Pica8 Networking Software Paves The Way For Medical Equipment
The medical equipment industry remains a very important market vertical for Pica8. We have had success being the networking software partner to manufacturers in this vertical, where technical problems can literally mean the difference between life and death. More and more equipment and device manufacturers are using networking tools to add communications features into their devices. For these sorts of products being developed, open networking software tools can be an important aspect to ensure continuity between development and deployment.
When product developers in the medical industry choose platforms to build their products on, flexibility in deployment is one of the primary issues that requires careful consideration. With technology ecosystems being mature, developers are well served by not being locked into a closed wall environment that may compromise features of the ecosystem if it ever reaches end-of-life by the vendor. The decentralized and documented aspect of open standards computing mitigates many of these concerns, and is a perfect platform for applications that may be dealing with the transmission of sensitive information.
One of our largest medical equipment customers has deployed thousands of Pica8 PicOS Software Switches on 10GE white box hardware to connect their medical equipment to servers. Due to their heavy data protection requirements, they need to duplicate the data in three servers, hence requiring the network to support multicasting.
Key drivers for their platform choice include the following:
- Very simple architecture: Contained environment without complicated network connection and interoperability issues and not connected to a complicated network limits interoperability issues.
- Heavy stability requirement: Eliminating complicated network connection and interoperability issues.
- Sensitive to network security: Regular OS vulnerability tests require Pica8 to keep up with Linux vulnerability compliance.
- Pricing sensitivity: Both hardware and software, making them a good candidate for white-box networking.
- No forced upgrade schedules: They tend to stay with a qualified version. Every upgrade must be thoroughly tested.
Because of the distributed nature of their network, provisioning automation with our AmpCon Network Controller is a good incentive for them as well to reduce the operation cost and avoid human mistakes. Automation will continue to be an important feature for networks as they continue to grow in complexity and size.
Summary
Open standards computing and networking will be indispensable to the medical equipment companies on the market today as new features and cost-savings become motivating factors. Maturity of platforms ensures a secure computing environment, and every top medical manufacturer or service provider will be able to benefit from knowing they can truly have “write once/run many” functionality with their apps.
The top 40 Medical Device companies in the world, according to QMed: https://www.mddionline.com/business/top-40-medical-device-companies-0
Contact us today to discuss how Pica8 can pave the way for your next medical equipment design.
Kelly LeBlanc is the Chief Marketing Officer for Pica8