U.S. University Adds Smart Visibility Solutions for Data Center Transformation
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- nGeniusONE® Service Assurance platform
- InfiniStreamNG™ hardware appliances
- vSTREAM™ virtual appliances
Tech Stack
- VMware ESX hypervisor infrastructure
- Cisco® Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) software-defined networking (SDN)
- Cloud-based Microsoft Office 365 services
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Customer Satisfaction
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Hybrid Cloud
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Education
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- Data Science Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
The customer is a historic U.S. university renowned for its commitment to wide-ranging academic programs, as well as its athletic, cultural, philanthropic, and research activities. The university has over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled, with 850 faculty members providing education across nearly 50 fields of study. The university heavily depends on their network for many student- and professor-oriented services. Their website and portal for admissions serve as the university’s public face to new and prospective students. Admitted students use critical applications across the network to register for classes, complete payment for tuition and fees, and submit class assignments. Professors looking to review papers and exams, post scores, and complete student grading at the end of a semester have no time for slowdowns or unavailability. Student social media memes of poor campus network performance can be swift and caustic, so maintaining quality experience is a top priority.
The Challenge
The university was undergoing a data center transformation, including virtualization and high-speed connectivity. However, their legacy network performance monitoring (NPM) tool was not up to the task of supporting this strategic initiative. The NPM tool had limited visibility due to its use of a NetFlow-focused data source, making collaboration nearly impossible due to the lack of integration between data and voice monitoring tools. Additionally, the troubleshooting processes were reportedly cumbersome and slow, which delayed resolution to application and network performance issues. With the university’s data center transformation including plans for VMware ESX hypervisor infrastructure, Cisco® Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) software-defined networking (SDN), and cloud-based Microsoft Office 365 services, there was a need for a new NPM tool that could support these IT transformation activities, while meeting firm budget guidelines.
The Solution
The university chose to move forward with a NETSCOUT® solution that provides IT with the smart visibility required to effectively deploy and proactively monitor next-generation SDN, virtual, and cloud environments. The NETSCOUT nGeniusONE Service Assurance platform provides a single pane of glass to view data, voice, and video service delivery performance and proactively manage the availability, performance, and quality of university users’ experience. The real-time nGeniusONE information platform leverages NETSCOUT smart data as a universal data source for providing smarter analytics for end-to-end visibility throughout the university’s virtualized and hybrid cloud environments. InfiniStreamNG (ISNG) hardware appliances with NETSCOUT’s patented Adaptive Service Intelligence™ (ASI) technology are deployed in the data center environment, transforming the university’s packet traffic into smart data. The vSTREAM virtual appliance is deployed to address VMware ESX platform monitoring needs by monitoring east-west traffic in the data center’s virtualized environment.
Operational Impact
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