Expertise

No single role keeps Epic running

A stable Epic environment depends on close collaboration across many technical disciplines. These are the roles our community brings together, and how their responsibilities overlap.

The roles

Seven disciplines, one Epic environment

Epic Client Systems Administrator

ECSA

Owns: The Epic-specific client and web tier: workstation and device integration, printing, Epic web services such as Hyperspace Web and Interconnect (including those for the mobile apps and Care Everywhere), the Hyperdrive client package and its configuration, and Business Continuity Access. At Epic, this combines two roles, each with its own certification: Hyperspace Deployment Administrator (HDA) and Web and Service Servers Administrator (WSSA).
Core skills: Windows Server, IIS, printing, endpoint and peripheral integration, Epic client technologies.
Works closely with: Application Delivery, Identity & Workplace, Platform, Network & Security, the interfaces team

Citrix and client delivery engineers

Application Delivery

Owns: How Epic reaches the workstation: Citrix sites, images, session hosts, gateways and publishing Hyperdrive through Citrix.
Core skills: Citrix CVAD and PVS, image management, session performance, double-hop scenarios, capacity planning.
Works closely with: ECSA, Platform, Identity & Workplace

Operational Database Administrator

ODBA

Owns: The operational database: IRIS instances, journaling and mirroring to the Report mirror and the Disaster Recovery mirror.
Core skills: InterSystems IRIS, Linux or AIX, storage performance, high availability, read-only, DR and failover tests.
Works closely with: Platform, Cogito, Network & Security

Clarity and Caboodle administrators

Cogito / Analytics Infrastructure

Owns: The reporting databases Clarity and Caboodle and the extracts that fill them every day.
Core skills: Microsoft SQL Server administration (Oracle being phased out), ETL monitoring, capacity planning, reporting servers.
Works closely with: ODBA, Platform, reporting teams

Virtualization, storage and backup engineers

Platform & Infrastructure

Owns: Hypervisors, storage, backup and data center or cloud resources underneath all Epic systems.
Core skills: Virtualization, storage architecture, backup and recovery, lifecycle management, monitoring.
Works closely with: ODBA, Cogito, ECSA, Application Delivery, Network & Security

Network, firewall and security engineers

Network & Security

Owns: Connectivity, segmentation, firewalls, load balancers, certificates and security operations.
Core skills: Data center and campus networks, firewalls, load balancing, TLS, security hardening.
Works closely with: All other roles

Directory, SSO and workplace engineers

Identity & Workplace

Owns: User identities, single sign-on, policies, the clinical workplace devices and mobile device management.
Core skills: Active Directory, group policy, SSO and MFA, endpoint and mobile device management.
Works closely with: ECSA, Application Delivery

Who leads where

Responsibilities across the seven layers

A typical split of responsibilities. Every organization draws the lines differently, but the overlaps are always there, and most serious incidents happen in them. Interfaces are usually a team of their own: Bridges analysts and the integration engine team work alongside ECSA in the web and integration layer.

Scroll sideways to see all roles.

Layer	ECSA	Application Delivery	ODBA	Cogito / Analytics Infrastructure	Platform & Infrastructure	Network & Security	Identity & Workplace
01Endpoint & peripherals
02Identity & access
03Application delivery
04Web & integration services
05Operational database
06Analytics infrastructure
07Foundation