France. Its data center in Toulouse manages highly sensitive and confidential customer data. The infrastructure had to be densified at short notice in order to reliably handle the growing data traffic. With Netscale from R&M, the fiber content of the cabling could be increased by a factor of eight per unit.
Assurance Maladie is responsible for health care within the French social security system. It manages data on 88 % of all French people in continental France and overseas territories. The data centers of Assurance Maladie (CTI, Centre de Traitement Informatique) in Toulouse and Strasbourg form the operative basis.
The 1,000-square-meter data center CTI Sud in Toulouse is spread over two buildings. These are connected via redundant fiber optic and copper lines to guarantee high availability. The CTI is available around the clock.
Major platform provider
f.l.t.r.: Richard Blanc, R&M; Marc Castarede, Jean Luc Fabre, Frederic Andreu, CTI Toulouse; Christian Doumeng, Michel Pech, H2P
Twenty international and national authorities and 152 individual social security organizations rely on the computing services of the two CTIs. In particular, they purchase PaaS products (PaaS = Platform as a Service). Among other things, CTI Sud provides virtual machines. Hosting includes 10,000 partitions per virtual machine on a storage area network of more than ten petabytes.
«Our aim is to deliver everything customers need for their platforms. This means that we provide area, power, air conditioning, network, system, storage space, and data security, as well as databases and middleware,» says Philippe Mollet, IT Manager at CTI in Toulouse.
Capacity limit reached
Demand for digital services from Assurance Maladie grew strongly during the pandemic. Data traffic had already been increasing at double-digit annual growth rates before that. As a result, usage of the infrastructure skyrocketed. This development pushed CTI Sud to its limits. The existing cabling in Buildings 1 and 2 was stretched to the limit. That’s why those responsible had to act quickly.
R&M had already equipped Building 1 with everything a powerful network requires in 2012 and 2013. The infrastructure essentially consisted of top-of-rack cabling, 12-port patch panels, and LC Duplex connectivity.
Now the network was to be strengthened within the existing infrastructure – first in Building 1. The pragmatic solution was to maximize the packing density in the racks in order to be able to use more ports and links.
Quick solution required
The management of CTI Sud needed the project to be completed as quickly as possible. They were looking for the expanded capacitance to be ready by April 2022. The inquiry reached H2P, R&M’s long-standing integrator in Toulouse, in mid-November 2021. After a product demonstration by H2P and R&M, it was clear to the planners that they would only achieve their goals with the fiber optic Ultra-High Density distribution platform Netscale 120. The concept was developed within an hour.
With Netscale, it was possible to increase the packing density of fiber optic cabling from 12 to 90 ports. At the same time, the CTI remains flexible in order to be able to adapt the distributors to new situations at any time. «At present, we don’t know of any better product on the market,» says Philippe Mollet from CTI enthusiastically. He has long been convinced of R&M’s quality and reliability. The installation was carried out during operation. Interruptions would have cut millions of users off from the service provided by Assurance Maladie.
The partners implemented the planning, production, and installation within three months of the order being placed. R&M’s fiber optic plant in Bulgaria performed a masterly feat. It produced the trunks and assemblies in record time. The densified network infrastructure then went into operation at the beginning of April 2022.
Adapted chassis
One challenge was the limited space available for installation. There was not enough space for classic patch panels. That’s why H2P had the chassis tailor-made to facilitate the installation of the Netscale platforms. The CTI team can open them at any time in just a few simple steps. Technicians can flexibly add, replace, maintain and adjust fibers and modules.
This means that the CTI is well prepared for the next flood of data.
Why R&M?
- High packing density
- Simple management
- Robustness, modularity
- Functional labeling
- Fast commissioning
- Quality of advice
- Long-term support
- 25-year warranty
The customer
With 59 million policyholders, Assurance Maladie attends to around 88 % of all residents in France and the French overseas territories. With 152 individual organizations, it is available as a local point of contact for employers and policyholders. Assurance Maladie uses a total of four data centers to process information digitally.
These data centers ensure round-the-clock supply and processing of information to the local authorities of health insurance companies at an international, national, regional, and local level.
R&M solution
For Building 1 of the CTI Toulouse, R&M and its partner H2P developed a high-density fiber optic, redundant infrastructure, supplemented by copper cabling.
Key modules:
- 148 Netscale 120, each equipped with 90 ports per height unit
- 370 trunks with MPO-12 connectivity for top-of-rack connection
- 1,500 FO patch cords, 2.1 mm cross-section, lengths of 1 to 7 m, connectors: LC Quick Release
- 11 km OM4 fiber optic cable with 36 fibers
- 74 ELISO 48-port patch panels with 1,800 Cat. 6A Easylock modules
- 1,200 copper patch cords, thinLine Cat. 6A, lengths of 0.5 to 5 m
- 32 km Cat. 7 SFTP copper cable
- Adapted chassis for patch panels
- Custom labels for port designations
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