NETSCOUT Case Studies Large North American Power Company Turns to NETSCOUT for Network and Application Service Assurance

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	Large North American Power Company Turns to NETSCOUT for Network and Application Service Assurance NETSCOUT

Large North American Power Company Turns to NETSCOUT for Network and Application Service Assurance

NETSCOUT

Technology Category	Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software
Applicable Industries	Utilities
Applicable Functions	Maintenance Logistics & Transportation
Use Cases	Energy Management System Remote Asset Management
Services	System Integration Testing & Certification
Challenge	The power company was facing challenges with its existing monitoring and analysis equipment, which was outdated and not meeting the current needs of the large, distributed, complex environment. This left the IT support team blind to bandwidth constraints and unable to triage key services within the data center and between hundreds of remote sites. The company was in dire need of a technology refresh in order to effectively monitor WAN/ LAN links that were critical to power generation, distribution, and business applications, such as billing and other services. When remote links would go down or suffer performance degradations, payments could not be collected, which adversely impacted critically important revenue cycle management. In addition, IT was under pressure to assure the performance of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and Web-based services that provide customers access to their smart meter usage data. Ensuring a good customer experience required quick response times for the network. Read More
About Customer	The customer is a large North American power company that serves customers across nearly half of the U.S. states and parts of Canada. In addition to electricity and gas, they also provide many other integrated energy solutions to customers. They are committed to finding better ways to deliver safe, reliable energy to homes and businesses, along with creating a diverse infrastructure, including clean renewable energy. The company is taking advantage of digital transformation to improve the end-user experience, enhance network performance, cut costs, and provide continuous improvement across the business. Read More
Solution	To solve its network and application performance problems, the power company turned to NETSCOUT®. The nGeniusONE Service Assurance platform was selected to process data from both InfiniStream appliances and NetFlow Collectors to provide comprehensive analysis across the enterprise environment. In addition, OptiView® was employed at remote sites for troubleshooting and gathering addition data to investigate security incidents. The nGeniusONE solution consolidates information from all data sources and correlates packet data with NetFlow data providing full visibility into the performance of the infrastructure. nGeniusONE offers centralized management for critical services in remote and central sites. InfiniStream appliances were deployed in the larger, more critical locations while NetFlow Collectors were used as a cost-effective alternative for performance monitoring at the company’s smaller remote locations. The OptiView XG solution was selected for use at generation and distribution facilities to conduct quick plugins for triage of network and wireless components specifically within those facilities. This solution was deemed more effective at remote sites where InfiniStreams were not installed. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software

Applicable Industries

Utilities

Applicable Functions

Maintenance

Logistics & Transportation

Use Cases

Energy Management System

Remote Asset Management

Services

System Integration

Testing & Certification

Challenge

The power company was facing challenges with its existing monitoring and analysis equipment, which was outdated and not meeting the current needs of the large, distributed, complex environment. This left the IT support team blind to bandwidth constraints and unable to triage key services within the data center and between hundreds of remote sites. The company was in dire need of a technology refresh in order to effectively monitor WAN/ LAN links that were critical to power generation, distribution, and business applications, such as billing and other services. When remote links would go down or suffer performance degradations, payments could not be collected, which adversely impacted critically important revenue cycle management. In addition, IT was under pressure to assure the performance of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and Web-based services that provide customers access to their smart meter usage data. Ensuring a good customer experience required quick response times for the network.

About Customer

The customer is a large North American power company that serves customers across nearly half of the U.S. states and parts of Canada. In addition to electricity and gas, they also provide many other integrated energy solutions to customers. They are committed to finding better ways to deliver safe, reliable energy to homes and businesses, along with creating a diverse infrastructure, including clean renewable energy. The company is taking advantage of digital transformation to improve the end-user experience, enhance network performance, cut costs, and provide continuous improvement across the business.

Solution

To solve its network and application performance problems, the power company turned to NETSCOUT®. The nGeniusONE Service Assurance platform was selected to process data from both InfiniStream appliances and NetFlow Collectors to provide comprehensive analysis across the enterprise environment. In addition, OptiView® was employed at remote sites for troubleshooting and gathering addition data to investigate security incidents. The nGeniusONE solution consolidates information from all data sources and correlates packet data with NetFlow data providing full visibility into the performance of the infrastructure. nGeniusONE offers centralized management for critical services in remote and central sites. InfiniStream appliances were deployed in the larger, more critical locations while NetFlow Collectors were used as a cost-effective alternative for performance monitoring at the company’s smaller remote locations. The OptiView XG solution was selected for use at generation and distribution facilities to conduct quick plugins for triage of network and wireless components specifically within those facilities. This solution was deemed more effective at remote sites where InfiniStreams were not installed.

Impact #1	Reduced risk of power outages or safety issues with quick problem identification and root cause analysis.
Impact #2	Ability to test and validate performance between key sites and the core data center for early problem detection and quicker MTTR.
Impact #3	NetFlow at remote sites helps achieve comprehensive analysis across the enterprise.

Impact #1

Reduced risk of power outages or safety issues with quick problem identification and root cause analysis.

Impact #2

Ability to test and validate performance between key sites and the core data center for early problem detection and quicker MTTR.

Impact #3

NetFlow at remote sites helps achieve comprehensive analysis across the enterprise.

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Overview

Large North American Power Company Turns to NETSCOUT for Network and Application Service Assurance

Operational Impact