If you consider major outages in recent memory, think Blackberry, Amazon, and the UK banks - HSBC, NatWest, First Direct and RBS. Or more locally, DBS.

We’re pretty sure in all cases there is a monitoring system in place, so the million dollar question is this – why has it failed to alleviate the pain of the customer?

Let’s talk about something completely different, but with parallels, because it is not just IT that is suffering. It is infrastructure as a whole. The world is advancing so rapidly technologically that many of the core functions are not being upgraded in-line with the advancements taking place. A great local infrastructure example is the Singapore Mass Rail Transit (SMRT) “meltdown” in recent months. Not only has this issue highlighted some fundamental faults in the SMRT, it has also resulted in a public outcry, political embarrassment and job losses.

But let’s look into what happened. The SMRT has undergone massive expansion in recent years, and continues to grow, with new train lines scheduled to open in the coming years. It is a huge investment by the SMRT and will see Singapore connected by rail from one end of the island to the other. However, we suspect the technology and monitoring system previously purchased and deployed are not able to keep up with the progress taking place.

All of the new trains recently purchased by SMRT came from China; however the original trains were from Japan. The trains from China are cheaper and are being used on tracks built by the Japanese. The problem is, the Chinese trains are five tonnes heavier than the original Japanese trains and therefore, the infrastructure is being pushed to its limits to cope with the added burden. Obviously, the monitoring system in place when the SMRT was first built is not able to keep up.

While we at NetGain Systems do not have a solution to solve this challenge, we can see parallels with the IT industry.  

Why? Traditional monitoring “models” – be it for the SMRT or for IT – are purchased, deployed, the staff are trained and then it is handed over to the customer. However, in this new world with things changing so fast, and technology evolving every few years – the old monitoring model no longer makes sense. To ensure you are staying on top of your system, you need access to experts at all times to make sure your monitoring system keeps up with the technology you are implementing. That is why we have launched Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service (IMaaS) – do check out our new whitepaper which goes into more detail on this IT revolution.

It’s as simple as this – to ensure technology keeps up with the times, we’ve got to throw out the old and bring in the new – and that is monitoring delivered as a service. The “old” way does not work anymore. People need access to experts at all times. IMaaS meets the needs of IT professionals today and in the future. It grows and evolves with business. At NetGain Systems, we don’t claim to be able to solve the SMRT problems, but we can solve the banks problems through IMaaS.

Immediate Results Businesses Experience with IMaaS?

• Performance, availability, event, and impact management with predictive analytics that detect and automatically resolve IT performance issues – and this is achieved BEFORE services are negatively impacted
•  All monitoring information available in business ready reports, which means business executives can understand how the IT infrastructure is performing in relation to their line of business
• Pre-emptive monitoring, which acts as a “health screening” tool, to inform IT teams of potential disruptions to IT infrastructure and services
• Know, 24×7, what is happening across your entire IT infrastructure, which includes availability and performance of network devices, servers, systems, databases, middleware, application services and customized applications
• Customizable frameworks and interfaces, because customization is typically required to some extent
• Monitor back-end devices – physical or virtual – and scale for a distributed regional or global network

When experiencing your next outage, ask yourself – is it time we finally upgraded to Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service – a cheaper and more effective monitoring solution in today’s rapidly changing world? Or better yet, perhaps we need to consider finding a great service provider now, before we lose millions of dollars and customers when our next outage occurs?

And just in case you need more evidence to convince your boss – check out this Information Week article from 2011 on the cost of downtime – $26.5 billion. Or more on the disaster Sony experienced last year – no one quite knows the cost of that fiasco.

You can’t say we’re not looking out for you.

Cheers

The NetGain Team

Download this important whitepaper now!

Infrastructure monitoring is not ‘exciting,’ but it is one of the most important priorities an organisation has to factor in to ensure it is delivering effective IT services to internal and external users. Technology has evolved at a rapid pace in the past two decades, and yet IT monitoring has not evolved in line with this growth. In fact, the majority of enterprises have taken an ad-hoc approach to infrastructure monitoring, which has resulted in inefficient systems and frustrated IT professionals. Essentially, how it has been done is not best practise.

When the strategic decision is made to subscribe to Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service (IMaaS), IT professionals are liberated and able to work more strategically with IT assets.

