HPMA User Guide
Architecture Overview
The HP Medical Archive architecture provides a secure, reliable, and high performance solution for the storage and distribution of very high volumes of fixed content health care data within a data center and optionally a disaster recovery (DR) site.
The term “grid computing” is inspired by the success of the intercon- nection of the electric power and communication network infrastructure in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
The power grid manages the available power resources and balances loads to ensure continuous operation. How and where the power orig- inates is transparent to the consumer. During peak hours, available resources are automatically balanced and power is rerouted to where it is needed most. As demand increases, additional generating resources come online, and they are transparently utilized. Similarly, when stations go offline or get decommissioned, there are no consumer service disruptions. The grid automatically balances the available resources to changing demand; loss of a subset of resources does not result in degraded service.
Grid computing is based on the principle that access to computational resources (storage, processing power, and data) can be enhanced with high levels of reliability and scalability, analogous to obtaining electric power from the power grid. Grid storage is the application of grid computing principles to storage architecture: directories, query, resource management, and fault management.
The HP Medical Archive system is composed of multiple nodes, which form a unified archive. Each node consists of software services operat- ing on a server that manages a limited capacity storage resource.
Within a given facility, all nodes are interconnected using standard TCP/IP networking, and communicate with local imaging modalities, PACS, and workstations. Wide Area Network (WAN) links extend the grid, enabling
The HP Medical Archive deployment relies on open standards for interoperability with external hospital systems. Exchange of clinical data with external clinical systems, including PACS, viewing worksta- tions, and modalities, takes place over standardized network file system protocols (NFS/CIFS) or (optionally) via established imaging protocols, including DICOM.
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HP Medical Archive