Medical Research  Council

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is a publicly-funded organisation dedicated to improving human health through excellent science. It is the UK's largest non-commercial funder of clinical trials, and employs over 4,000 people in the UK and overseas.

At the start of 2007 the MRC Clinical Trials Unit identified a need to upgrade its existing network infrastructure. In addition to enabling more effective and collaborative working, it needed to implement a robust and reliable infrastructure that would support secure remote working, enabling it to better support the continued operation of the Unit in the event of a large Business continuity scenario (such as a major flu pandemic.) Following a due diligence exercise to assess the market, MRC approached Imerja to conduct a review of its existing LAN infrastructure and provide a recommendation for upgrading its LAN and security estate. The resulting design presented by Imerja incorporated a high availability network and security perimeter to meet the the MRC Clinical Trials Unit’s immediate needs and one that would underpin its constant drive for improved electronic communications across the organisation. This included improvements to its internal security through the introduction of security zones into a flat network infrastructure.

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"Despite the tremendous upheaval a project like this involves, Imerja managed to complete the tasks with no noticeable disruption to service for the users."

Head of ICT at MRC Clinical Trials Unit

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With the upgraded infrastructure now in place and secured, Imerja has continued working with the MRC Clinical Trials Unit to review the bandwidth utilisation across its internet connection. With the available bandwidth frequently being over exploited and thereby affecting the performance and reliability of the link, an Exinda Networks 4700 Optimiser was deployed to report on utilisation and help to shape the traffic profile. Based on the information provided by Exinda’s standard reporting tools, Imerja was able to make changes in order to refine the profile of data traffic and more proactively manage the available bandwidth.

Given the context of the business and the requirement for this strategic upgrade, the details of the project remain commercially and legally sensitive. However, with the project now completed MRC Clinical Trials Unit has continued to engage Imerja for ad-hoc consultancy and technical advice, as well as to provide critical support services across the new infrastructure.

Head of ICT at MRC said:  "Imerja have impressed throughout with their tireless commitment to get the job completed whatever the cost. This project has been critical to ensuring we have the capacity and resilience to support the continued growth and success of the Unit, and are able to keep our Clinical Trials operational in the event of a business continuity issue, by providing reliable and secure remote access to key IT systems.“