IMaaS is a Winning Strategy

• End-customers experience seamless interaction and superior levels of service with your business
• Internal end-users expect IT efficiency and for it to “just work”
• IT professionals win because their “customers” are happier, they are reassured their IT systems will be running 24×7, they can be pro-active, they can deliver value, and they no longer have to focus on the mundane job of infrastructure monitoring

Please download this important whitepaper now (“Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service (IMaaS) Explained – a Whitepaper and Discussion on an IT Revolution that is Changing the Way Enterprises Monitor IT Infrastructure”) to understand the monitoring revolution taking place.

Topics discussed in this whitepaper include:

1. Where infrastructure monitoring is today and the challenges
2. Why IMaaS is the future
3. The ease of deploying IMaaS
4. The business benefits of IMaaS
5. How your IT team benefits from IMaaS
6. Moving from CAPEX to OPEX
7. Where to go from here?
8. And a customer success story from Panasonic

We are pleased to share this highly relevant and extremely valuable information with you.

Cheers

The NetGain Team

The benefits of a virtualized environment include:

• Reduce costs by increasing energy efficiency due to less hardware with server consolidation
• By implementing a server consolidation strategy, you can increase the space utilization efficiency in your data center
• You can build up business continuity through improved disaster recovery solutions and deliver high availability throughout the datacenter
• By having each application within its own “virtual server” you can prevent one application from impacting another application when upgrades or changes are made
• You can develop a standard virtual server build that can be easily duplicated, speeding up server deployment
• You can deploy multiple operating system technologies on a single hardware platform
• By virtualizing enterprise applications, such as Oracle, Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint and SAP, you can meet the highest SLAs
• And more…

However, there is a catch many are missing – monitoring.

All companies experience peaks and troughs with resources, and IT is no exception. Within a virtualized environment, all machines are fighting for the same pool of resources. As such, with everyone fighting for resources at the same time, the IT team needs to ensure it is delivering the right services, at the optimal level of performance, to all of its customers across an organisation 24×7.

The algorithm to effectively run a virtualized environment is extremely complex, and so it cannot be perfect all the time, because it runs based on a scheduling mechanism. The problem is, resources are not so predictable, and resource needs are even less predictable in a virtualised environment. Therefore, if you are not monitoring your IT resources effectively, the end-user can never be sure if what they want is available, and that could create significant frustration.

There is no question that the virtualization of IT is a terrific advancement, BUT if you are not effectively monitoring it, you may face the IT peaks unaware of the potential for service disruption. Therefore, when defining your virtualisation strategy, IT decision makers must consider an effective infrastructure monitoring service to ensure no disruptions. This will ensure you reap the full benefits virtualization.

In essence, the virtualization of IT means resources are going to be shared, which means guaranteed predictability is not. Effective understanding of your resource utilization is vital to success, and as such, infrastructure monitoring has never been more important.

As our customers across Asia Pacific are moving towards a virtualized environment, we are working with them to ensure their monitoring strategy is in line with their virtualization strategy. We know our customers will experience rapid success in moving to a virtualized environment, because the most important aspect for success is being factored in to the strategic planning – monitoring.

Let us know if you have an effective monitoring strategy in line with your virtualization strategy?

Cheers

The NetGain Team

For the past three months, we have beta tested 6.0 extensively in several “live” customer environments, and the feedback has been both very positive and encouraging. The key enhancements we are introducing include:

1. A brand new Web interface – as you can see in the image
2. Physical and logical network topology discovery
3. SLA management
4. Extended monitoring coverage for more technologies
5. A new generation firmware architecture (64-bit Linux & JRE)
6. And vast improvements in performance and stability of our core monitoring engine

We are very proud of what we have achieved with 6.0 because we know that we are delivering the most comprehensive and complete infrastructure monitoring solution in the world, and we know this is true, because infrastructure monitoring is all that we do.

To provide you with further information on what is new with 6.0, please read on for more detail. We’re going to get a little bit techy here, but as it is IT decision makers most interested in, and benefiting from what we deliver, we know you won’t mind.

Web Interface – what’s new?

