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Cash Converters Gains Holistic View of 400 Servers and 135 Applications with New Relic
Technology Category
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Databases
Applicable Industries
- Retail
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Real-Time Location System (RTLS)
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
Cash Converters' IT team faced a challenge in application monitoring. They were using Azure monitoring and application log files to diagnose emerging issues, but these tools did not provide end-to-end application insight. They lacked visibility into network I/O, disk I/O, CPU, memory, application throughput, and how their application consumed system resources and behaved. When a problem arose, they couldn't be sure if it was a database issue or an application issue. They were essentially flying blind. They developed application instrumentation for lower-level insight into granular performance issues, but still lacked a system-wide view. They needed a more holistic approach to monitoring the performance of their application.
About The Customer
Cash Converters International Ltd is a franchised retailer and micro-lender specializing in the sale of second-hand goods. The company was founded in Western Australia in 1984 and has since grown into a network of more than 700 retail locations in 21 countries. Cash Converters' Point of Sale System is built in the .NET framework and run on the Windows Azure Compute & SQL Database Platform. The company's IT team is responsible for monitoring the application performance of their system, which includes 400 servers and 135 applications.
The Solution
Cash Converters worked closely with the Data Platform Customer Advisory Team at Microsoft, who recommended New Relic. They deployed the software and were able to monitor 400 servers and 135 applications. New Relic was quick and easy to deploy, and it provided a holistic view across their entire system. The team uses New Relic on a day-to-day basis as an overall health indicator, gaining near real-time insight into problem areas that demand immediate attention. They depend most heavily on their New Relic dashboard, which displays applications in order of general health. They also use the Apdex score to make sure that they're hitting their response-time goals, along with the App Map to see both the performance of the database and the performance of their data warehousing apparatus.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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