In developing regions, health care is hard to come by. And even the most treatable diseases can be life threatening.

That’s a situation that Mercy Ships, with its floating, high-tech hospitals, is helping to change.

“We're a nonprofit organization, and we have two hospital vessels that serve the continent of Africa,” said Grady Nichols, Mercy Ships’ senior director of IT operations. “They provide free surgeries to patients that frankly wouldn't have the ability to access them. And we do this through technology means and all sorts of adventures just to get that to the people who need it.”

Mercy Ships enables its volunteer medical professionals to treat anything from broken bones and cancer to cleft palates and dental issues (to name but a few). And the ships could almost be called floating cities, with lodging, schools, and all else required for staff and families on months-long deployments.

All of which demand the best in digital technology, connectivity, and partners.

That’s why Cisco and its longtime partner, the global technical services provider Presidio, came on board.  

At Cisco Partner Summit last month, Carrie Palin, Cisco chief marketing officer, welcomed Nichols and Robert Kim, chief technology officer for Presidio, to share their thoughts on how technology, purpose, and partnerships can drive impactful, positive change.

Nichols, an ex-U.S. Marine with a technology background who felt unchallenged in retirement, resonated with Mercy Ships’ mission and purpose. And working for them aligned perfectly with his desire to be of service to a great cause that could use his technology expertise.

But given the challenges of the mission, it had to be great technology backed by deep expertise.

“It was key for us to have a technical solution to meet our critical needs,” said Nichols. “And we partner with Presidio to help us not only design and architect our data centers, but to be able to bring in advanced solutions to provide to our doctors. And pretty much everything we do crosses through the Cisco technology backbone.”

Kim spoke of the pressures behind meeting the needs of medical professionals for reliable, secure connectivity.

“We needed to provide that level of resiliency, while making sure that the technology doesn't get in the way of the clinicians,” he said. “We look to accelerate the speed of their work, so that they can spend more time providing patient care.”

Cisco's robust IT infrastructure, supported by Presidio, is vital to Mercy Ships' life-changing surgeries, which demand global access to medical data and remote specialists. Cisco technologies include switches, routers, and VoIP, while Webex teleconferencing enables secure, solid connections with medical experts who could be thousands of miles away. In such challenging environments, Cisco’s reliability, scalability, security, and ease of maintenance are essential.

A core mission supported by the best in technology

Kim stressed that the core mission — empowering doctors to save and improve lives — was the real driver.

“The focus is never on the technology; It's about the mission,” he said. “So, we were fortunate enough that with the investments that we made, not only in infrastructure but also understanding data and applications and the whole healthcare provider space itself, allowed us to understand what Mercy Ships wanted — and to have empathy for the final mission.”

A third ship is currently being built. And Kim looks to new opportunities to streamline and empower the operation. For example, Presidio’s HealthSense AI pilot brings ambient digital scribe capabilities for clinicians. And with Cisco’s support, they are tackling their challenges of on-premise AI deployment, including privacy, efficiency, and model accuracy.

“Especially in this new AI agentic world,” Kim said, “the iterations move so fast, and we're no longer just partners and vendors supporting our clients, building things for them. We build things with them. And I think that's a big mind shift. But above all, we want to keep things simple. The technology has to be easy to use.”

Nichols stressed the deep appreciation that the Mercy Ships organization feels towards Cisco and Presidio. And he added that the support doesn’t end once the technology is deployed.

“I couldn't shout out enough about Cisco and Presidio,” he said. “Every time we’ve had an issue there was an 800-number lifeline available day or night. And they’re always on top of it and willing to meet and assist us. It's been a tremendous blessing to have that — and their belief and value in us. We appreciate everything.”