Turning Observer® Into A

Money Generator

How do you use an analyzer? Typically, they are pulled off the shelf only when a network crisis occurs. Most engineers don't think of them as revenue generators.

 

In a new year where network teams are trying to squeeze the most from their IT budgets, it's time to reconsider how to make the most of your analyzer. This article covers three creative ways Network Instruments customers have used Observer to generate unexpected savings.

1) Generating More Green

An insurance company with a large user base was researching ways to trim costs. Using Observer, the network team determined workstations left on overnight in stand-by or hibernation mode used 1-3 kilowatts per hour, which represented a cost of up to $75 per machine annually.

The network team used Observer to filter traffic and identify workstations hibernating overnight by tracking machines generating the least amount of traffic. They identified around 6,000 workstations left in hibernation mode, and were able to save over $450,000 annually by requiring users turn off their computers.

2) Preventing Unnecessary Upgrades

A customer in the healthcare industry implemented a new digital image archival system to replace its traditional X-ray machines. Initially, the application vendor told the organization to invest in larger WAN links to ensure performance. Faced with the increased costs, the team used Observer to test the network and determined that their existing links were sufficient to handle the added traffic.

Using Observer MultiHop Analysis, network engineers monitored the flow of traffic across the WAN and to remote offices. The analysis was critical for identifying potential delay points on the network and optimizing overall performance to ensure the success of the new digital image archival system. Read more about the healthcare provider's use of Observer.

3) Strategic IT Acquisitions

Most people only think of analyzers for incidental troubleshooting. Daily network monitoring is key to optimizing performance and deciding what infrastructure investments will provide the best return.

A bank customer noticed application delays occurring when traffic traversed the WAN to remote offices. They needed to invest in a WAN accelerator to address the situation and used Observer to decide what type of acceleration technology to use.

To determine the appropriate technology to use, they needed to identify any server performance issues and protocols traversing the network. Upon seeing the chief protocol was HTTP/HTTPS, they purchased a much less expensive Application Delivery Controller (ADC) for load balancing and caching of specific webpages rather than a WAN accelerator which caches and compresses all traffic.

Conclusion
Tight budgets can constrict a network manager and force them to be creative in finding the most
cost-effective ways to ensure application performance. Use Observer to identify immediate savings and improve IT investment decisions, giving your network team greater flexibility in dealing with performance issues.

Identifying Hibernating Machines

In reviewing ways to save money with Observer, we discussed the example of the company that saved thousands of dollars by requiring users to turn off their computer at the end of the day, rather than leaving them in hibernation and stand-by modes overnight. To identify these machines, the network team created filters in Observer to determine the workstations generating the least amount of traffic. There are a couple of ways to do this depending upon how the network is segmented and infrastructure purchased.

If you purchased machines from specific vendors in bulk, they will generally have their own object identifier (OID) for devices. You could create a filter to search physical addresses for specific OIDs and run it on all packets.

You can run the filter on an open capture or schedule it for specific times during off hours. You could start the monitoring and collecting from 7:00 pm to 4:00 am as well as weekends. This would allow you to identify the traffic and machines available.

If your organization segments the network by device type assigning specific IP addresses or subnets to routers, servers, and workstations, you can create filters for these IP ranges. Configure the filters to monitor for keepalive and update transmissions or connections for your workstations. This will allow you determine the number of machines that are up and cost savings of turning them off.

Proving Network ROI

With IT departments under pressure to cut costs, how do you make the case for upgrading your monitoring investment? You need to be aware of how the networking team supports the business, and recognize the business value of your infrastructure equipment and management technology investments. Read more about calculating ROI for your network projects.

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