A Game-Changer in Network Security and Performance

In the healthcare industry, IT professionals shoulder a weighty responsibility that extends beyond technology. Their crucial role directly impacts the well-being and lives of patients. Operating in a high-stakes environment where the demand for reliable services and uninterrupted network connectivity is relentless, healthcare organizations face an increasingly perilous threat landscape. Cybercriminals actively target the sector, putting critical infrastructure and life-saving services at risk. To rise above these formidable challenges, healthcare professionals must prioritize network security and optimize performance. This unwavering commitment is essential to safeguarding the integrity of healthcare systems and ensuring the uninterrupted delivery of essential care for patients.

The Devastating Impacts of Security Breaches and Downtime in Healthcare

In the realm of healthcare, a security breach and subsequent downtime have far-reaching consequences that cannot be ignored. The integrity of operations hangs in the balance, with serious implications at every turn. A breach of patient data exposes them to the risks of identity theft and financial fraud, eroding the trust they place in healthcare providers. The fallout from such an incident can be detrimental, tarnishing the organization’s reputation and leading to patient attrition.

Yet, it is the potential life-threatening effects of service interruptions that truly shake the core of healthcare. Disruptions in power or water services can disrupt the smooth operation of crucial medical equipment, posing risks to life-saving procedures and emergency response efforts. Patient care is jeopardized, raising concerns not only for their well-being, but also for the legal liabilities, regulatory penalties, and complex recovery processes that healthcare organizations may face.

The financial impact cannot be overlooked either, as security breaches and downtime result in revenue losses, disputes over service reimbursements, and the potential for lawsuits from affected patients or third parties. The ripple effect is felt far and wide, amplifying the magnitude of the challenges faced.

Strengthening Healthcare Infrastructure with DxOdyssey: Ensuring Security and Performance

DH2i’s DxOdyssey (DxO) software-defined perimeter (SDP) technology revolutionizes data access in the healthcare industry by providing a direct connect solution with application-level Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) tunnels. With DxOdyssey, healthcare organizations can eliminate concerns about third-party access to sensitive data, because DxO possesses the unique capability to facilitate a direct connection without ever putting itself in the data path.

By deploying DxOdyssey, you grant your servers, storage, applications, IoT devices, and users direct and secure access to the specific data endpoints they require, without unnecessary exposure. This approach effectively mitigates the risk of lateral network attacks, safeguarding critical infrastructure and sensitive patient information within the healthcare sector.

In addition to enhanced security, DxOdyssey significantly improves data transfer rates by utilizing patented hybrid TCP/UDP data transport, increasing network throughput by up to 40%. With complete control over your data stream, you can efficiently and robustly manage access privileges and ensure the precise handling of sensitive information. This is a massive step up in security from traditional approaches like VPNs, where a single breach can lead to a network-wide compromise.

Enhancing Healthcare Security and Performance with DxOdyssey

Bottom-line, safeguarding the healthcare industry from the devastating impacts of security breaches and downtime requires a proactive approach that prioritizes network security and performance. DH2i’s DxOdyssey software emerges as a game-changer, offering direct encrypted network connections with no “middleman” in the data path, and application-level zero trust network access tunnels. By deploying DxOdyssey, healthcare professionals can mitigate the risks of lateral network attacks, protect critical infrastructure, and ensure the integrity of sensitive patient information. With the added benefit of improved data transfer rates, DxOdyssey empowers healthcare organizations to deliver reliable services while maintaining complete control over their data streams. Unlike traditional approaches such as virtual private networks, DxOdyssey is tailored for the competitive cloud-based world we live in today, providing a customized solution to meet the unique needs of the healthcare industry.

Embrace DxOdyssey today to strengthen your healthcare infrastructure, safeguard against cyber threats, and uphold the uninterrupted delivery of essential healthcare services that underpin the well-being of countless individuals.

Unlock the Path to SQL Server Container Modernization with Rancher and DH2i

SQL Server holds an organization’s most business-critical data assets. Therefore, maximum uptime and security are among the top priorities for the IT teams that manage them. However, industry pressures have these IT pros adding another imperative task to their to-do list: SQL Server modernization.

