Future-proofing healthcare: How Genomics Partnership Wales is revolutionising patient care through transformative technology
Client overview
Wales is the first UK nation to achieve true integration of genomic health and research, pooling resources and sharing expertise to future-proof its healthcare services.
Genomics Partnership Wales (GPW) is a group of leading Welsh healthcare and government organisations committed to the transformative potential of genomics in improving patient care and outcomes. This initiative, funded by the NHS and the Welsh government, brings together four key organisations working collaboratively to harness genomics’ potential, ensuring that genomic initiatives align with the broader goals of the healthcare system.
The organisations collaborating towards this vision are:
- All-Wales Medical Genomics Service (AWMGS)
- Cardiff & Vale University Health Board (CAVUHB)
- Public Health Wales (PHW)
- Wales Gene Park (WGP)
As part of this partnership, the need for a state-of-the-art facility was identified to support GPW’s mission. To ensure the site operates efficiently, an external expert was needed to design a network architecture that would streamline IT operations, optimise application reliability, and ensure a secure and resilient IT infrastructure.
Despite the initial challenges posed by the site networking architecture project designed by a third-party, Clive Morgan’s clear direction and decisive leadership drove significant progress. Under his guidance, the team remained focused on the transformative potential of genomics for patient treatment and care, playing a key role in advancing GPW’s networking project.
Based on recommendations from Cisco, who were working with GPW to provide the networking infrastructure, the GPW team partnered with WhiteSpider to design and implement a state-of-the-art network architecture for the new genomics facility in the Welsh capital.
The requirement
Working alongside Russell Kent, a technical leader with over 30 years’ experience, WhiteSpider was tasked with addressing GPW’s concerns about a prior High-Level Design (HLD) created by another third party.
GPW outlined the need for a multi-tenant solution capable of supporting multiple organisations across the network. The solution had to establish secure communication for both intra- and inter-tenant traffic flows. The network design for the new facility needed to provide high bandwidth to meet the genomic application data requirements, while enabling secure wired and wireless access to each organisation’s users.
The outcome
Given the project’s complexities and the diverse requirements of different organisations, WhiteSpider undertook a series of stakeholder discussions and technical workshops to establish the solution requirements:
- Develop a scalable, high-bandwidth, multi-tenant data centre and campus solution to meet the needs of four stakeholders
- Ensure easy access to both wired and wireless networks for each organisation
- Enable micro-segmentation within each stakeholder’s environment
- Deliver a micro-segmented solution to ensure security between, and within, GPW’s tenants
- Facilitate secure inter-tenant communication to support on-site collaboration
- Rapid, centralised provisioning, management, and automation of the data centre and campus networks
- Use network analytics powered by AI to proactively identify issues and trends
- Implement an Out-of-Band (OOB) network to enhance the availability of critical network infrastructure
“WhiteSpider helped deliver a high-performance networking solution for Genomics Partnership Wales. Their approach optimised our infrastructure and enabled seamless collaboration across multiple organisations. The GPW project advances our goal to make Wales a global leader in genomics, attracting international partners and driving long-term benefits for the region.”
Clive Morgan, Managing Director, All Genomics Partnership Wales Service
Solution: Cisco ACI & SDA
To meet these requirements, WhiteSpider proposed Software Defined solutions for both the Campus and Data Centre networks, secured by next generation firewalls. Moreover, it was proposed that the networking solution be from a single vendor, Cisco, whilst the firewalls would be from a different vendor, Fortinet. This would:
- Radically simplify, optimise, and accelerate GPW’s application deployment
- Enable rapid scalability and network agility
- Deliver a policy-based approach focused on user application needs
- Deliver best in class NGFW capabilities through diversified security layers
- Provide high performance, high throughput end-to-end solution
With over a decade of experience working with NHS clients, WhiteSpider understood the challenges faced by large, complex publicly funded initiatives like GPW, including limited resources and budget constraints. To address these, WhiteSpider offered a cost-effective service by designing a new site architecture, procuring the necessary hardware for Cisco ACI and SDA, and delivering a comprehensive design process. This included the High-Level Design (HLD), Bill of Materials (BoM), and Low-Level Design (LLD) that GPW requested.
“WhiteSpider’s collaborative approach has been key in aligning our long-term goals with the right technology. Their tailored solution, leveraging Cisco ACI and SDA, has future-proofed our infrastructure, enabling secure, scalable growth. Working together, we’ve built a foundation that positions us to lead in genomics and healthcare innovation for years to come.”
Russell Kent, Head of Digital Operations, All Genomics Partnership Wales Service
The result
Through close collaboration with different stakeholders, WhiteSpider produced a phased implementation and migration strategy, including the setup of firewalls, which laid the groundwork for GPW’s future expansion, even as they prepared to move into their new facility.
GPW embodies a visionary approach to healthcare by integrating genomics to enhance the health, wellbeing, and prosperity of the people of Wales. This project supports this mission by leveraging data centre automation and optimisation, which enhances the facility’s efficiency and capacity for advanced research and development. Streamlined data processes will enable more effective genomics research, ultimately advancing GPW’s goal of improving healthcare outcomes for the Welsh population.
Overall this solution provides a cost effective, high-performant, secure platform for enabling GPW’s goal of providing an internationally competitive genomics research environment and the delivery of precision medicine in NHS Wales.