• We’ve revamped the GUI code to leverage on AJAX and HTML5 technologies
• We’ve developed powerful, intuitive and flexible dashboards and widgets
• You’ll experience a graphical device with technology views

The benefits?

• Significant improvements in Web interactivity and performance
• More intuitive graphical and dashboard screens make it almost no effort to learn
• More responsive and user-friendly

Network Topology Discovery – what’s new?

• Auto discovers and maps layer-2 (physical) and layer-3 (subnet) topologies
• Shows device and links status on topology maps
• Implemented in Flash for powerful animation and topology layout

The benefits?

• This is the “missing feature” customers have been asking for, making Enterprise Manager more complete
• Reflects network device and link status in an intuitive graphical view

SLA – what’s new?

• Different from business views, SLA management is a new feature that allows fine-grained definition and control of SLAs and the specific criteria that will contribute to SLA availability

The benefits?

• Allows accurate definition and measurement of SLA compliance, as defined and committed by IT departments to end users

Enhanced Monitors – what’s new?

As you’ve already been reading, we’ve made significant enhancements, and some of the key areas where customers will experience these major changes are with:

• Websphere
• WebLogic
• Mainstream databases
• JDBC method for database monitoring
• Addition of 30+ new monitors covering various technologies
• Support for pure ‘agent-less’ monitoring

The benefits?

• Wider scope and finer-grained monitoring levels
• Monitoring is easier and quicker to deploy

Monitoring Engine – what’s new?

• Better performance achieved with revamp of SNMP protocol engine
• The ability to turn off engine code to reduce memory foot prints
• Supports up to 200 monitor workers – the last version supported 80

The benefits?

• Achieve three times improvement in SNMP-based monitoring
• There is now less chance of “system busy” errors

Firmware architecture – what’s new?

• Support for 64-bit Linux and Java JRE
• Remove the “2GB” memory limit of 32-bit JRE

 The benefits?

• The “Out Of Memory” issue has been fully resolved and customers are experiencing improved stability
• High scalability that extends monitoring capability for as much as 10,000 device nodes

We are extremely proud of this new version and do not believe that any other company can offer the complete monitoring service that we have been developing and enhancing for the last decade. It is the cutting edge of infrastructure monitoring, and as more organisations understand the need to move to a managed service for their infrastructure monitoring needs, we believe that NetGain Systems is the company best positioned to deliver on the promise of this monitoring nirvana.

If you would like to know more about NetGain Enterprise Manager 6.0, please just drop us a line and it will be our pleasure to provide you with a product demonstration. Alternatively, if you would like more information on Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service (IMaaS), we are happy to share. In fact, expect a Whitepaper on this very topic soon.

Cheers

The NetGain Team

Below is our press release that we issued today if you are interested.

 *****

NetGain Systems Launches NetGain Enterprise Manager 6.0

A Major Evolution in World’s First Infrastructure Monitoring Technology Integrates Intensive Customer Feedback

Singapore, 15^th December 2011, NetGain Systems (www.netgain-systems.com), delivering world-class IT Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service (IMaaS), today announced the launch of its much-anticipated NetGain Enterprise Manager™ 6.0. NetGain’s flagship product, it is the world’s first intelligent, plug-and-play appliance that pre-emptively monitors IT infrastructure in real-time. With the first version launched more than a decade ago, it has recently undergone 18 months of deep development, integrating intensive feedback from customers, and is now a considerably superior product, with multiple new features and enhancements.

“This is a major product upgrade for NetGain Enterprise Manager™, and we are extremely proud to be announcing it today,” said Soon Seah Toh, CEO and Founder of Singapore-based NetGain Systems. “We have a very strong and supportive customer base across Asia, all 100 percent committed to NetGain Systems and our Service, so being able to deliver a product that meets their exact requirements is very satisfying for our team, as excellent customer service remains our number one business priority.

“Customers will experience a brand new Web interface, physical and logical network topology discovery, SLA management, extended monitoring coverage for more technologies, a new generation firmware architecture of 64-bit Linux and JRE, as well as vast improvements in performance and stability of our core monitoring engine.”