A full-on SQL Server modernization initiative is a terrifying prospect for most organizations, and understandably so. These critical relational database management systems can be absolute behemoths with a massive price tag associated with downtime. Thankfully, a new hero has emerged within the IT landscape to help make modernization more easily attainable than ever before.

Containers

Containers are lightweight, isolated software packages that encapsulate an application and its dependencies, allowing developers to package, deploy, and run applications consistently across different environments. They have evolved to be the perfect answer to SQL Server modernization challenges. This is a direct result of the innovation in the surrounding technology ecosystem. With the ability to now ensure near-zero downtime and Zero Trust security, containerization has become a viable deployment method for even the most critical SQL Server production workloads.

DH2i’s DxEnterprise (DxE) Smart High Availability Clustering software and Rancher by SUSE have led the charge in unlocking the SQL Server modernization benefits of containers. These two technologies enable users to migrate physical and virtual SQL Server databases to availability groups in Kubernetes in literal minutes.

What Makes the DH2i and SUSE Solution so Uniquely Powerful?

DxEnterprise and Rancher by SUSE unlock simplistic and efficient SQL Server modernization. DxE accomplishes this with unparalleled cluster flexibility and capability that brings the following proprietary advantages to the table:

  • Clustering for native instances and containers in the same Availability Group (AG)
  • Mixed Windows and Linux clusters and AGs
  • Sidecar container deployment for clusterware and application isolation

To make deployment and migration even easier, SUSE’s Rancher offers a streamlined web interface to deploy highly available SQL Server AGs in Kubernetes using a Helm chart. This makes a complex deployment achievable in only a few clicks with a single line of code. Once deployed, DxE can easily pull instances and containers into the same cluster and Availability Group, and easily facilitate migration using database mirroring.

Use-Case: Migrating a Database from a Windows Virtual Machine to Kubernetes

The value containers hold for modernizing SQL Server is understood universally across industries. DH2i has customers all over the world in financial services, manufacturing, legal, all levels of government, and many more. One characteristic that unifies many of them is that they started their journey to containers from a largely virtualized state.

Our engineering team set up a demonstration to show exactly how DxEnterprise and Rancher can be used to facilitate a virtual machine to container migration. In this example, we start with a standalone Windows instance running in a virtual machine on our engineer’s local workstation in Portland, OR—a totally separate network from the rest of the demo system. Ultimately, a SQL Server database is migrated from our standalone Windows VM to a new Kubernetes container environment. You can watch the brief demonstration right here: SQL Server Database on Windows VM to Kubernetes

Summary

The above demonstration shows a single use-case of migrating a SQL Server database in a Windows VM to Kubernetes. However, the same 3 steps shown in this demonstration can be used to easily facilitate the migration of any physical, virtual, or cloud deployment into a Kubernetes cluster using DxEnterprise and Rancher:

  1. Deploy your new Availability Group in Kubernetes using Rancher Helm chart.
  2. Add your starting node to your newly created Availability Group.
  3. Use SQL Server database mirroring to migrate database(s) from existing infrastructure to new containerized deployment.

Modernizing SQL Server with containers can help future-proof your organization and maintain competitive advantage by unlocking ongoing benefits such as:

  • Faster deployment and scaling of new applications.Maximum portability across any mix of infrastructure.
  • Peak resource utilization and performance.
  • Cost savings on infrastructure and management expense.

DH2i’s DxEnterprise and Rancher by SUSE truly unlock the most streamlined SQL Server modernization process ever. Leveraging on the ease of use of Rancher’s streamlined interface for deploying Helm charts, and DxEnterprise’s clustering flexibility, any SQL Server database—Windows or Linux—can be migrated to Kubernetes in mere minutes.

DxEnterprise can be used to cluster any combination of SQL Server containers and native instances on any infrastructure.

To learn more about how DH2i and Rancher by SUSE can help you modernize your SQL Server environment, get signed up for a free personalized demo and consultation.

Check the DH2i certification entry in SUSE Partner Certification & Solutions Catalog.

If you are interested in having your solution available to be deployed in the SUSE Rancher marketplace by packaging it in a Helm chart, see the SUSE process here.

