The user experience is always a priority for Cross Country Healthcare, a recruitment firm Health based in Boca Raton, Florida. But as more applications move to the cloud-and as more users accessing them remotely from devices Moviles and monitor the status of the network to optimize the user experience has become a challenge for professionals IT as Forrest Schroth.
But the traditional software and network monitoring tools can only do a little, according to Schroth, director of network engineering services in Cross Country Healthcare.
“You can tell if there is sufficient bandwidth for errors flood or how they are handling calls from IP to IP direction. But none says about end-user performance,” he said.
Schroth is frustrated with this dilemma, especially as the company seeks more and more applications software as a service (SaaS). The company email is moved to the cloud-based service for Microsoft Office 365 and several business units are using SaaS-based ERP systems. No signs that the momentum to lose steam cloud, Schroth is looking for a single tool to help monitor and troubleshoot end-user experience for all applications.
“In this time, the networking group are running your toolkit and the application pool are running your toolkit and if an event occurs, we gathered in a room and combine data to find the problem, “he says.
Even with this collaboration, locate problems with network monitoring software can be more difficult because SaaS providers usually do not allow you to see inside your environment.
“They tend to push you and say, ‘Our database is fine,’ when one has already traced the transaction was well until his network, “says
To avoid the potential impact on. users, IT managers and Schroth rely on solutions that simulate the user experience for cloud-based applications or act as a watchdog for events that hinder the performance of applications and network. For example, some IT teams are deploying sensors and agents across the network to mimic and monitor what users face in terms of response times of applications. Other escrudiñan existing, such as firewalls , to get a deeper insight into the events that could block or slow traffic equipment.
The lack of transparency in the cloud can hinder delay or troubleshooting for network equipment. But SaaS providers have no incentive to allow control the performance of their internal systems, says John Burke, CIO and chief research analyst at Nemertes Research.
“It will always be the place where visibility ends network administrators, “he says.
There are only three ways to address this obstacle, says Burke. One option is the use of probes of performance management applications (APM), either online or off a span port ( span port ), to monitor traffic and ensure that requests and answers work well. Another alternative is to use an optimizer or proxy-and either a device or service-that can provide performance data. The third possibility is to place agents on devices and desktop computers to control transaction times.
“However, if you need response times for both solid and predictable network transactions, using SaaS on public internet should automatically be suspicious strategy, “notes Burke.
Out of the Shadows
The level of frustration that network administrators as Schroth have with SaaS providers is not unusual, according to Shamus McGillicuddy, senior analyst for network management at Enterprise Management Associates.
“Our research shows that a lot of networking professionals do not take awareness and adoption of SaaS IT in the shade until they are asked to support something that is wrong, “he says. “So networking equipment have no control, but are at fault.”
In addition to relying on traditional sources for performance data, such as records of firewalls or traffic data of the switches , network administrators can deploy monitoring tools to better understand synthetic user experience with cloud-based services. Monitoring tools synthetic probes used in various parts of the network to perform ping tests to check the response time of the application. They also conduct tests to see how long it takes to load a presentation based on the Web in a browser window, for example, among other tasks.
But McGillicuddy does not believe that SaaS vendors must provide a complete visibility into their networks. But that does not leave out the question, if your software and network monitoring tools detect a problem at the end of the vendor who violates the service-level agreement (SLA).
“You are paying for not by one service infrastructure, “he says. “If you properly monitor your network and ensure that it is running at a high level-and can prove that a problem specific to the user experience is attributable to SaaS- provider can then make sure that the SaaS provider aware and correct the problem promptly. “
Loading sensors
The Stevenson University in Baltimore complements its monitoring tools network which includes SNMP monitoring traffic monitoring system and monitoring of services-Windows “more elaborate tools,” says Robert Hutter, managing director of networks and systems business college.
Stevenson, which has 4,000 full-time students, nearly 1,500 faculty and staff and three campus ensures that the user experience is optimal sensors using PRTG Network Monitor Paessler common scenarios to simulate the creation of records, or logs, and downloading files from the Internet.
“This test shows the manual aspect,” says Hutter.
The sensors help identify and solve other problems as well. For example, if the sensors indicate that users can not log in from several campuses, then Hutter know that the chances are that it is a problem with one of the hosted services or applications that use the university.
“It helps us gain some influence in the implementation of our SLA” he says.
The ability to make historical analysis is another benefit of sensors based tools. These data are aggregated and analyzed by the PRTG platform, and in some cases are filed up to one year.
“We can, for example, review the use of the resources of a specific server during a year or track how our Internet usage has changed during peak periods, “Hutter says. “Without long-term historical data or constant vigilance, could stay scratching their heads. If you have sensors, can deepen the problem and reach a quick resolution.”
Hutter recommended to be transparent with customers availability and performance of the network. The university publishes a web page that lists the currently scheduled blackouts, past and scheduled for later.
“Users have learned to check the website,” he says. . The result: a user experience better and more reliable, even when performance is temporarily lost
Strengthening the firewall
In the City College of San Francisco, Tim Ryan, technical director of operations of the university, has had to adapt the strategy to support your IT team to accommodate changes in traffic patterns more than 60,000 students and 2,000 staff in eight locations in the city.
“We used to be able to ensure that everyone had the same experience through standardization of network interface cards and ports switches “he says. “Wireless connections such variation generated every user experience is different.”
Instead of investing even more in network monitoring software and other tools, Ryan has a current fleet of firewalls Check Point and Palo Alto Networks, which assume a greater role in monitoring the user experience whether in the cloud or locally. In addition to checking the permissions, the firewalls now determine if the latency increases beyond a certain threshold, or if the lost packets reached an unacceptable level.
“They both have an effect evident in the user experience, “says Ryan.
firewalls , which generate more than 50 million log entries per day, also show the threats and vulnerabilities-providing information Further when a virus or malware could be affecting the network or application performance for a group of users.
As more applications such as email are moved to the cloud Ryan believes that depend increasingly on those records intelligence.
“If our applications cloud-based show slow performance, there will be useful information available,” he says.
Schroth Cross Country Healthcare, the user experience nirvana happen when you find a comprehensive tool that offers the same visibility of end-to-end SaaS-based applications with applications that have local mail. His dream. Conjuncts network monitoring measurements of network performance with transaction times in the application layer
“We just have not found it yet,” says Schroth
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