Case Studies 

Client Background

The American College of Radiology (ACR) is a nonprofit medical society focused on advancing radiology care and supporting healthcare professionals. Its members include diagnostic radiologists, radiation oncologists, interventional radiologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and medical physicists. The organization is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with additional offices in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

The Challenge

ACR manages large volumes of digital radiology images and medical data. Storage requirements were rapidly increasing, with projected growth from 100 TB to 250 TB within three years. This data needed to be securely stored, protected from system failures, and maintained in compliance with HIPAA regulations.

Traditional storage systems that relied on replication and backups were becoming inefficient and expensive. According to ACR’s IT leadership, storing and protecting 100 TB of data could require nearly five times the storage capacity when backups and replication were included. The organization needed a scalable, secure, and cost-effective solution to manage its growing data demands.

The Solution

After evaluating several options, ACR adopted Datatility’s Hydra Cloud, powered by an object-based storage platform, combined with Panzura’s Global File System (GFS). This solution provided a secure and scalable private cloud storage environment without requiring changes to existing applications.

Datatility implemented a cloud gateway architecture, enabling ACR to connect to the object storage cloud efficiently while maintaining strong performance and security.

Hydra Cloud stores data across three geographically distributed data centers in Chicago, Northern Virginia, and Atlanta, ensuring reliability and availability.

Meeting HIPAA Compliance

To meet strict HIPAA security requirements, the solution provides:

• Encryption at rest and in transit

• Secure communication between Panzura controllers and the Hydra Cloud

• Data protection across multiple locations

• Fully encrypted cloud infrastructure

ACR deployed one physical Panzura device at its colocation data center and three additional virtual instances to support disaster recovery and high-trust environments.

The Results

The integrated Datatility Hydra Cloud and Panzura solution delivered significant benefits:

• 70% reduction in storage infrastructure costs

• Scalable cloud storage that grows with data needs

• Faster data access and improved application performance

• Snapshot-based recovery for quick file restoration

• Secure, compliant storage for sensitive medical data

The platform also simplified backup processes, as data and snapshots are automatically archived in the Hydra Cloud.

ACR described the overall performance of the solution as “phenomenal,” enabling users to access data quickly while maintaining enterprise-level security and reliability.

Key Challenges

• Multi-location sharing of imaging files across East Coast offices

• Secure storage and long-term retention of medical imaging data

• Managing rapid data growth while maintaining HIPAA compliance

Solution Overview

With Datatility Hydra Cloud and Panzura, ACR was able to:

• Consolidate legacy storage, backup, and replication into the cloud

• Provide fast and secure data access across multiple locations

• Meet HIPAA compliance with FIPS 140-2 certified security

• Reduce overall costs while enabling sustainable storage growth