Client: The Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, Gliwice Branch
Industry: Healthcare / Clinical Research
Focus: Network Performance Monitoring & Security
Overview
The National Research Institute of Oncology in Gliwice is one of Poland’s most advanced medical and research centers. With over 120 researchers, including 30+ professors and habilitated PhDs, the Institute treats thousands of patients and drives pioneering research in oncology, radiotherapy, nuclear medicine, and medical physics.
Supporting this multidisciplinary effort is an extensive and complex IT infrastructure — a LAN architecture responsible for the operation of critical applications, as well as data transmission from high-throughput diagnostic equipment like PET, MRI, and CT scanners. The volume of multimedia and image data is constantly growing, driving the need for both scalable performance monitoring and robust security.
The Challenge: Limited Insight, Expensive Tools, and Growing Complexity
Before deploying Sycope, the Institute relied on traditional packet and log analyzers, which were:
- Expensive to maintain
- Cumbersome to use
- Inefficient in performance and data retention
“We were using systems that functioned well but were much more expensive and had limited capabilities.”says Artur Wójcik, the IT specialist overseeing the implementation. “Most of all, we lacked a tool that offeredquick access to long-term data without requiring additional infrastructure.”
Key challenges included:
- Detecting the sources of network congestion
- Understanding performance bottlenecks affecting patient care systems
- Identifying unauthorized communications and brute-force attacks
- Simplifying analysis of massive, complex datasets
- Minimizing staff workload for implementation and ongoing use
Solution: Sycope visibility and performance module
The Institute selected Sycope as a high-performance, cost-effective platform capable of monitoring the entire network through real-time flow analysis — without needing packet capture or invasive agents.
What made the difference?
- 300% faster network troubleshooting, enabled by intuitive dashboards and scenario-based workflows in comperison of the previously used system
- Smooth UX, allowing IT staff to move from global network views to specific root causes in seconds
- Out-of-the-box correlation rules aligned with the MITRE ATT&CK framework
- Dynamic baseline and alerting, making anomaly detection smarter and less noisy
- Implementation in under 1 day, with minimal need for training or configuration
“A system ready to work in one day — that’s not standard fare. We were pleasantly surprised at the ease of installation and integration with our existing tools.” adds Wójcik.
Results: From Data Overload to Actionable Insight
After deployment, Sycope transformed the way the Gliwice Institute handled its network operations:
Key Achievements:
- 300% improvement in time-to-troubleshoot — issues that previously took hours were resolved in minutes
- Full visibility into traffic patterns for both application services and diagnostic imaging systems
- Scenario-based dashboards gave staff a clear path from symptoms to cause, significantly reducing manual analysis
- Improved detection of malware, brute force attempts, and policy violations
- No need for additional hardware, thanks to efficient data handling and long-term storage support
Despite the inherent complexity of the Institute’s data environment, Sycope offered clarity without compromise — turning multilayered traffic and security data into simple, actionable visuals.
Empowering a High-Stakes Environment
With Sycope, the Institute now operates with:
- Confidence in its data protection — critical for medical research and patient privacy
- Agility in scaling IT systems alongside growing imaging equipment and clinical applications
- Clarity in action — from monitoring to forensics and response
For an institution handling life-critical data and intensive research workloads, Sycope provides the speed, simplicity, and strategic insight needed to stay ahead of both performance and security challenges.
In high-performance environments like oncology research and diagnostics, IT downtime or data blind spots are not an option. By adopting Sycope, the National Research Institute of Oncology in Gliwice has future-proofed its infrastructure with a solution that simplifies complexity, accelerates decision-making, and enhances both operational resilience and cybersecurity posture.
