Allan Dorne – IT Technical Services Manager, PSIS.
When major financial institution PSIS deployed a new application using SharePoint, end users experienced very slow response times with both the new application and other network-based services. Users’ frustration levels were high, productivity was reduced and there was a general perception that the application wasn’t delivering as expected. We were called in to review the network and recommend a solution.
Our initial diagnosis showed that the new application had created significantly more network traffic resulting in some routers running at 100% CPU utilisation. Rather than recommending an upgrade to new, faster routers, we reconfigured the network to reassign the roles of existing network devices to optimise traffic flows. This had an immediate impact by reducing router CPU utilisation by 20% and deferring the cost and delays associated with replacing them.
Although this had a positive impact, user response times were still unacceptable and again, the problems indicated an issue within the network. After further review and analysis of network traces, we recommended some server network configuration changes which had an immediate effect. We saw a further 10% reduction in CPU utilisation, but most importantly, user response times improved dramatically as processing loads and bottlenecks were removed from the servers.
PSIS and their end users are happy, the network and servers are performing well, the new application has been well received and no additional expenditure was required for hardware or software.
Keith Linforth - Associate Director (Networking and Communications), Massey
University.
With multiple campuses around New Zealand, Massey University uses in-house videoconferencing services to conduct virtual meetings and distance teaching. This helps them avoid both travel costs and non-productive travelling time. The system can make use of both their IP network and New Zealand’s advanced research network, KAREN, for inter-site bandwidth allowing them to optimise their telecommunications costs when holding a videoconference.
Massey’s IT department asked us diagnose a problem when the system developed an intermittent fault that the incumbent network integrator was unable to resolve.
Although the fault initially appeared to lie within the videoconferencing system software, we found a rare bug in a video protocol inspection process running on the firewall cluster in the Data Centre. Further analysis showed that it was inspecting all videoconference traffic and occasionally forcing session terminations, resulting in videoconference sessions being dropped mid-way through meetings.
We developed a workaround that could be immediately deployed to enable their videoconferencing to operate flawlessly, while providing time to work through a patching/upgrade plan for the firewalls via their incumbent support agency.
The videoconference system now works flawlessly. The firewall upgrade was scheduled for a later date.
Tertiary Education
A tertiary education provider operates an IP Telephony-based contact centre for thousands of students. Since migration to this system, students began to complain about poor voice quality - a problem which the system integrator could not solve.
When asked to perform an independent analysis, Pentech found that the network switches that provide LAN aggregation did not have Quality of Service (QoS) configured correctly. This meant that during times of peak network traffic, the IP Telephony packets could be delayed or even dropped by the network resulting in poor voice quality. When we configured the switches to implement QoS, the voice quality problems disappeared.
Some integrators or vendors argue that you do not need QoS when you have a fast network but, in this case, we proved them wrong.
Our customer is satisfied, the contact centre and students are happy with the consistently good voice quality and the problem was permanently resolved without the need for any additional equipment or software.
Government
A major government department operates an IP-based contact centre for public and internal communications which offers cost efficiencies by sharing the IP network with data applications. All calls made to or from the contact centre are also recorded on IP-based systems on the same network.
Problems started occurring with voice quality degradation and calls being dropped for no apparent reason. When the incumbent network integrator and the system manufacturer failed to resolve the problem, we were asked to help.
We analysed the network design, configuration and actual traffic flows and discovered two serious problems:
- The system had been implemented in a way that caused excessive network traffic to traverse the core network under certain conditions. This was a fundamental design flaw.
- The core network equipment had been configured incorrectly exacerbating the problem.
After we had fixed the network configuration problem, network traffic in the core reduced by 60% and the voice quality problems and call drops disappeared. However, we also recommended a change to the IP Telephony and voice recording design, recommendations which were accepted and scheduled in their programme of work.
The contact centre voice quality problems and call drops were resolved and a plan is in place to further optimise the environment. We resolved the problems without the need for any additional equipment or software.
Capital Costs
A government department operates an IP network that provides mission-critical connectivity. The network had been well-designed and maintained but organic growth and ageing equipment meant that some parts of the network needed to be upgraded to support new communications technology and security requirements and to ensure continued manufacturer support.
In this case, time spent optimising the network would be unlikely to provide an ROI and the least risk option would be to upgrade key routers. Unfortunately the upgrade cycle coincided with government requests to reduce costs.
With these budget constraints in mind, we provided various options including supply of near-new, refurbished equipment with full manufacturer support. Although the department normally prefers to purchase new equipment, on this occasion it was fiscally prudent to reduce capital, maintain ongoing equipment support and plan for future upgrades.
The end result is that our customer has upgraded to accommodate growth and changes in deployed technology, maintained their security position, continued to maintain network support and met their budget challenge.
Operating Costs
A large government department operates a nationwide network of offices connected by an IP network to a central Data Centre using slow and expensive telecommunications services.
We provided consultancy services to investigate and better negotiate WAN connectivity for the department. We then ran a Proof of Concept to provide assurance that the solution was fit for purpose. The incumbent network integrator was then engaged to undertake the planning and roll-out of the solution.
The network upgrade resulted in an increase in WAN capacity up to 16 times and a reduction in operating costs of approximately 50%. Operating cost savings were achieved not only from the telecommunications service provider price reduction, but also from an innovative approach to designing and provisioning the end solution.
The end users are delighted with the application response time improvements, productivity has increased through decreasing wait time and ongoing operating costs have been slashed.
