Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust strengthens Zero Trust security and digital resilience with iboss
See how Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust replaced its on-premises VPN with the iboss Zero Trust SASE Platform, migrating up to 2,500 devices remotely with no downtime while building a digital-first foundation for its new Leighton Hospital.
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Case Study
Download the complete case study to learn how Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust strengthened Zero Trust security and digital resilience with the iboss Zero Trust SASE Platform.
Key Statistics
Overview
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (MCHFT) provides healthcare services to a large population across Cheshire and surrounding areas. The Trust manages a number of healthcare facilities including Leighton Hospital, Victoria Infirmary, and Elmhurst Intermediate Care Centre. It is also responsible for the provision of a range of community services for people across South Cheshire and Vale Royal, working in partnership with local GPs, as well as Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
The Trust is progressing a major transformation programme known as Healthier Futures, which includes plans to create a new Leighton Hospital, and health and care neighbourhood as part of the Government's New Hospital Programme (NHP). Following the programme's 2025 reset, schemes are now delivered in phased waves. Scheduled to open in the early 2030s, Leighton Hospital will also follow the Government's national Hospital 2.0 approach, a standardised, industrialised method for designing and building new hospitals under the NHP, embedding digital, data and technology at the heart of care delivery from day one.
To support this long-term vision, MCHFT has begun digital transformation well in advance of construction. This includes the development of around 50 intelligent capabilities, which will be implemented across all new hospitals in the NHP. These will span across areas such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, ensuring digital infrastructure is embedded into future clinical and operational models from the outset.
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's Challenge
As part of its plans for Leighton Hospital to be digital-first, and with growing pressure around security, resilience and remote working, the Trust reviewed its VPN-based remote access solution and explored Zero Trust and SASE alternatives.
MCHFT had device-level MFA in place and wanted to build on it with a true Zero Trust model, one where access decisions are driven by strong user identity verification and contextual controls working together. iboss provides this, combining user and device identity to ensure staff can only access the systems and data relevant to their role.
Reliable connectivity for staff working outside Trust sites was equally important. Community nurses, midwives and therapists routinely work from patients' homes, schools and other locations, and require dependable access to clinical systems wherever they are. iboss routes traffic through a distributed node network so it travels through the nearest available node rather than back to a central hub, delivering improved resilience, performance and connectivity for staff across the community and those working from home.
Governance and compliance were a priority too. The Trust wanted deeper insight into how internal and internet systems were being accessed remotely, to meet Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) and Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) requirements. iboss delivers exactly this, with detailed reporting that makes remote access across the estate visible and auditable.
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's iboss Solution
As part of its Healthier Futures programme, the Trust set out to modernise and consolidate its digital and cybersecurity estate. After evaluating seven vendors, it selected iboss on the strength of its flexibility, ease of use, and the quality of support on offer. With up to 1,000 users accessing the network remotely at any given time, the Trust needed a solution that could scale reliably without adding operational complexity. iboss delivers that. It supports the Trust's mixed-location, multi-device environment and remains straightforward for IT staff to operate day to day.
MCHFT deployed the iboss Zero Trust SASE Platform, combining Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) with SASE capabilities, to deliver consistent security controls across every user and device on the Trust's estate. The platform provides geographic region blocking, asset visibility, granular reporting, and comprehensive data protection. Integrating directly with the Trust's identity provider, iboss enables staff to authenticate without additional friction. Access decisions are based on both user identity and device identity, allowing the Trust to implement micro-segmentation. This ensures that users can only access the applications and data relevant to their role.
Beyond improving access, iboss has also delivered significant improvements in visibility and compliance. The Trust now benefits from highly granular reporting and logging across its entire network, and comprehensive reporting on both sanctioned and shadow AI usage through the iboss GenAI Protection Module. Unusual activity can be identified and acted on promptly.
Integrating iboss was seamless. We were able to migrate approximately 2,000-2,500 devices from the old VPN to iboss entirely remotely, while staff continued to work remotely. The transition required no site visits, no laptop hand-ins and resulted in minimal user impact and no downtime.
Key Results for Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Migrated approximately 2,000-2,500 devices from the legacy VPN to iboss entirely remotely, with no downtime and minimal user impact
- Established a true Zero Trust model using both user and device identity for role-appropriate access
- Improved resilience and performance for community-based staff through a distributed node network
- Gained granular reporting and logging across the entire network to support DSPT and CAF compliance
- Added visibility into sanctioned and shadow AI usage via the iboss GenAI Protection Module
- Built a scalable security foundation aligned with the Trust's Healthier Futures and new hospital programme
Highlights
- Deployed the iboss Zero Trust SASE platform to deliver high-performance, secure access from any location
- Strengthened resilience through a decentralised architecture that supports community-based working across the Trust's sites
- Moved to distributed internet egress, ensuring no single site outage can disrupt Trust-wide connectivity
- Implemented identity-based access controls using both user and device identity, ensuring role-appropriate access to clinical and corporate systems
- Reduced administrative overhead for MCHFT's IT team
- Improved reporting, logging and asset visibility to support DSPT and CAF compliance
- Established a scalable, resilient security foundation aligned with the Trust's wider Healthier Futures and new hospital programme
We also valued iboss's Cloud Compliance and Certifications, including SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, as well as the platform's ability to scale alongside our future digital hospital plans. The iboss support team are fantastic, friendly, knowledgeable and easy to work with. The onboarding specialist took the time to understand our complex NHS network environment and guided us through a smooth, well-planned deployment.