Originally published on: https://www.suse.com/c/unlock-the-path-to-sql-server-container-modernization-with-rancher-and-dh2i/

VM to Container Migration: Go From Machines to Dreams in Minutes

Like many innovations in the world of information technology, virtualization came in like a wave. It disrupted the bare-metal status quo in a huge way—becoming massively popular among SQL Server pros for the purpose of reducing licensing costs, reducing physical machine counts, and delivering numerous other benefits.

However, IT innovation never stops, and new technology waves have continued cascading through the industry. The latest wave is containerization, and it is not slowing down anytime soon. Previously just DevOps tools, containers are now production-ready and enhancing SQL Server environments around the globe. So, why are so many organizations headed in this direction and considering a VM to container migration?

Containers Improve Upon Virtual Machine Benefits in 5 Key Ways

  1. Faster Deployment and Scaling – Containers require far less maintenance and overhead than virtual machines, so deploying is both faster and more efficient.
  2. Maximum Portability – Containers unlock a level of consistency across any mix of disparate infrastructure, allowing users to easily move existing applications between different on-premises and cloud environments.
  3. Peak Resource Utilization and Performance – Containers are inherently lighter weight than a virtual machine and can share the same host operating system which unlocks maximum utilization. In addition, their inherent isolation from one another means faster startup times and improved overall performance.
  4. Cost Savings on Infrastructure and Management – The consistency across infrastructure that containers enable means a unified management experience in which the same tools and team can be utilized across the environment. The consolidation benefits afforded by containers versus VMs to reduce server counts unlock additional savings on infrastructure.
  5. Seamless Integration with DevOps – Containers allow developers to package applications together with their dependencies—culminating in peak deployment efficiency and faster time to market.

DH2i’s Unparalleled Cluster Flexibility Makes Container Modernization Easy

DH2i has set out to make the process of modernizing SQL Server environments from virtual machines to containers easier than ever before. DxEnterprise (DxE) Smart High Availability Clustering software makes this possible by unlocking the unique ability to create an HA cluster containing any mix of physical servers, virtual machines, and containers. Additionally, these clusters are not limited by platform, and can contain any combination of Windows and/or Linux nodes. 

This DxEnterprise capability facilitates migrating virtual machines to containers with 3 easy steps:

  1. Create your new Kubernetes cluster (you can do this easily using a Helm chart)
  2. Connect your starting node and Kubernetes cluster within a unified  availability group
  3. Use SQL Server database mirroring to migrate databases from existing infrastructure to new containerized deployment(s).

Want to see what it actually looks like to migrate virtual machines to containers? Check out this demo to watch a standalone Windows VM instance be migrated to a highly available Kubernetes container deployment in minutes. 

Goodbye Virtual Machines: Containers Are the New Norm

The opinion of the IT industry is growing closer and closer to unanimous. Migrating existing workloads from virtual machines to containers provides significant benefits, especially for organizations that prioritize agility, scalability, and cost efficiency. 

There were certainly justifiable hesitations with container technology surrounding security initially. However, industry technology has caught up and seen a boom in continuous data protection vendors. Innovative technology like software-defined perimeter (SDP) security has made great strides in settling the zero trust network access vs VPN debate, and it has helped pave the way for safer container deployment. The application-level access controls enabled by SDP allow IT pros to safely connect and protect even the most complex hybrid and multi-cloud environments, and provide consistent security across native instance and containerized deployments.

While security was once an obstacle in a virtual machine migration plan, containers are now safer to deploy thanks to the rise of new security standards and services around a container’s components.

Apart from just providing container-ready security, the best SDP solutions bring some other big benefits to the table as well:

  • Up to a 40% increase in network throughput
  • Total network control with no “middleman” intrusions in the data path
  • Discreet invisibility with no open ports and full DTLS encryption

The other hurdle that containers have overcome to start rewriting the IT deployment paradigm and encouraging migration away from  VMs is high availability (HA). In the past, containerized deployments had to rely exclusively on pod-level HA—an undeniably inadequate level of downtime protection to support containers in production. New technology like our own DxEnterprise v22 has unlocked fully automatic database-level failover for AGs in Kubernetes for the first time, making a virtually zero downtime, containerized SQL Server environment totally feasible.

