Rockwell Automation on NetQoS

“NetQoS ReporterAnalyzer has satisfied our criteria for a manageable tool that our existing staff can use to gain central visibility into our global network traffic and quickly troubleshoot issues.”

-- P.J. Goodwin, Infrastructure Manager, Rockwell Automation

Customer Profile - Rockwell Automation Inc. (NYSE: ROK) is a leading global provider of industrial automation power, control and information solutions that help manufacturers achieve a competitive advantage in their businesses. The company brings together leading global brands in industrial automation that includes Allen-Bradley controls and services, and Rockwell Software factory management software. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., the company employs about 20,000 people serving customers in more than 80 countries.

Vendor Profile - NetQoS software and services help service providers, government agencies, and large enterprises – including half of the Fortune 100 – improve the delivery of applications over wide area networks by enabling them to monitor application service levels, troubleshoot problems quickly, and plan for change. Representative NetQoS customers include Chevron, Lockheed Martin, American Express, Hilton Hotels, Siemens, Boeing, Deutsche Telekom, NASA, and Barclays Global Investors. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NetQoS has R&D centers in Austin and Raleigh, N.C., and regional sales offices in London and Singapore.

Background:

Greenville, S.C.-based Rockwell Automation Power Systems (RAPS) encompasses two divisions. The company’s Mechanical Power Transmission unit makes products such as mounted bearings, gear reducers, mechanical drives, couplings, bushings, clutches, and motor brakes, primarily under the Dodge brand name. Its Electrical unit makes industrial motors and standard AC and DC drives under the Reliance Electric brand, as well as providing repair and maintenance, plant maintenance, training, and consulting services. RAPS is a business segment of Rockwell Automation.

Rockwell Challenges:

» Controlling recurring costs
» Delivering quality network services
» Lack of staffing resources
» Lack of central visibility into the network
» Network blamed for all slowdowns
» Lengthy, inefficient troubleshooting process

Rockwell Results with NetQoS ReporterAnalyzer™:

» 100% visibility into WAN traffic
» Improved troubleshooting to solve performance problems faster
» Improved capacity planning for more informed infrastructure investments
» Improved security through greater network visibility
» Cost-effective solution
» Ease of administration/manageability for a small staff

Overview:

The Network as Scapegoat:

RAPS’ three-person network team is responsible for delivering network services to 3,500 employees in 12 plants and 25 service centers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, and China. The network team faced several challenges as it strove to provide quality network services while under a mandate to control recurring costs.

Network Performance Management Issues:

» No single view of the network: The network team did not have a complete view of network traffic, meaning they could not determine the composition of traffic on the WAN or which users and applications were consuming bandwidth, or when. This limited their ability to quickly and easily troubleshoot problems like congestion.

» Inefficient problem resolution: When issues occurred, the network team’s standard response to slowness was:
- Scramble to fix the problem as it is occurring
- Wait for the problem to happen again
- Increase bandwidth and hope it fixes the problem

» Network blamed for everything: When infrastructure or application slowness occurred, employees assumed the network was responsible. This forced the network team to spend valuable time in troubleshooting mode, without the right tools to prove whether the network was responsible or not.

» Significant lack of resources in terms of people and time

The network team began a search for a cost-effective traffic analysis tool that would improve its ability to troubleshoot, plan for growth, and make sound decisions on issues such as router configurations, bandwidth allocations and upgrades. The network team identified several criteria as essential.

Criteria for Successful Traffic Analysis Tool:

» Must fix a problem
» Must provide central visibility to the network
» Must be able to answer the question: “What’s wrong with the network?”
» Must be simple
» Agentless
» Leverage existing infrastructure investments
» Must be manageable: Current team must manage the device
» Must be useable: Administrators and management (local and remote) create and use the output
» Must save money
» Reduce analysis time for multiple teams
» Perform accurate bandwidth capacity planning

NetQoS Solution: ReporterAnalyzer™

RAPS found that NetQoS ReporterAnalyzer, the traffic analysis module of the NetQoS Performance Center product suite, met all its criteria for a traffic analysis tool.

