Problems
- Sluggish performance from aging hyper-converged infrastructure
- Rapid growth in high-resolution imaging data
- Major upcoming investment and needed confidence in the decision
Solutions
- Strategic review of imaging and AI workload requirements
- Vendor-agnostic assessment of storage and architecture options
- Tiered, scalable storage strategy built on NetApp
Results
- 10x faster AI-powered diagnostic processing
- $5–10 million in avoided infrastructure spend
- Faster clinician access to imaging and patient data
Background
Lumus Imaging is one of Australia’s largest diagnostic imaging providers, supporting clinicians and patients across a national network of imaging centres. The organisation delivers millions of examinations each year, including X-rays, CT scans and MRIs, where timely access to imaging data plays a direct role in diagnosis and treatment decisions.
At this scale, IT infrastructure is closely tied to clinical performance. Imaging systems must support large volumes of high-resolution data, enable rapid access for clinicians, and provide a stable platform for emerging AI-driven diagnostic tools.
To address these demands, Lumus Imaging engaged VECTEC, a strategic technology advisor with deep experience in healthcare infrastructure.
Problem
As imaging volumes increased, Lumus Imaging saw its existing infrastructure begin to slow clinical workflows and limit future plans. A standard infrastructure refresh would not address the underlying issues affecting performance, cost and scalability.
Key challenges included:
- Infrastructure performance lagged behind clinical demand: The existing hyper-converged environment could not consistently process high-resolution imaging and AI workloads at the required speed.
- Imaging data growth outpaced capacity planning: Rising data volumes placed sustained pressure on storage performance and availability.
- Clinicians faced delays accessing imaging data: Slower retrieval times affected diagnostic turnaround and clinical decision-making.
- Refresh costs risked unnecessary spend: A traditional upgrade path would have required overprovisioning to meet peak demand.
- The platform limited future expansion: The environment lacked the flexibility needed to support broader AI adoption and long-term service growth.
Rather than replacing technology like-for-like, Lumus chose to reassess how well its infrastructure supported diagnostic speed, data access, and emerging AI workloads.
“We were hamstrung before we started this digital transformation. Our old hyper-converged infrastructure was failing.”
– Alex Larson, CIO Lumus Imaging
Solution
Lumus Imaging engaged VECTEC to review its infrastructure strategy before committing to a major refresh. Leadership wanted to ensure any investment would support clinical performance, control costs, and remain viable as imaging volumes and AI workloads increased.
VECTEC led an Executive Pit-Check, taking a vendor-agnostic approach to assess how well the existing environment supported current and future needs.
VECTEC’s role focused on:
- Clinical workflow alignment: Evaluating how infrastructure performance affected diagnostic turnaround times and access to imaging data.
- Support for AI workloads: Assessing the ability of the platform to process high-resolution imaging and AI-driven analysis at speed.
- Planning for sustained data growth: Modelling storage and performance requirements as imaging volumes continued to rise.
- Cost control and efficiency: Identifying opportunities to avoid overprovisioning and reduce unnecessary infrastructure spend.
This assessment shifted the focus from a short-term refresh to a strategy-led roadmap aligned to Lumus Imaging’s clinical and operational priorities.
NetApp solution
Based on the findings, VECTEC defined a revised infrastructure approach built around a tiered, scalable storage model designed for healthcare imaging workloads.
NetApp was selected as the recommended storage platform following this analysis. The decision reflected NetApp’s ability to meet performance and reliability requirements while supporting cost efficiency at scale.
The NetApp-based solution enabled Lumus Imaging to:
- Deliver consistent performance: Support high-resolution imaging and AI processing without performance bottlenecks.
- Scale with demand: Expand storage capacity in line with data growth without excessive upfront investment.
- Maintain enterprise-grade reliability: Provide a stable storage foundation suited to clinical environments.
- Improve cost efficiency: Match storage performance to workload needs through a tiered design.
The resulting solution provided Lumus Imaging with a clear, defensible infrastructure strategy that supported clinical needs.
“With the right technology in place, we’ve sped up AI-powered diagnostics by a factor of 10 and improved care delivery across our entire network. With this technology, doctors and clinicians can diagnose a much wider range of conditions with greater accuracy and speed.”
– Alex Larson, CIO Lumus Imaging
Result
The revised infrastructure strategy delivered measurable improvements across clinical performance and cost control. These outcomes validated the decision to step back from a traditional refresh and adopt a strategy-led approach.
Key outcomes included:
- 10x faster AI-powered diagnostics: Imaging data now processes significantly faster, improving diagnostic turnaround and clinical decision-making.
- Up to $10 million in infrastructure cost savings: The tiered NetApp storage model reduced overprovisioning and avoided unnecessary capital expenditure.
- Faster access to patient imaging data: Clinicians can retrieve high-resolution imaging and patient information without delays.
- Infrastructure built to scale: The platform supports ongoing data growth, expanded AI use and national service delivery.
“It was absolutely incredible. By using NetApp storage, we actually saved between $5 and $10 million dollars simply by not having to pay for unnecessary infrastructure.”
– Alex Larson, CIO Lumus Imaging
Future
Infrastructure decisions shape how quickly clinicians can work, and how reliably data can move across the organisation. Lumus Imaging’s experience shows the risk of treating infrastructure refreshes as routine projects.
By stepping back from a like-for-like upgrade, Lumus avoided locking clinical systems into an architecture that would have limited performance and driven unnecessary cost. Independent assessment made it possible to select a platform based on their real clinical workloads.
“All of a sudden, quality of life is going up because our treatment of patients is improving. We see this as a huge differentiator for the organisation.”
– Alex Larson, CIO Lumus Imaging
Are your infrastructure decisions supporting how care is actually delivered?
At VECTEC, we help healthcare organisations step back from routine technology decisions and focus on what they are trying to achieve clinically and operationally. If you are questioning whether your current approach will deliver the results you need, we can help you work through the options.