Managed Services

IMS provides systems administration for a robust computing infrastructure delivering managed services for the health IT field. IMS's computing resources are maintained and operated within two separate co-location facilities. Both data centers are used by IMS to provide 24/7 availability of all IMS's and our clients' mission-critical applications. These facilities both provide hardened structures with backup generators, redundant Internet connectivity, redundant cooling systems, video surveillance, fire detection/suppression, and 24/7 manned security/technical staff. Access to these facilities is only granted to those with prior documented approval. For those approved, access then requires a government-issued picture ID, biometric hand scan, and escort by a security officer. IMS also has an approved IT System Security Plan for these facilities which meets the OMB Circular A-130 guidelines and the NIST guidelines for FISMA IT system security at the moderate level.

The computer resources provide analytic processing, client/server applications, Web server applications, and file transfer options in a secure, firewall-protected environment. The resources are configured as a networked system of computers where services and resources are distributed across multiple specialized servers. Redundancy is designed and built into the systems for all mission-critical services and components. The IMS computer center is scalable and provides a fully managed computer resource to meet our client's requirements. The computing environment supports Linux, Windows, and VMware. The objective is to provide a highly reliable environment that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These computer facilities have an uptime record above 99.5%.

IMS designed and built a process where data are continually mirrored from one co-location facility to the other. Back-up copies of databases and computer programs are also made at regular intervals to protect against destruction from problems such as error, fire, catastrophe, and computer failure. Daily backup copies of the databases are created and securely stored at our second co-location facility. In the unlikely event that one of the data centers were destroyed, data would already be in other facility, ready to resume operations.