For the past three months, NetGain Enterprise Manager™ 6.0 has been extensively beta tested in several ‘live’ customer environments, and the feedback has been very positive. The core product driving NetGain’s Monitoring Command Centre (MC²) Service, NetGain Enterprise Manager™ 6.0 uses intelligent and lightweight agents (or probes) to periodically collect and monitor status and performance information from diverse and complex IT environments, such as network devices, servers, databases, applications, and more. The information is validated against pre-defined thresholds or policies to generate notifications about potential breakdowns, which are sent to IT personal, via email, SMS, audio alarms or popup windows. This data is also used to generate management reports on demand.

“We are very proud of what we have achieved with NetGain Enterprise Manager 6.0 because we know that we are delivering the most comprehensive and complete infrastructure monitoring solution in the world, and we know this is true, because infrastructure monitoring is all we do,” concluded Mr. Toh.

Effective IT infrastructure monitoring is one of the most basic and necessary requirements for any IT department today. NetGain’s philosophy is simple – no matter how big or small a business, IT is a mission-critical asset, no exceptions. By delivering Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service (IMaaS), NetGain evolves with its customers. IMaaS delivers the flexibility of in-house development, with the ease of working with an outsourced provider that delivers a very mature and complete monitoring framework, all at a very low cost (OPEX model), and delivered as a service. The core product driving this service is NetGain Enterprise Manager™ 6.0.

What are the benefits of IMaaS?

•  Frees-up IT professionals to deliver higher-value services
•  Gets IT professionals out of fire-fighting mode
•  IT teams can react to problems BEFORE they occur
•  Reduces operational costs, frustrations and IT complexity
•  Allows a company to manage all IT-controlled assets, including real-time insights, reducing down-time
•  Perform optimally on-site, in the cloud, or in a hybrid environment
•  Cost efficiencies leave budget for more strategic IT assets, which can be seamlessly integrated under MC²

About NetGain Systems

NetGain Systems delivers the world’s first plug & play Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service (IMaaS), which means our customers are proactive rather than reactive. We combine performance, availability, event, and impact management with predictive analytics that detect and reduce time to repair – and we achieve this BEFORE our customers or the services they offer are negatively impacted. Launching our global headquarters in Singapore in 2002, we have since opened offices across Asia Pacific, delivering our highly regarded and award winning IT Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service to more than 200 of the regions’ Fortune 500 companies. Our customers cover all industry sectors, large and small, including Nanyang Technological University, China Mobile, Murphy Oil Corporation, CIMB Group, Alverina Hospital, amongst others, and we were the infrastructure monitoring partner for the Beijing Olympics 2008 and the Singapore Youth Games 2010. We are proud to deliver a service that is cost-effective, extremely easy-to-use, and grows with our customers as they grow and evolve. You can learn more about NetGain Systems at www.netgain-systems.com, or ‘Like’ us on Facebook @NetEzen.

China’s top brands include banks, telecommunications, fashion and food companies, but according to the Wall Street Journal they “are not only competitive in pricing, but are resonating and connecting emotionally with Chinese shoppers, the study said. Chinese companies are also narrowing the wide gap they once had with multi-national counterparts, which had for years built better trust and service for Chinese consumers.”

Penn Olson also published the survey in relation to the explosion for the tech sector. It makes for interesting reading.

We would like to offer our heartfelt congratulations to our customers in the top 50, including:

• China Mobile Limited
• China Life Insurance Company Limited
• Sinopec Limited
• PetroChina Company Limited
• China Telecom Corporation Limited
• China Unicom Limited
• China Construction Bank Corporation
• Agricultural Bank of China Limited
• China Merchants Bank
• Yili Group
• Ping An
• Renren Network
• Hainan Airlines
• China Southern Airlines Company Limited

Cheers,

The NetGain Team

The challenge
Up until now, IT infrastructure monitoring has followed two models. The first is to buy a complex monitoring system from the ‘big four’ IT companies, typically requiring a big investment upfront, then it is installed and the rest is (essentially) up to you. This approach usually results in massive challenges for IT teams, because making even the smallest change is a headache – like trying to find and add a new device or service to monitor.

The systems are just so big and complex, with the experts often inaccessible, that the result is usually frustration and wasted time.