A Migration Plan Built for Security & Efficiency

The path to modernization is more straightforward and achievable than ever before thanks to containerization and supporting technologies like SDP and DxEnterprise. If your organization is looking for effective ways to maintain competitive advantage and modernize efficiently, there has never been a more efficient solution available to support your VM migration plan. Secure migration from virtual machines to containers is literally achievable in minutes.

Have some specific questions you want to ask about DH2i, or just want to learn more? Get signed up for a personalized demo today.

CRN’s 2023 Women of the Channel Honors Jamie Hawkins, DH2i

Expertise and Innovative Approach Leads to Substantial Revenue Growth and End Client Opportunities for DH2i’s Channel Partners

FORT COLLINS, CO – May 8, 2023 – DH2i®, the world’s leading provider of always-secure and always-on IT infrastructure solutions, today announced that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Jamie Hawkins, Director of Marketing to the Women of the Channel list for 2023. Every year, CRN recognizes women from vendor, distributor, and solution provider organizations whose expertise and vision are leaving a noticeable and commendable mark on the technology industry.

The CRN 2023 Women of the Channel honorees bring their creativity, strategic thinking and leadership to bear in a variety of roles and responsibilities, but all are turning their unique talents toward driving success for their partners and customers. With this recognition, CRN honors these women for their unwavering dedication and commitment to furthering channel excellence.

This prestigious award recognized Jamie Hawkins for her outstanding performance and excellence in channel marketing management. Hawkins has truly distinguished herself in this field, having demonstrated exceptional channel expertise, collaboration skills, and a data-driven approach to marketing. Hawkins has been instrumental in developing and executing successful campaigns that have driven growth and revenue for DH2i and its channel partners. Her ability to communicate complex strategies and ideas to a range of stakeholders, combined with her strategic vision and leadership skills, have set her apart as a true leader in the industry. 

“We are ecstatic to announce this year’s honorees and shine a light on these women for their significant achievements, knowing that what they’ve accomplished has paved the way for continued success within the IT channel,” said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. “The channel is stronger because of them, and we look forward to seeing what they do next.” 

“I am incredibly grateful and honored to be named among the esteemed women on CRN’s 2023 Women of the Channel list,” said Hawkins. “This recognition is a testament not only to my own commitment to the success of DH2i’s channel partners but also to the tireless efforts of our entire team. It is a powerful reminder of the importance of teamwork, and the impact we can make when we work together towards a common goal.” She continued, “Moreover, this award highlights the critical need to advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the IT industry, and I am more committed than ever to championing these values in everything we do.”

The 2023 Women of the Channel list will be featured in the June issue of CRN Magazine, with online coverage starting May 8 at www.CRN.com/WOTC.

Tweet this: @CRN 2023 Women of the Channel Honors Jamie Hawkins, @DH2i https://hubs.ly/Q01NJ8MV0 @TheChannelCo 

About DH2i

DH2i Company is the world’s leading provider of multi-platform smart high availability (HA) clustering and software-defined perimeter (SDP) software for Windows, Linux and containers. DH2i enables users to securely connect and failover enterprise applications – from anywhere, to anywhere. DH2i’s DxOdyssey® SDP software, the unVPN® networking solution for Zero Trust security, enables users to create highly available application-level Zero Trust Network Access tunnels across any mix of locations and platforms. DH2i’s DxEnterprise® smart high availability clustering software – now optimized for containers, delivers an all-in-one clustering solution for any application, any OS, any server configuration and any cloud. And DxEnterprise is the only SQL Server clustering solution to deliver fully automatic failover of SQL Server AG in Kubernetes. To learn more, please visit: www.dh2i.com, call: 800-380-5405 or +44 20 3318 9204, or email: [email protected]

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©DH2i Company 2023. DH2i, Smart Availability, DxEnterprise, DxOdyssey, DxConsole, DxHADR, DxTransfer, DxCollect and InstanceMobility are trademarks of DH2i Company. All other brand or product names contained in this press release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. 

