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Manufacturer Improves Quality of Experience at Remote Offices
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
- Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
- Logistics & Transportation
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Process Control & Optimization
Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
The manufacturer was facing frequent issues with their Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network, which connects their data center to over 50 remote manufacturing and warehouse locations. Their existing tools did not provide the necessary visibility into the network to identify what was consuming the bandwidth and causing intermittent disruptions. This lack of visibility was causing increased reports of application access issues from their remote locations, and the IT team was losing valuable time trying to pinpoint the cause. The IT team needed a solution that would provide visibility into their MPLS network and help them quickly and effectively troubleshoot problems.
About The Customer
The customer is a United States manufacturer of consumer products. Over the years, the company has expanded through organic increases in sales on internally developed products, as well as through strategic, targeted mergers and acquisitions. One such recent acquisition expanded the company from roughly 25 manufacturing and distribution locations worldwide to more than 50, supporting product distribution in over 100 countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Their 5,000 employees, supporting billions in annual revenue globally, depend on the availability and performance of their distributed data network for enterprise resource planning (ERP) and production applications, order processing and customer resource management (CRM) applications, Web portals for distribution and sales, and general business services ranging from email to Unified Communications (UC).
The Solution
The IT staff at the manufacturer selected NETSCOUT for both service assurance and packet broker technology. They implemented the nGeniusONE Service Assurance platform, InfiniStreamNG software appliance, and nGenius 5010 Packet Flow Switch. The solution uses real-time, continuous packet traffic monitoring and NETSCOUT’s patented Adaptive Service Intelligence (ASI) technology to provide visibility into the MPLS network. The nGeniusONE platform uses ASI data to assure performance, manage risk, and facilitate superior decision-making regarding their application and network services to the remote locations over the MPLS network. The solution provides application-level visibility into more than 1,000 application services, including those critical to their business and general business services. It also provides detailed analytics in real-time and over time related to specific applications being accessed, the amount of bandwidth they consume, their response times to and from remote sites, and overall application utilization trends to ensure bandwidth availability at each plant and warehouse.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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