The other option is to download Open Source framework tools, and then have your in-house IT team enhance, code or develop the tool. The major fallback with this approach is changes often do not apply to the core system, and as such, tend to be cosmetic – essentially, open source is not easily configurable. We can’t forget, of course, that this approach also relies heavily on individuals, so if an employee leaves a company, it can be a disaster for the infrastructure monitoring team.

There are other off-the-shelf monitoring tools, which we believe are limited in terms of being very technology specific, and usually designed on a framework that can’t scale-up enterprise-wide. Some tools, based on SNMP, are focused on network technology, without consideration and support for other technologies such as storage, servers, databases and applications. And then other tools might just focus on Microsoft technology and not work across a multi-vendor platform. As most vendors have multi-vendor IT infrastructure, this is a very ad-hoc approach, which is unmanageable in the long term.

And then we have another issue – a trend where companies moved to an outsourced model, but the problem is, many have been burnt by this experience because they lost control.

We believe IT teams must be in a position to add value to their “customer” and focus on delivering business solutions that support an organisations’ goal. If it’s an insurance company, the IT team needs to be in a position to support its success in selling insurance services. A hospital IT department needs to make sure the IT infrastructure enables doctors, nurses and specialists to deliver world-class care to patients. We could go on, but suffice to say, current monitoring models are not allowing IT teams to focus on delivering business value.

Infrastructure monitoring is such a vital and core requirement, but it does not need to be done in-house, nor do enterprises need to buy the big complex systems that are just making IT delivery harder.

So What is Infrastructure Monitoring Nirvana?
We believe it should deliver the flexibility of in-house development, with the ease of working with an outsourced provider that delivers a very mature and complete monitoring framework, all at a very low cost, and best of all, delivered as a ‘Service.’

The reality is, it takes a lot of effort to monitor IT infrastructure, as technology is changing all the time. A monitoring system is an on-going concern that must constantly evolve as an organisation evolves. You can’t just buy it and expect it to be an appropriate solution for the next five, 10 or 20 years. Technology is changing all the time, and as such, the flexibility to monitor your IT infrastructure must move at the same pace. That is why Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service (IMaaS) makes so much sense.

We talk to CIOs and IT managers every day, and the one reality they all face is very few resources to cover a HUGE number of responsibilities and tasks – which includes monitoring 100s or 1000s of services and devices every day. IT departments are frustrated as they are continually expected to do more with less, and because frustration is high, professional satisfaction amongst IT teams is very low. IMaaS can alleviate this.

This is the approach today. It is different to how it has been done in the past, is much needed, is definitely long overdue, and we see this as the way smart businesses will monitor IT infrastructure.

What are the benefits of IMaaS?

• Frees-up IT professionals to deliver services that ensures their business flourishes
• Gets IT professionals out of fire-fighting mode and proactively contributing to business growth
• Reduces operational costs, internal frustrations and reduces IT complexity
• Means IT teams can react to problems BEFORE they occur
• Allows a company to manage the performance of all IT-controlled assets, including real-time insights into IT performance, which reduces down-time
• You can perform optimally on-site, in the cloud, or in a hybrid environment
• And you will reduce your overall IT costs, which means you can invest in more strategic IT assets and it can all be seamlessly integrated into the monitoring service

What are the technology benefits?

• All the benefits of a fully outsourced managed services model, which means removing all the disadvantages of doing it yourself
• Plug it in and go – it really should be that easy
• No intensive training required
• Monitor and measure every aspect of your IT – networks, infrastructure, applications, devices and people – onsite, in the cloud or in a heterogeneous environment
• Add new devices, applications, networks or infrastructure and it will be seamlessly integrated into the IMaaS service – you grow, the service supports that
• Real-time, end-to-end integrated management in a multi-vendor and heterogeneous environment
• Auto-discovery of network devices, applications and services, along with an intuitive display of network and service topologies in a real-time Web-based view
• Agent-less and agent-based monitoring of your infrastructure, applications, real and synthetic end-user transactions, SNMP networks, configuration changes, business metrics and custom information

A company who delivers IMaaS knows the technology inside out. They are the experts. BUT it is the cost efficiency that comes with it being delivered as a service that makes sense. In addition, when subscribing to a service, the service provider is responsible for delivering the latest and greatest version, they are committed to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that must be achieved and they know the technology and can make appropriate changes as change or upgrades become necessary. It makes so much sense.

