Download PDF
Extending Data Center Performance Monitoring with Software-Based Smart Visibility
Technology Category
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Hybrid Cloud
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Private Cloud
Applicable Industries
- National Security & Defense
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
- Logistics & Transportation
Use Cases
- Edge Computing & Edge Intelligence
- Fleet Management
- Predictive Maintenance
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- Data Science Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
The agency's mission success depends largely on quickly and successfully analyzing large volumes of data to safeguard national interests, government assets, and global citizens. To ensure the success of their mission, the agency developed and deployed an application suite that provides the ability to quickly extract meaningful analysis from always-growing data volumes. Wanting to more nimbly spin-up compute and storage resources to support these mission-critical applications and newly developed apps, a strategic decision was made to embrace recent digital transformation innovations by consolidating existing data center operations and transitioning to a commercial cloud service provider (CSP) service. As part of this process, the agency employed a government-standard procurement process, which enabled deliberate selection of best-in-industry technology to install in the new CSP. As a result, they made an early decision to invest in Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) Software-Defined Networking (SDN) architecture, which offered the benefits of application agility and data center automation. The move to an annual CSP service also involved use of new-to-the-agency Amazon Web Services (AWS) and virtual VMware hypervisor technologies.
About The Customer
The customer is a government agency with a strong “protect and serve” component of their mission. This agency is so laser-focused on that mission, it puts them in a unique position even among government agencies. In order to successfully execute its mission, the agency depends upon the skill and talents of thousands of employees and contractors, coupled with highly secure, state-of-the-art information technology to provide up-to-date and completely accurate information on a 24x7x365 basis at hundreds of centralized and remote facilities. The agency is a NETSCOUT® customer of several years, with their information technology (IT) team relying on the next-generation nGeniusONE Service Assurance platform for continuous visibility and monitoring of its network and application environment.
The Solution
The agency’s rigorous review of available network and application performance management and service assurance technologies led them to select the NETSCOUT nGeniusONE Service Assurance solution. The real-time nGeniusONE information platform leverages NETSCOUT smart data as a universal data source for providing smarter analytics needed for end-to-end visibility throughout the agency’s virtualized and hybrid cloud environments. Deployed in the data center environment, InfiniStreamNG (ISNG) hardware appliances with NETSCOUT’s patented Adaptive Service Intelligence™ (ASI) technology are transforming the agency’s wire traffic into smart data, enabling the IT team to ensure security, manage risk, and drive service performance for mission-critical applications. The agency addressed VMware platform monitoring needs by deploying the vSTREAM Embedded (vSTREAM-EMB) virtual appliance, which complements the ISNG platform’s visibility into north-south traffic by monitoring east-west traffic in the CSP data center’s virtualized environment. For remote office visibility, the agency has transitioned to a software-based approach for NetFlow, with the nGenius Collector Virtual Appliance and nGenius for Flows solution using ASI technology to seamlessly integrate NetFlow data with nGeniusONE smart data.
Operational Impact
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Data Capture for Afghanistan Forces
Electronic equipments on the field of Afghanistan provided information on the status of the vehicle and to identify potential threats surrounding it to the British Force. The monitoring and interpretation of this data requires robust and sophisticated digitization for data capture and communication.
Case Study
Major Aerospace Company Automates Asset Management
The O&M division of an aerospace and global security company was using spreadsheets to manually track more than 3,000 assets assigned to students and staff. Maintaining audit trails for this high volume of equipment became increasingly time-consuming and challenging. The chore involved knowing precisely what equipment was on hand, what had been issued, its location and the name of the custodial owner of each item. Every aspect of this task was carried owner of each item. Every aspect of this task was carried out by individuals with spreadsheets. Manually documenting the full lifecycle of each asset added to the burden. This included tracking maintenance requirements and records, incidents and damages, repairs, calibrations, depreciation, and end-of-life data.
Case Study
Securing a Large Data Center in the EMEA Region: An IoT Case Study
A leading data-center operator in the EMEA region, with multiple facilities spanning over 25,000 square meters, faced significant security challenges. The operator experienced interruptions in their internal IT network due to unsupervised work of third-party technicians. Despite having a high-end building control system that provided 24x7 monitoring and control to all the building’s infrastructure, the data center was vulnerable from a cyber perspective as it was connected to the IT network infrastructure. The operator launched an urgent OT cyber security project that included both IT-OT network segmentation and OT network asset mapping and anomaly detection. The main objectives were to harden the security of the server systems, secure the facility’s power supply and server cooling system, strengthen the segmentation between building and operational systems, create a visual OT network map, and set up a system for presenting supply-chain attacks that may threaten the data center through equipment vendors’ maintenance activities.
Case Study
Enhancing Security Precision with IoT: A Case Study of Guardsman Group
Guardsman Group, a leading security company in the Caribbean, faced a significant challenge in maintaining the security of its digital infrastructure. The company provides security equipment, personnel, and systems for various businesses across the region. However, one of its offices experienced a security incident that affected all communications at that location. The existing security tools were not sufficient to provide the necessary protection, and it took hours to identify the source of the issue. This incident highlighted the need for a dynamic solution that could proactively identify threats. The company's primary concern was any disruption to its business, as it manages a significant portion of Jamaica's money and cannot afford for its operations to go down.
Case Study
LoRaWAN - Helping citizens and organizations to reduce environmental impact
More and more, our world is becoming aware about the environmental print that comes with population growth, limitation of resources, climate change and the need for sustainability. The biggest challange here was to raise awareness among citizens and organizations about their environmental impact, and to help themto reduce it in a sustainable way with the help of Real time data.
Case Study
Enhancing City Security through IoT: A Case Study of Atlanta
The city of Atlanta, with a resident population of over 420,000 and a metropolitan area of more than five million people, faced the challenge of ensuring the safety and security of its citizens and visitors. As a leading tourist destination and a multicultural city attracting global investment, Atlanta had to deal with the complexities of managing safety and security incidents. Over the years, the city had invested in various surveillance systems, providing visual intelligence to law enforcement and security professionals. However, these systems operated independently and were spread across a wide geography. The city aimed to increase collaboration among government agencies and create a shared Video Integration Center (VIC). The challenge was the disparate nature of the video systems, which were based on proprietary technologies and were both analog and IP based. The city also wanted to leverage the numerous private cameras located across the city, further complicating the integration of all these systems into one common platform.