Headquartered in Valley Forge, Pa., AmerisourceBergen is one of the world’s largest distributors of pharmaceuticals to retail pharmacies, specialty physician group purchasing organizations (GPOs) and hospitals. To support such a vital supply chain, the company manages an extensive IT infrastructure that continues to expand into environments outside the traditional office building and data center.
Check-Up: Supply Chain Requires New IT Infrastructure
AmerisourceBergen operates 26 United States pharmaceutical distribution centers, four U.S. specialty distribution centers and two Canadian distribution centers. With such a vast logistics system, the IT staff frequently faced several challenges in the distribution centers, or warehouses. The most significant being the environment in which the IT equipment—servers, storage devices and network switches—was being housed in.
Because of the nature of work conducted in the distribution centers, there was dust, dirt and debris getting into the cabinets, which could potentially compromise the equipment. The company needed a tough, durable solution to protect its valuable IT equipment, and the network it supports.