ITRS Opsview

Vip mobile, a Serbian mobile network operator, was in need of a monitoring solution that could effectively oversee all layers of their IT infrastructure. This included network equipment, SAN storage, servers, backup systems, databases, operating systems, and web services. The company had approximately 550 devices split over two data centers in Serbia. Their existing tool did not provide appropriate oversight of their IT estate, or meet their goals of monitoring all their applications and business services. The initial goal of Vip mobile’s monitoring project was to implement a solution to completely monitor their entire internal IT infrastructure.

Plusnet, a leading Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the UK, was facing challenges with their existing monitoring system based on Nagios® Core. The system, which was developed in-house, was not being actively maintained due to the complexity involved in making configuration changes. Additionally, there was a need to extend monitoring to cover their entire network. The existing system was not efficient and did not provide comprehensive coverage of Plusnet’s data centers.

Dimension Data Luxembourg, an IT services provider, was faced with the challenge of ensuring all services were running well 24/7 and that they were meeting customers’ service level agreements. As they moved to an IT-as-a-Service model, customers also expected increased transparency. The company needed a tool that offered streamlined, real-time monitoring. The solution also needed to provide a snapshot of all areas of the IT environment being used by the customer – not looking just at how each component, such as a server or switch, performs but also at how overall service is being delivered.

Aurubis AG, the leading integrated copper group and the world’s largest copper recycler, needed a central, company-wide monitoring system for all subsidiaries that allowed for a standardized analysis of reported data and presentation of KPIs. All IT operations at Aurubis are based on various key performance indicators. These KPIs allow them not only to evaluate and control IT’s performance, but also to continually adjust IT operations to the needs of the company. Moreover, they form the basis for the evaluation and documentation of their suppliers’ target completion as well as their IT staff’s performance-related pay for internal services.

Reach PLC, one of the UK's largest newspaper publishers, had several installations monitoring their network. However, they wanted to unify these into a single coherent system. They needed functionalities such as a single master view of systems with multiple collectors located across datacenters, easier management of monitoring system configuration, and long term storage of historical trend data. The challenge was to find a solution that could deliver these functionalities while improving the efficiency of the operations team and enhancing the service level of their operations.

Atomic Data, a Managed Service Provider, was facing issues related to scalability, customization, and support. As the company grew, they had to re-configure an on-premise physical appliance or establish a VPN from a third-party to their remote environments. This was continuously adding elements of compliance risk and complexity to setting up new sites and changing established configurations. User interfaces were also not designed for easy hierarchical or tag-based management, turning main screens into dizzying messes during multi-customer events. Managing the diversity in Atomic Data’s monitored locations and customizations needed for complete monitoring was also challenging. All existing systems provided host templates that were difficult to change globally and made tracking and reporting on custom thresholds a chore. Writing custom checks couldn’t even be considered, since there was no interface and new checks would take weeks for their previous monitoring company to integrate into their release cycle.

Evenbase, the team behind jobsite.co.uk, was facing challenges with their IT infrastructure. With candidates accessing vital information via Evenbase’s online tools, the IT team was under constant pressure to ensure their entire infrastructure was functioning correctly. They had been dealing with downtime and unnecessary alerts to their on-call team, so Evenbase required a product which could also collaborate with their existing Orion NPM system. They needed a monitoring tool that could provide them with the scope to monitor their entire IT estate while providing an in-depth, single view capability.

Stadtwerke Speyer GmbH is a utility provider based in the town of Speyer, Germany. With over 30,000 customers and 250 staff, the company has always maintained a large, complex IT infrastructure to support the delivery of gas, electricity, and water. Increasing market liberalization of the energy sector in Germany has encouraged many utility companies to diversify their product portfolio to remain competitive. Following this trend, Stadtwerke Speyer is using the extra capacity in its IT infrastructure to offer managed server and application hosting services to local SMBs. The company’s IT infrastructure is spread across two data centers, one production and one backup. The company uses a mixture of Windows and Linux operating systems running a variety of application stacks, storage devices, switches, and environmental systems. The company’s core challenge is maintaining the high levels of complex electronic data exchange with other utility providers.

UKCloud, a specialist multi-cloud provider, was facing challenges with its traditional IT monitoring platform. The platform was no longer providing the value or service required and was at risk of missing critical incidents and outages. The CloudOps team was forced to spend more and more time writing scripts to support its evolving technology choices and rapidly scaling platform, essentially building a bespoke monitoring service. They needed a technology partner who could provide effective IT infrastructure monitoring and automated alerting, covering a very diverse range of digital environments, so that UKCloud could identify and resolve issues before any downtime or customer impacting issues occurred. They also required a multi-tenanted, on-premises solution that could be run in their secure datacentres, backed by local, security cleared personnel.

Active Network, a global leader in the activity and participant management industry, was faced with the daunting task of managing one of the largest events networks in the country. This was coupled with a global infrastructure of six data centers, multiple PCI zones, and nearly 3000 hosts to manage. The company needed an extremely extendable, scalable, and easy-to-use solution for their infrastructure platform. Previously, Active Network employed a myriad of different monitoring tools to meet their needs. This caused several headaches in the IT department. Consolidating their systems into one place was a major area of concern during both implementation and the continued use of the product. The prior monitoring solution for Active Network required a considerable amount of time, energy, and needed large servers to run effectively. Switching out systems while also maintaining the proper monitoring and uptime would depend heavily on the implementation process and instant feedback from users of the product.