DH2i Contact:

Nicole Gorman
Corporate Communications/PR
508-397-0131
[email protected] 

New Virtual Intelligence Briefing Research Study Reveals Surprising Results and Emerging Trends in Virtual Private Network Usage

New Report Discloses VPN Pain Points and Highlights Urgent Need For Viable Alternatives to Address Security, DR, Configuration Complexity, and Cost Concerns

FORT COLLINS, CO – April 18, 2023 – DH2i®, the world’s leading provider of always-secure and always-on IT infrastructure solutions, today announced the release of a comprehensive research study regarding virtual private network (VPN) adoption rates and trends, the results of which are detailed in a report titled, “Virtual Private Networks (VPN) Report, 2022.”

The research, sponsored by DH2i and conducted by Virtual Intelligence Briefing (ViB), compared pre-pandemic VPN use to that of 2022. As anticipated, survey respondents (85%) indicated that the primary purpose of VPNs was to facilitate the ability for individual users (i.e., employees, partners, etc.) to link with an organization’s internal private network. However, what was surprising was the 2022 research also revealed a minuscule 2.4% increase in this metric in comparison to 2020.

“During 2020, the world experienced an unprecedented surge in the number of people working from home, a trend that has continued for many to present day. It would have therefore been reasonable to expect the VPN usage number to have climbed to closer to 100% in the most recent research,” said Don Boxley, CEO and Co-Founder, DH2i. “The fact that it didn’t was unexpected and suggests that VPN remote user deployments may have reached a maximum saturation point.”

The survey suggested that a primary driver for this trend was the pain now associated with VPNs. Prior to 2020, VPN usage was relatively low and therefore manageable. After the dramatic increase in remote VPN users came a commensurate increase in VPN-related pain – particularly around security. Other grievances included disaster recovery (DR) limitations, slow connection speeds, bandwidth constraints, configuration and overall management complexity, and cost.

As a result, respondents indicated that they have implemented or are planning to implement more viable VPN alternatives. Many reported that they are increasingly looking towards a software-defined perimeter (SDP) as a solution for their remote user, multi-site/multi-cloud, and IoT connectivity requirements. According to the report, since 2020, 18% of the respondents have implemented SDP, and an additional 39% are considering evaluating and deploying an SDP in the coming six to twelve months.

“As technology continues to evolve, traditional perimeter security methods like VPNs are struggling to keep up with the increasingly heterogeneous computing landscape. The basic castle moat functionality of VPNs, while useful in the past, is no longer sufficient to protect organizations in today’s complex digital environment,” concluded Boxley. “SDP’s Zero Trust network access tunnels offer application-level segmentation and invisibility to untrusted access, eliminating the risk of lateral network attacks that are common with VPNs and reducing the need for complicated firewall policies. This makes SDP the safer choice for organizations looking to move operations across different clouds and secure IoT devices.”

Other interesting takeaways from the research include:

  • Cisco remains the leading VPN brand with 53% of respondents currently using it, but its market share has decreased by 15% while its competitors, particularly F5, have shown growth in their market share.
  • The 2022 report shows a 10% decrease in VPN usage for site-to-site connectivity, while there was almost a 10% increase in VPN usage to connect to cloud-based services from an on-site location, suggesting a pandemic-related trend of accelerated use of cloud-based infrastructure.
  • The use of microservices/containers increased by 42%, indicating that the future of application development and deployment will revolve around container technology, while the multi-cloud use case remained unchanged at 15%.

To read “Virtual Private Networks (VPN) Report, 2022” in its entirety, please visit: https://dh2i.com/vpn-report/.

About DH2i

DH2i Company is the world’s leading provider of multi-platform smart high availability (HA) clustering and software-defined perimeter (SDP) software for Windows, Linux and containers. DH2i enables users to securely connect and failover enterprise applications – from anywhere, to anywhere. DH2i’s DxOdyssey® SDP software, the unVPN® networking solution for Zero Trust security, enables users to create highly available application-level Zero Trust Network Access tunnels across any mix of locations and platforms. DH2i’s DxEnterprise® smart high availability clustering software – now optimized for containers, delivers an all-in-one clustering solution for any application, any OS, any server configuration and any cloud. And DxEnterprise is the only SQL Server clustering solution to deliver fully automatic failover of SQL Server AG in Kubernetes. To learn more, please visit: www.dh2i.com, call: 800-380-5405 or +44 20 3318 9204, or email: [email protected].

