Project - Network Performance Management

I noticed it was taking significant time to diagnose network outages and slow speeds, and that the department had no easy way to determine the cause.  I wanted to ensure that all of the network devices were running the latest software, and had all been fully described.  I requested that we purchase a network monitoring tool to help pinpoint congestion areas, identify bottlenecks, and help identify when network segments are unavailable. To help justify costs, we would use the tool to monitor bandwidth usage across the various servers to help determine costs in moving them to the cloud.

Goals:

The tool was obtained, installed, and a network diagram was made available.  The tool met with all of the objectives, serving to decrease support times and improve visibility.  The tool was used shortly after it was acquired to troubleshoot the network as it had become unresponsive.  It was discovered that one of the network devices, a Cisco ASA device, had become unresponsive.  The IT Team sourced a specialist who discovered that the device was running an older custom written program that had been ported over from another device, and that it was failing under load.  The consultant re-coded the program, improving stability and reducing processing speeds.

This project helped improve visibility into the performance of every device on the network, helping to increase the overall processing capabilities of the company while improving stability and security.