Calydial: A Vital Backup for Kidney Care Specialists

Outgrowing the Old Backup

Patients with kidney disease rely on uninterrupted treatment cycles. But if the IT system fails, scheduled procedures risk falling apart. For Calydial—operator of five dialysis and kidney treatment centers in the greater Lyon area—such a scenario would pose a medical risk. All IT systems must be able to be restored quickly without data loss in the event of a failure. But the externally managed backup solution had reached its limits. The monthly subscription costs were high, and performance suffered from heavy bandwidth strain. The outdated Wi-Fi network also affected day-to-day operations because clinical and laboratory devices at the dialysis stations rely on wireless connectivity, adding to the bandwidth strain that was already slowing down backup performance. At the same time, the French CaRE funding program—a national initiative to strengthen cybersecurity and resilience across healthcare institutions—imposed new requirements for emergency planning and data protection. “We needed a solution that is high-performance and ransomware-resistant, integrates seamlessly with our hyperconverged infrastructure platform—and can restore the entire environment in an emergency,” says Jean-Pierre Grangier, Head of the IT Department at Calydial.

Certified Solution for the Healthcare Sector

Together with its consulting partner DS2I and the integrator Progressive IT, Calydial evaluated several offerings. Calydial chose Huawei’s OceanProtect X3000 in the all-in-one version. The key advantages include advanced deduplication, active-active architecture, and air-gap and WORM capabilities. Additional features include advanced deduplication, active-active architecture, and air-gap and WORM capabilities. Air-gap physically isolates the backup data from the production network, preventing attackers from accessing it over the network. WORM (Write Once, Read Many) prevents stored data from being subsequently modified or deleted. The EAL4+ (operating system) and EAL2+ (backup component) certifications, along with offline operation without an internet connection, meet the strict data protection requirements in the healthcare sector. “We were the first company in Europe to put the all-in-one version of the OceanProtect X3000 into production, and we’re proud to have paved the way for this new generation of storage and backup solutions,” says Grangier. Deploying the storage systems and Wi-Fi took one week, while the backup deployment took about two weeks spread over two months. After a total of three months, the new environment was up and running.

Fast Recovery, Full Data Sovereignty

With the new infrastructure, Calydial now has a comprehensive disaster recovery plan and can restore its entire information system within a few hours. Instead of monthly subscription fees, the company successfully transitioned to perpetual licenses with Huawei. The new model significantly reduces IT expenses while ensuring data sovereignty. The solution can be administered without in-depth specialized knowledge and ensures the continuity of patient care—the key criterion for a kidney care facility.