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©DH2i Company 2023. DH2i, Smart Availability, DxEnterprise, DxOdyssey, DxConsole, DxHADR, DxTransfer, DxCollect and InstanceMobility are trademarks of DH2i Company. All other brand or product names contained in this press release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

DH2i Contact:

Nicole Gorman
Corporate Communications/PR
508-397-0131
[email protected]

 

DH2i DxEnterprise Software Receives 2023 IoT Evolution Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award

New Container Sidecar Capability Enables Highly Resilient Zero-Downtime HA Clusters That Span Kubernetes (K8s) Pods, Accelerating Digital Transformation and IoT Solutions Development and Roll-Out

FORT COLLINS, CO – April 3, 2023 – DH2i®, the world’s leading provider of always-secure and always-on IT infrastructure solutions, today announced that its DxEnterprise v22 smart high availability clustering software, has received a 2023 IoT Evolution Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award from IoT Evolution World, a leading magazine and Website covering IoT technologies.

DH2i’s DxEnterprise (DxE) smart high availability (HA) clustering software provides an all-in-one solution for maximizing performance, minimizing downtime, and ensuring peak security for mission-critical applications on SQL Server instances and containers across Windows and Linux. With its container sidecar capability introduced in version 22 (v22), the DxE sidecar can run alongside an application container in a Kubernetes (K8s) pod, delivering deployment benefits such as isolation, quick deployment, and increased scalability. The DxE sidecar also provides smart HA clustering services for application containers, enabling highly resilient zero-downtime HA clusters that span K8s pods, accelerating an enterprise’s digital transformation, IoT solutions development, and roll-out. 

“Moreover, with DxEnterprise support for containers, you can harness the power of creating distributed Kubernetes AG clusters across different availability zones/regions, resulting in dynamic hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments that have the ability to pivot and quickly respond to market changes,” said Don Boxley, CEO and Co-Founder of DH2i. “This means that your organization can seize new revenue opportunities and stay ahead of the competition, as well as improve operational efficiency while delivering exceptional products and services to customers at a lower cost.”

Boxley concluded, “Winning a 2023 IoT Evolution Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award is a significant achievement of which we are understandably proud. Ias it is a clear indication that DxEnterprise v22 is recognized by industry experts and peers as a trusted top-tier solution for Industrial IoT applications.”

“The solutions selected for the Industrial IoT Product of Year Awards represent the diverse range of innovation driving the multi-billion dollar IoT market today. It is my honor to congratulate DH2i for their innovative work and superior contribution to the rapidly evolving IoT industry,” said Moe Nagle, Senior Editor for IoT Evolution World.

“It is my pleasure to recognize DxEnterprise, an innovative solution that earned DH2i the 2023 Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award,” said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. “I look forward to seeing more innovation from DH2i in the future.”

Tweet this: @DH2i DxEnterprise Software Receives 2023 IoT Evolution Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award https://dh2i.com/blog/ #Microsoft #SQLServer #HA #containers #IoT #DigitalTransformation 

About DH2i

DH2i Company is the world’s leading provider of multi-platform smart high availability (HA) clustering and software-defined perimeter (SDP) software for Windows, Linux and containers. DH2i enables users to securely connect and failover enterprise applications – from anywhere, to anywhere. DH2i’s DxOdyssey® SDP software, the unVPN® networking solution for Zero Trust security, enables users to create highly available application-level Zero Trust Network Access tunnels across any mix of locations and platforms. DH2i’s DxEnterprise® smart high availability clustering software – now optimized for containers, delivers an all-in-one clustering solution for any application, any OS, any server configuration and any cloud. And DxEnterprise is the only SQL Server clustering solution to deliver fully automatic failover of SQL Server AG in Kubernetes. To learn more, please visit: www.dh2i.com, call: 800-380-5405 or +44 20 3318 9204, or email: [email protected]

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©DH2i Company 2023. DH2i, Smart Availability, DxEnterprise, DxOdyssey, DxConsole, DxHADR, DxTransfer, DxCollect and InstanceMobility are trademarks of DH2i Company. All other brand or product names contained in this press release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. 

DH2i Contact:

Nicole Gorman
Corporate Communications/PR
508-397-0131
[email protected]