PTS Partner Bloom Energy Repurposes Old Ventilators for Coronavirus Duty

As the number of COVID-19 cases continue to grow, the number of patients in dire need of expert care has already begun to put a strain on our healthcare systems worldwide. In the U.S. specifically, hospitals have been unable to supply enough ventilators for critically-ill patients during this pandemic.

California Governor Gavin Newsom called on Bloom Energy to see if the Bloom team could repurpose some old ventilators. While other manufacturers are studying and looking at the feasibility to help support production for new medical devices such as ventilators, the Bloom team took action and answered the Governor’s call. As you may know, ventilators are critical to preventing respiratory failure in patients with COVID-19. While the original ventilator service provider told the Governor it might take a month to begin refurbishing, Bloom Operations knew that wasn’t an option with lives at risk. Less than 24 hours later, Bloom's manufacturing team had refurbished 24 ventilators and is now refurbishing an additional 25 more in California and expect to begin similar refurbishment work in Delaware this week.

At this rate, Bloom estimates they can refurbish hundreds of ventilators a week, helping to meet the anticipated high demand. The Society of Critical Care Medicine estimates that 960,000 coronavirus patients in the U.S. may need to be put on ventilators, but there are only about 200,000 such working machines available – while thousands sit idle, having reached their end-of-service life.

Bloom's team's willingness to innovate, solve tough challenges, and commit to the “art of the possible” in this time of need is a true showcase of Bloom's resilience. Their manufacturing teams are working with the State of California and the State of Delaware, and have offered services to other states, to begin refurbishing the thousands of out of service ventilators available in the U.S. Bloom is also working with state agencies and customers – many of which are hospitals and medical device companies – to identify additional supplies of ventilators that need refurbishing.

"While unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures, I could never have predicted that Bloom could have such a direct impact on our society. I am deeply humbled by our team's strength and ability to step up to this challenge. As a U.S.-based manufacturer, we take our responsibility to this country seriously and we stand ready to serve. Like our customers and the communities we serve, we are strong and we are resilient. I am blessed to work with such an amazing group of people."

Andrew Patterson Director, Partner Engagement BloomEnergy Corporation

How you can Help

If you know of any businesses or state agencies with out-of-service ventilators, please email Bloom at:  ventilatorrefurb@bloomenergy.com or visit Bloom's ventilator refurbishment web page at: https://www.bloomenergy.com/ventilators for more information.  Bloom Energy can also be reached on their hotline: +1 (888) 544-2644

PTS Support During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

Being a technology company, PTS is well-prepared to run our organization and support our clients remotely. We are operating as normal as can be expected under the current circumstances. You will continue to receive the exemplary level of service that you have come to expect from PTS.

We will be leveraging all the technologies at our disposal to engage and support you. Rest assured: our commitment to you during this situation remains as strong as ever. PTS will continue to operate at full capacity servicing our clients. We are well equipped with the resources and technology to work remotely, and plan on operating all other aspects of our business as usual.

How to Reach Us:

• Communication among all parties will continue as usual. PTS employees are available via email or by phone.
• Our main office phones (201.337.3833) will still be answered. Phone calls will be directed to employee cell phones or company voicemails which will be continually monitored.
• We are no longer holding in-person meetings at this time; however, we will continue to hold virtual meetings and conference calls.
• Our hours of operation will remain: Monday - Friday, 9am to 5pm.

At PTS, we are dedicated to supporting the well-being and utmost safety of our employees, clients, and families. We appreciate your patience during this challenging time and assure you of PTS’s commitment to continuing to serve our clients.

Following is a brief list of services that we are prepared to help you with in a pinch. Please visit our website at www.PTSdcs.com for a more comprehensive list.

Data Center & Facility	IT	Workplace
Emergency Repair Emergency CRAC Repair Battery Replacement Rental UPS	NOC-Based Managed IT Helpdesk Support CTOC-Based Cybersecurity Remote Access BaaS (Backup as a Service) DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service)	Video Conferencing Hosted VoIP Virtual Desktop

Here are some external links offering helpful advice to businesses in dealing with the pandemic:

• Uptime Institute’s COVID-19: Minimizing Critical Facility Risk
• 7 Things Data Center Businesses Should Do During the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic

Thank you for your business and stay safe.

Ransomware is the Number One Cause of Disaster Recovery (DR) Events

When ransomware infects a company's IT systems, it often leaves the target helpless and at the mercy of the attackers.  Stored and backup data become encrypted, and, as such, are irretrievable unless the attackers demands are met or the system can otherwise be restored from clean backups.  In response, the enterprise scrambles, often in vain, desperately trying to restore systems and data to a point prior to the attack. This disaster recovery process is often manual and time-consuming, resulting in costly downtime. In many cases, businesses (like a hospital, for instance) cannot function without their systems active, so they may feel added pressure to pay the criminals to decrypt their data more timely. It is truly a nightmare.

Some shocking ransomware statistics:

• Since 2016, Ransomware Growth: 700% – Gartner
• Cost of Ransomware in 2019: $11.5 Billion – Fortinet
• Companies that used their DR Plan in Past 24 Months: 80% – Gartner
• Companies that did NOT Meet Their RTO and RPO Objectives: 94% – Gartner

The DRaaS Solution to Ransomware
PTS and its partners are ready to offer an elegant DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service) solution. Backup and DR is simple with VMWare Cloud on AWS.  Backups are deduped and stored on S3 in a steady-state. Runbook automation instantly turns these backups into live VMs during a DR event. You get instant RTO for thousands of VMs. 

10x More Cost Effective. Fail over to on-demand VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC targets using ControlShift DR plans and store forever incremental, native backups in S3. DR sites are ready when needed, in the cloud, whether for testing or actual failover. Pay for SDDC only when you need it while your data is ready to use on low-cost AWS S3. Efficiently fail back with minimal AWS egress charges by transferring only changed and globally deduplicated data. Select from a broad range of DR sites around the world.

Instant RTO Restart from Recent Snapshots or Deep Backups on S3. Easily restart instantly from recent snapshots or backups that are months or years old. With converged backup and DR, you have millions of point-in-time consistent recovery points to choose from, so you can quickly restore your entire data center. That can be critical for ransomware attacks, which often only become apparent months after the initial event. Achieve instant RTO with zero copy and no rehydration as ESX hosts directly mount a live NFS datastore hosted in AWS.

“Developing and delivering transportation solutions requires highly available and secure IT systems even during disasters. Our DR solution had to have low RTO and the high reliability and security of a leading government service that could be audited, tested, and verified regularly. Datrium DRaaS met all our demanding requirements while reducing our TCO by 80%.”

- Michael Beerer
Senior Section Manager Information Systems
Orange County Transportation Authority

Contact PTS to discuss DRaaS options 

to better protect yourself against Ransomware.