NetworkVantage streamlines network performance at Deloitte & Touche

Deloitte & Touche, one of the world`s foremost consulting and auditing firms, has used Compuware`s NetworkVantage network monitoring solution to improve the performance of business applications across its wide area network (WAN) links.

This has saved the firm from having to invest in additional, expensive bandwidth.

According to Ralph Dodson, project manager at Deloitte & Touche Group Information Services, the organisation was intermittently experiencing severe problems with application performance over the WAN that connects its six regional operation centres.

"The trouble was, while we knew what was going on over the network, we were unable to pinpoint performance issues at a PC, network or server level."

The application performance problems resulted in frustrated users and poor productivity, and when calls were logged to the helpdesk, addressing the issues were, to a degree, "hit and miss" and took an inordinate amount of time to resolution.

As this was clearly an untenable situation, the company began to investigate possible solutions.

After evaluating offerings from several vendors, Dodson says NetworkVantage emerged as the most appropriate product - capable of reliably and accurately identifying network traffic, from which point the company could begin to manage its resources.

According to Caroline Wyly, account manager at Compuware SA, NetworkVantage monitors network traffic to detect and troubleshoot application performance problems. "NetworkVantage tracks an application`s flow through the LAN/WAN infrastructure, and collects detailed performance metrics about network traffic, applications, and client and server response times," she explains.

NetworkVantage also aids in troubleshooting by profiling poorly performing applications, and drills down into the performance characteristics of the impacted network, server and clients.

Because it now has a clear and accurate picture of its network utilisation, Dodson says the company can begin to manage the traffic to afford priority to mission-critical applications, such as its Peoplesoft ERP and CABS systems. He notes that performance improvement is a collaboration between bandwidth traffic measurement and management: "NetworkVantage has allowed us to fulfil the measurement requirement," he says.

The NetworkVantage probes have also resulted in a direct saving for Deloitte & Touche: the firm was about to purchase additional bandwidth as a buffer to cater for an additional application, but this was not necessary due to improved understanding of its network traffic flow.

More than simply identifying the existing traffic, Dodson says NetworkVantage has equipped the company with the knowledge to tune its network traffic. "We are now able to configure network traffic to suit the particular demands of the business. Netvantage is a great tool to get historical results from, enabling the planning of preventative maintenance to ensure the network performs during those busy times.

"In addition, the probes allow us to begin to assess the impact of any new applications on the network infrastructure prior to deployment, resulting in less surprises with performance."

Deloitte & Touche also uses the NetworkVantage probes to provide insight into application usage, identifying programs that may be under-utilised and providing an opportunity to improve the return on investment on such applications.

According to Dodson, the success of the NetworkVantage WAN probes can be attributed to the ease with which the products are deployed.

"Implementation is a very simple process; a hardware 'black box` is installed at either end of the WAN links, and the whole system was up and running within three days. It`s really a case of instant gratification, as you can almost immediately begin to get an idea of the traffic going over the network.

"As a result of the success of the NetworkVantage tools, we will certainly consider other Compuware products to help us improve our IT performance," he concludes.