Christian Healthcare Ministries Takes Control of Infrastructure and Scales with Confidence
How Anthony Fedyszyn Professionalized Infrastructure at Christian Healthcare Ministries
When Anthony Fedyszyn joined Christian Healthcare Ministries in late 2022, the organization had been operating for more than 40 years. The mission was established. The infrastructure was still evolving.
At the time, the environment relied on a small HPE SAN and an external managed service provider. Redundancy was limited and scalability wasn’t clearly defined. For an organization supporting nearly half a million members worldwide, that gap mattered.
Within four months, Anthony stepped into leadership of infrastructure and made a decisive move.
“We got rid of the managed service provider,” he says.
Ownership shifted in-house, and that set the tone for everything that followed.
Building With Intention, Not Inheritance
Anthony didn’t come in experimenting. He came in with experience.
In previous roles, he built custom Ubuntu SANs using ZFS, positioning them directly against NetApp and Dell EqualLogic systems. He was already comfortable designing storage architectures that delivered enterprise performance without inheriting enterprise pricing structures.
“We used them more as enterprise storage systems to compete with the NetApps and the Dell Equalogics,” he explains.
With an initial budget of roughly $200,000, he built three TrueNAS systems to serve as production storage, backup repository, and replication targets. The architecture was deliberate from day one. Production and backup were separated. Replication was internal. The goal wasn’t just to deploy hardware, but to establish control.
Soon after, the organization made another strategic decision. External-facing systems, including the website and member portal, were brought back in-house.
“I don’t feel comfortable supporting half a million members worldwide on refurbished equipment,” Anthony recalls telling leadership.
That conversation led to the first all-NVMe F60 deployment. From there, the environment expanded to include additional F60 systems, along with an M40 and an R50, forming a standardized enterprise backbone.
Scaling Without Replatforming
Growth at Christian Healthcare Ministries has been steady and measurable.
The IT team expanded from roughly 10 people to more than 60 in three years. Virtual machines grew from fewer than a dozen to more than 130 running in production. Physical hosts increased from five to twelve across multiple facilities.
“It definitely fits what we need, which is our VM backbone,” Anthony says.
Between systems, 100Gb connectivity provides replication headroom. Production systems replicate internally, and backup repositories remain isolated by design.
When asked about performance gains, Anthony doesn’t lean into dramatic claims.
“I wouldn’t say we were underperforming and then saw 30 percent IO spikes,” he says. “It’s just what I was used to. It’s what I wanted.”
For him, infrastructure shouldn’t surprise anyone. It should perform predictably, consistently, and without drawing attention to itself.
Predictable Economics, Trusted Partnerships
Anthony’s approach to storage economics is pragmatic.
In previous roles, he routinely replaced quarter-million-dollar enterprise arrays with more cost-efficient systems that delivered comparable performance. That mindset hasn’t changed.
Today, he budgets for roughly two new systems per year as part of a structured refresh plan. There are no emergency overhauls and no reactive purchases driven by vendor timelines.
When resellers propose alternatives, his answer is direct.
“I’m dead set withTrueNAS,” he says.
Leadership doesn’t question the vendor strategy.
“They have full confidence and trust in myself. They don’t ask me what vendors I use.”
Support follows the same structured model. Production systems operate under 24/7 Gold support, with updates coordinated alongside the TrueNAS team.
“We allow you guys to perform the updates to the OS for us,” he notes.
The relationship isn’t transactional. It’s operational.
Infrastructure That Doesn’t Need Explaining
None of the organization’s servers use direct-attached storage. Everything runs through centralized TrueNAS systems across facilities. Replication is built in. Encryption at rest is standard. Cloud snapshot replication is already part of the forward roadmap.
Anthony summarizes the journey simply.
“It’s been fantastic.”
At Christian Healthcare Ministries, infrastructure is no longer something inherited and maintained externally. It’s owned, standardized, and intentionally designed.
That shift isn’t flashy.
It’s maturity.