The best bit? Happier end-users, as they’ll have access to services when and how they want them, and they’ll be taken out of the “monitoring feedback chain” – in fact, they won’t even know there are any problems. This is an important part of the IMaaS story, because the customer complaints alone are causing a lot of dissatisfaction and unhappiness amongst IT professionals.

Simple benefits of IMaaS

• Reduced ICT costs and complexity
• Decreased TCO
• No more messy upgrades – evolves with your business needs
• Outsourced but in-sourced gives you complete control
• Meet your internal KPIs
• Reduce risk and compliance
• Less reliance on individuals
• Makes IT more efficient
• Delivers IT professional satisfaction
• Keeps you running 24×7
• Takes away a headache you don’t need to have

Summing Up
The current financial model most enterprises adopt with infrastructure monitoring is CAPEX – where you suffer big upfront costs while making an investment for the long-term. IMaaS is OPEX, where you decide what you need today and pay a monthly fee based on the services and support required. Enterprises are moving towards an OPEX approach with all ICT investments, and IMaaS is definitely part of this momentum.

IMaaS isn’t sexy. It’s not even something you are aware of. It’s running in the background, making sure your system is running 24×7. If you think of other great technology evolutions – email, the Internet, Google, Smart Phones, and so on – can you remember how you managed before? That is how IMaaS will soon be regarded – CIOs and IT teams will wonder how they ever managed without it. End-users of technology will just expect this level of service from the IT team

It’s here, it’s now, and it really will make the world of difference to IT productivity and satisfaction. We definitely recommend IT teams get on with it, as it will only make your lives easier. It will change the way you work and what you focus on, and as too many customers have told us – IMaaS enables IT teams to sleep peacefully – do read our Panasonic case study for proof of this statement. With the monitoring service always operating in the background, our customers’ know their system is working, and if there is a problem, they’ll be alerted, and the alert will be escalated until action is taken. It’s that simple.

Cheers
The NetGain Team

“Since Panasonic signed up to NetGain’s IMaaS, I definitely know that I can sleep more peacefully. It is the peace of mind it delivers that makes the difference. Problems are identified before we even know there is a problem, which means we can be more preventative. It has resulted in a significant improvement to the way we run our operations.”

We’d like to share this fantastic case study with you.

Cheers
The NetGain Team

Panasonic IT Team Sleep More Peacefully with Mission Critical Datacenter Monitored

For more than 50 years, Panasonic has delighted the world’s consumers with innovations for home and business. Panasonic’s consumer electronics and technology products range from award-winning VIERA High Definition Plasma and LCD TVs and LUMIX Digital Cameras to ruggedized Toughbook® laptop computers, communications solutions, networkable office solutions, security systems, home appliances, personal care products, components and entire in-flight entertainment and information systems.

One of the largest electronic product manufacturers in the world, Panasonic Corporation comprises over 680 companies. One group within this global corporation is the Corporate Information Systems Company, a Division of Panasonic Asia Pacific. Responsible for IT infrastructure management for Panasonic’s Asia Pacific regional datacenter and service operations (excluding China and Japan), this team ensures all mission critical services are delivered to its customers – the Panasonic regional employees. Managing 200 back-end devices, the regional ERP systems, as well as in-house systems, the IT team for Corporate Information Systems Company has a huge responsibility to ensure the mission-critical regional datacenter is operational 24×7.

What was the business challenge you needed to address?

The support and scope requirements on our team were increasing at a rapid pace, with more and more systems coming into play. At Panasonic, we follow ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) – a global best practise standard – and we identified three processes that needed to be strengthened to ensure adherence to these standards. The three processes were:

1. Change management
2. Affordability
3. Problem management

Now that we had identified the processes requiring improvement, what changes did we need to make to achieve these goals? We were able to come up with solutions for change management and problem management, but affordability was an issue.

Until this point, we had always managed our infrastructure monitoring in a traditional way, with the script developed internally. However, we did not have a standard script across the organisation, and were too dependent on individual administrators who had designed the scripts. As such, if people changed roles or were unavailable, other team members did not necessarily understand these scripts.

