Challenge

As a managed service provider, delivering transparent and real-time information about the availability of its converged networks is critical. Existing and prospective Nexus customers requested that Nexus deliver real-time service views to their network performance. Additionally, Nexus needed to provide this higher level of service to maintain one of its Cisco certifications.

Nexus had a homegrown solution but found maintaining a custom solution very manual. The customers’ desired level of information was also very hard to provide.

Delivering this capability was critical to maintaining its customer base, but Nexus also recognized the opportunity to differentiate itself against competition for new customers. Nexus also recognized the cost savings it would realize by improving operational efficiencies.

“We knew we needed a dashboard that provided more than just flashing lights and pretty pictures,” said David Taylor, senior Managed Services engineer. “We also needed a solution that supported the monitoring of our network infrastructure and data center gear.”

Finding and implementing the right solution was critical, but the company also needed to implement the solution quickly to capture a multimillion-dollar deal that depended on its ability to deliver this level of service.

Solution

The NetIQ solution, which integrated Operations Center with NetIQ AppManager, answered the urgent call from Nexus to provide its customers with the visibility they required. In a 30-day period, Nexus and NetIQ Professional Services team designed and implemented an Operations Center solution that aggregated data from multiple sources and separated and secured the data to provide each Nexus customer with its own service views based on the roles within the organization. Thus, Nexus turned customer data into actionable information and enabled role-based visualization through configurable dashboards.

Nexus now uses Operations Center early warning signals to minimize events that affect service. And with the real-time, end-to-end service view, Nexus can provide detailed information about events that do affect service – including affected resources and when service will be restored-without a single phone call. More importantly, Nexus uses Operations Center early warning signals to prevent events that affect service.

Nexus was already in the process of purchasing a solution from another vendor when it was introduced to NetIQ and Operations Center. “Within 30 minutes into the NetIQ presentation, we knew we had made a mistake with our original vendor,” said Shane Roberts, director of Managed Services. “We were so impressed with the capabilities of Operations Center, and we’ve been extremely pleased with our purchase. We’ve been particularly impressed with the ability to create templates for existing and new customers. We’re able to deploy the solution to our customers faster, our processes are more efficient, and we’ve significantly reduced our training expenses because it’s so easy to bring additional engineers up to speed.”

The NetIQ Professional Services team was instrumental in delivering the solution on time and within budget. “The knowledge and dedication of the team members were impressive,” said Tom Lyon, vice president of Nexus Managed Services. “Not only did they have the skills needed to deliver a best practice design, but they were also fully invested in our success. They were flexible and worked tirelessly to meet our timelines.”

Results

“The benefits of Operation Center were immediate and obvious,” said Roberts. “Not only can we gather trends, but we’re also better able to monitor our customer’s systems 24x7x365 at a minute level. We can find minor problems and resolve them before they cause meltdowns months from now. That’s what our entire managed service practice is based on.”

Operations Center has also provided the confidence Nexus required to expand its capabilities – providing more services across more technologies and with a higher level of quality than was previously possible. Nexus is currently creating a completely redundant NetIQ solution using the built-in disaster recovery capabilities of Operations Center.

Providing customers with the high level of visibility that Operations Center makes possible immediately differentiated Nexus in its market. Nexus customers can now run their own reports, access historical data, see filter alerts, automatically generate charts and graphs, and more.

Operations Center has set Nexus apart as an industry leader, expanded its capabilities and given their customers confidence due to Nexus’ ability to deliver the highest levels of service.