Rockwell Criterion	ReporterAnalyzer Solution
Must fix a problem:
Must provide central visibility to the network	ReporterAnalyzer provides real-time visibility into 100 percent of enterprise-wide network traffic and access to a full year’s worth of detailed data.
Must be able to answer the question: “What’s wrong with the network?”	By providing visibility into all of the applications, hosts, and conversations traversing the network, ReporterAnalyzer enables network teams to solve problems faster, with real-time alerts and reporting.
Must be simple:
Agentless	ReporterAnalyzer provides visibility into enterprise-wide WAN traffic without having to deploy probes, an expensive solution that requires heavy maintenance.
Leverage existing infrastructure investments	ReporterAnalyzer enables Rockwell to leverage its existing Cisco infrastructure by simply turning on NetFlow on a few key routers and switches. Installation typically takes less than two hours, with actionable data available within a few hours of deployment.
Must be manageable:
Current team must manage the device	ReporterAnalyzer does not pose a high administrative burden. Because the product is agentless and sold in the form of an appliance, customers have fewer installation and configuration issues.
Must be useable:
Administrators and management (local and remote) create and use the output	Customizable role-based views: ReporterAnalyzer provides customizable role-based views into traffic analysis data, grouped by interfaces, protocols, hosts, or conversations, so Rockwell’s administrators and management can view the data they need. In fact, remote employees have the ability to create their own views into their interfaces. Because ReporterAnalyzer is permissions-based, personnel only see the interfaces at their sites. Quick view of network hot spots: For quicker troubleshooting and analyses, the default page in ReporterAnalyzer is an “Enterprise Overview” page showing the top interfaces, protocols, and hosts across the entire network in a single view. For interfaces over a defined threshold and duration, the Enterprise Overview page displays red/yellow indicators. Speed and ease of report generation: ReporterAnalyzer generates fast reports that are easy to download, displaying: Rate, volume, and utilization measurements by protocol, host, and conversation Applications defined by a combination of ports, IP address(es), and Type of Service (ToS) Real-time reports and alarms at one-minute granularity for every interface on the network Eight-hour, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or customizable time periods User-friendly interface: ReporterAnalyzer’s Web-based interface is easy to navigate.
Must save money:
Reduce analysis time for multiple teams	ReporterAnalyzer’s scalability, customizable role-based views, Enterprise Overview page of top hot spots, and fast report generation all reduce analysis time for multiple teams. In addition, ReporterAnalyzer includes a security component to augment an organization’s existing security efforts: Flow Forensics: ReporterAnalyzer’s Flow Forensics feature tracks 100 percent of all flow traffic on the network to identify denial of service attacks, port scanning, or unauthorized server activity. Using this feature, Rockwell can set rate, volume, and count thresholds based on flows, packets, or bytes.
Tool to perform bandwidth capacity planning	ReporterAnalyzer helps evaluate the need for increasing or decreasing network capacity by identifying the bandwidth usage and requirements of all protocols, hosts, and conversations on the network. ReporterAnalyzer enables Rockwell to reduce WAN costs by eliminating unnecessary bandwidth upgrades via the ability to: View the impact of new application rollouts on every WAN link by measuring the application’s growth over time via protocol level trend analyses and percent-growth tables. Identify which applications, hosts and conversations consume bandwidth by viewing easy-to-understand charts, so better and less expensive alternatives may be considered instead of costly upgrades.

Conclusion:

ReporterAnalyzer has given RAPS a cost-effective solution that provides the global network visibility needed for troubleshooting and capacity planning – without having to increase staff. Within several days of installation, ReporterAnalyzer helped Rockwell solve several troubleshooting issues, including a long-standing problem, a real-time problem, and an unknown threat.

ReporterAnalyzer has satisfied RAPS’ criteria for a manageable, usable, and cost-effective tool that provides 100 percent visibility into its WAN for traffic analysis, troubleshooting and capacity planning. When troubleshooting, Rockwell can use ReporterAnalyzer to quickly determine whether the network is responsible or not. ReporterAnalyzer helps the network team determine the best solution to the problem and then understand how effective the approach was in solving it. When rolling out new applications or making infrastructure upgrades, RAPS can now rely on ReporterAnalyzer to plan for the change, determine the impact on existing applications, and validate the investment. ReporterAnalyzer also gives RAPS the real-time and historical data needed to allocate bandwidth accordingly, which will help improve performance and save money.

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