That was the first problem. The second problem is we had alerts issued but we did not have clear guidelines or escalation processes in place to ensure problems were solved immediately. It was a messy situation, it wasn’t centralised, and it wasn’t allowing us to achieve our Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with our internal customers. Essentially we were spending a lot of time monitoring our own systems and it was taking up an enormous amount of team resources.

The essential issue we faced is alerts were issued, but there was no centralised procedure around the alerts, and many times, we were not acting until the next day. The next day is too late because the end-user is already experiencing a problem.

Why did you decide on NetGain Systems?

Once we identified the need for an infrastructure monitoring solution, we agreed that the solution must suit us. Additionally if an alert was issued, the solution provider needed to demonstrate how they would ensure appropriate action took place. We saw three companies, and decided on NetGain Systems.

Not only did they meet our escalation process requirements, NetGain Systems could deliver Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service (IMaaS) – something that really appealed to us. The other contenders could not deliver a service.

Cost was also a key factor in our decision, and NetGain Systems’ Infrastructure Management as a Service is very cost-effective.

When did you deploy this infrastructure monitoring service?

We have been working with NetGain for 18 months and during this time, Panasonic has gone through many changes – infrastructure, people and services. All throughout our working relationship, I have communicated my requirements and they have configured the infrastructure monitoring service to suit those requirements.

When we signed our service agreement with NetGain Systems, we agreed an escalation matrix with them, so when alerts are issued, they make sure alerts are escalated to the right people until action is taken. It’s been extremely efficient and we have had no major issues with NetGain since this service has been in place.

Currently we have two NetGain Enterprise Manager devices sitting in our regional datacenter. The boxes feature high availability architecture and track our South East Asian systems from a central location. Our data center is where we manage our mission critical IT services – such as email – so this is where everything is consolidated in one place.

What business and IT benefits have you experienced?

On a day-to-day basis, we know that our mission critical operations are being monitored and alerts issued based on pre-defined criteria. We cannot experience downtime, so once an alert is issued, we must act and provide a resolution within two hours. With NetGain, we are in a position to pro-actively monitor our mission-critical infrastructure, which ensures an incident is picked up and an alert issued.

NetGain helps us meet our SLAs, as well as our customer KPI’s. In the last 18 months, this service has identified every problem and we use it to track all devices, including network devices. As a general rule, our network is reliable enough, so the infrastructure we benefit most from monitoring includes: services; OS; and application services. Therefore, the major focus is on server availability.

By tracking our server performance, we are tracking hardware, ERP, and resource trends – CPU and memory usage. However, it also helps capacity planning, financial planning, and essentially, we know exactly what is needed to ensure our business unit runs smoothly. The main business benefits we experience include:

• Access to real-time, business ready information
• We know our capacity
• We can track our growth
• We can identify waste

But it is also tremendously useful in financial year planning. Because NetGain delivers business-ready reports with this service, we can capture valuable data and see trends. Now we know the problems that occur over a year, we know where improvements can be made, and that means we now allocate appropriate budgets easily and effortlessly in our planning process.

Is partnership with your monitoring service provider key for success?

Absolutely. In the beginning and throughout the relationship, we have planned with NetGain Systems – they are an extension of our team. They know the trends and understand what is mission critical, and they also met with my general manager and understood our business needs.

They know the expectations, understand the business and IT problems and were able to deliver an appropriate solution to meet our needs. In fact it was their idea to deliver the solution as a service and we appreciate this flexibility. But it’s an on-going relationship and last week, we had a problem. The NetGain team were easy to access, responsive and were able to quickly drill down to the problem, which means we could get it fixed. That’s the sort of service and partnership we require.

How has your IT team benefited from this service?

We have more time, we are able to utilise our budget more effectively and we can deliver a superior level of service to our internal customers. For example, if the management team requests a usage report for the last three months, before it would have taken one man-day to get the information together. With this solution, we can get it anytime, anywhere, and the information is available immediately.

My team can now focus on strategic IT solutions, such as virtualisation and future IT opportunities, and as such, I believe my team is more professionally satisfied and happier. For me personally, I don’t worry so much anymore. Don’t get me wrong, this is a complex, mission-critical datacenter so there are still problems, but I am free now to focus on the more complex issues, because the basic and essential ones are taken care of. Now, we only need to act when things go wrong. NetGain’s Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service also enables us to meet SOX – the global security compliance we adhere to.

