“Observer is like having an employee on site at all hours to manage the network. We’ve been very satisfied with its capabilities. So far Observer has prevented us from experiencing any downtime.”-- Portia Ulinski, CIO, AAA East Central
Customer Profile - Since its founding in 1902 as the American Automobile Association, AAA is an association of independent clubs that serve as an advocate for the motorist and traveler. It has fought motorists’ legislative battles, protected them against unduly restrictive legislation, and worked against harsh and unjust prosecutions. With more than 48 million members, AAA is well respected for its credibility and integrity and known primarily for providing emergency road service, maps and travel publications. AAA East Central has 56 local offices and 1,500 employees serving the combined area of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and New York.
Vendor Profile - Network Instruments provides in-depth network intelligence and continuous network availability through innovative analysis solutions. Enterprise network professionals depend on Network Instruments’ Observer product line for unparalleled network visibility to efficiently solve network problems and manage deployments. By combining a powerful management console with high-performance analysis appliances, Observer simplifies problem resolution and optimizes network and application performance. The company continues to lead the industry in ROI with its advanced Distributed Network Analysis (NI-DNA™) architecture, which successfully integrates comprehensive analysis functionality across heterogeneous networks through a single monitoring interface. Network Instruments is headquartered in Minneapolis with sales offices worldwide and distributors in over 50 countries.
Challenge
AAA East Central needed a way to proactively monitor network communication in order to prevent problems from affecting customer service.
Solution
By deploying Observer Suite and 60 probes, the IT team could easily detect problems as they started to emerge, allowing AAA East Central to eliminate problems before they wreaked havoc on the network–ensuring customers were receiving the best possible service.
Practicing Defensive Network Driving
AAA East Central was a Network General™ customer, having deployed Sniffer on the main backbone to monitor traffic at the corporate headquarters. This left AAA East Central blind to most remote traffic; the IT team often found themselves responding to problems at branch offices rather than preventing them.
Senior Network Engineer Coleman Jennings could not efficiently identify and resolve network problems without a comprehensive understanding of all the activity on the AAA East Central network. 1,500 employees depend on the network, which includes a fiber backbone, Gigabit Ethernet connecting switches, and 10/100 end-user connections.
For better network visibility within their budget, AAA East Central CIO Portia Ulinski deployed the Network Instruments Observer® Suite along with 60 probes across the entire network infrastructure.
“We realized how important it was to monitor all network communication at the time destructive viruses such as sobig and mydoom were hitting companies around the world,” Ulinski said. “Fortunately we never got hit but we didn’t want to take that chance again. That’s why we chose Observer. This way we can see problems as they emerge and eliminate them before they affect the network.”
Road Hogs
Knowing who is producing traffic is important for companies whose missions depend on the network. Observer’s Top Talkers feature shows current activity for every device on the network in real time.
“We consistently use Top Talkers to track the total amount of stats for each office to see if there is unusual activity,” Jennings said. “It’s a big problem when a device other than servers, routers, or anyone in the IT department ranks high on Top Talkers.”
In one case, Jennings identified a user transferring a large number of files to a server. He investigated further and discovered an employee backing an entire hard drive to the server, which is not an acceptable club practice.
“Through Top Talkers I was able to track down the person who was transferring all that data to the server,” Jennings said. “Had I not stopped that person, the activity would have overloaded the server. I was able to enforce the policy and assist that employee in alternative options to protect the data.”
Putting the Brakes on Hackers
Top Talkers identifies devices on the network by their MAC address, IP address, and alias, easily leading to the source of potential problems. If an unknown device tops Top Talkers, it could mean a hacker is infiltrating the network.
“When we get an unknown IP address scanning through the system, I’ll first run a packet capture to determine what it is doing,” Jennings said. “Typically, it is a hacker and in that case I will block the IP address at the router.”
Stalled Applications
In troubleshooting network slowdowns, Jennings uses Observer to determine whether the network or an application is at fault. In one case, the application responsible for providing AAA East Central’s Emergency Road Service (which includes roadside assistance such as a jump start, a tire change, gas delivery, and a tow to a service station) stalled. Without that application services get delayed, which can leave customers stranded at the roadside for an extended period.
Jennings accessed Top Talkers and noticed the road service application was creating an unusual amount of activity. He drilled down with Observer’s Connection Dynamics for a packet-by-packet display of the application’s communication with each client.
“Through Connection Dynamics, I could monitor the communication between the road service application and the rest of the network,” Jennings said. “The time analysis clearly showed there was a problem with the application, which I was able to immediately address–restoring full service to our customers.”
Real-Time Network Traffic Reports
To ensure he can see every segment of the network, Jennings deployed 60 probes at AAA East Central’s regional branch offices. Each probe reports back to an Observer Suite console and is equipped with all the tools Jennings needs to monitor the network.
“Comprehensive visibility is crucial to staying on top of the network,” Jennings said. “With Observer it’s like looking in 60 directions at once. The IT team couldn’t possibly be as effective if we didn’t have that many eyes.”
Working Around the Clock
Although employees leave at the end of the day, business goes on. Observer monitors network communication around the clock to ensure that AAA East Central constantly receives the information resources needed.
“Observer is like having an employee on site at all hours to manage the network,” Ulinski said. “We’ve been very satisfied with its capabilities. So far Observer has prevented us from experiencing any downtime.”
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