Initially, when we installed NetGain’s services, my management team were able to see immediate results and were extremely satisfied. They could see the results. Now, 18 months later, they just expect this level of service. It has been extremely valuable for our company. Monitoring is such a basic thing, but it can create very big problems if you don’t manage it properly.

The most important benefit is we feel safe. We know our infrastructure monitoring is in very good hands. It’s definitely the reassurance we needed.

What would you say to peers about infrastructure monitoring?

Find a partner that is able to deliver a service. Don’t follow the traditional monitoring path. Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service (IMaaS) is the way forward, and it will help you improve operational efficiency, reduce costs and your IT team will be more professionally satisfied.

Since Panasonic signed up to NetGain’s IMaas, I definitely know that I can sleep more peacefully. It is the peace of mind it delivers that makes the difference. Problems are identified before we even know there is a problem, which means we can be more preventative. It has significantly improved the way we run our operations.

Do you have plans to grow this service within Panasonic?

Currently we use this service in our regional data centre, but we expect to use it more comprehensively across the different Panasonic businesses in this region. So yes, we are planning to expand our use of this service.

This case study is based on an interview with the IT Manager, Corporate Information Systems Company, a Division of Panasonic Asia Pacific.

About NetGain Systems

NetGain Systems delivers the world’s first plug & play IT Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service, which means our customers are proactive rather than reactive. We combine performance, availability, event, and impact management with predictive analytics that detect and reduce time to repair – and we achieve this BEFORE our customers or the services they offer are negatively impacted. Launching our global headquarters in Singapore in 2002, we have since opened offices across Asia Pacific, delivering our highly regarded and award winning IT Infrastructure Monitoring as a Service to more than 200 of the regions’ Fortune 500 companies. Our customers cover all industry sectors, large and small, including Nanyang Technological University, China Mobile, Murphy Oil Corporation, CIMB Group, Mount Alvernia Hospital, amongst others, and we were the infrastructure monitoring partner for the Beijing Summer Olympics 2008 and the Singapore Youth Games 2010. We are proud to deliver a service that is cost-effective, extremely easy-to-use, and grows with our customers as they grow and evolve. You can learn more about NetGain Systems at www.netgain-systems.com or ‘Like’ us on Facebook www.facebook.com.NetEzen

For more information on Panasonic and Panasonic products, you can visit http://panasonic.net/

He influenced me for many reasons, but it was his focus on the customer experience and therefore, delivering product excellence that resounded with me the most. I really appreciated the example he set by not being focused purely on profit.

As was written in his new biography:

“My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products. The products, not the profits, were the motivation. Sculley flipped these priorities to where the goal was to make money. It’s a subtle difference, but it ends up meaning everything.”

This was a great example to me, because it is something I wholeheartedly believe in, and while I’m obviously not in the same sphere as him with my business, it has always given me strength to keep my focus on servicing my customers rather than chasing profits. It’s who I am and what drives me every day, so I thank him for this. I can assure you that this is not the easiest path to follow when many business peers remain profit focused.

I also think he embodied the concept of the “reality distortion field” – the idea that something becomes possible when you make people believe it. In a very positive way, I definitely see that he distorted reality for millions of people around the world – something we should all keep in mind for the future of business and humanity.

I really do appreciate his contribution to the IT industry and for being a positive role model for me as a businessman, and as a human being – although my employees can breathe a sigh of relief. I’ll always expect excellence from myself, but I won’t be taking a leaf out of his book when it comes to uncompromisingly high expectations. I do expect great things from my team, but I certainly go about achieving that in a milder way.

Soon Seah Toh 
Managing Director 
NetGain Systems 

Final judging will be done on 13 to 14 July 2011 while the awards ceremony will be held on 02 August 2011 at The Chamber at The Arts House.

We presented to a team of preliminary team of judges on Tuesday where we highlighted the features of our NetGain Enterprise Manager and the additional value of NetGain Systems infrastructure-as-a-service model which allows enterprises to monitor their network infrastructure without the worries of investing in capital.

SiTF Awards, organised by Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), is to provide recognition to innovative ICT Application / Solution which are developed locally.