SERVICE & SUPPORT OPERATION CENTER

Solution 1:

TNS offers affordable, proactive network monitoring

After several years of concept design and development, combined with decades of accumulated experience in the Information Technology field, Triware Networld Systems (TNS) is now offering an affordable, innovative solution for small- and medium-sized businesses that are looking for top-of-the-line monitoring capabilities.

Unlike most monitoring services, TNS’s Service and Support Operation Center (SSOC) detects problems with your network, server hardware, operating systems, server applications and network environment before they even occur.

Our Artificial Intelligence (AI) engine, developed from both the IT support and end-user points of views, give our clients more than enough time to repair and troubleshoot problems to avoid potentially disastrous situations. In addition, SSOC carries out all services without the need for costly dedicated on-site server hardware, software and connections to our SSOC.

For example, most network monitoring services can tell you when your website is down, but they probably won’t be able to tell you why, much less helping you to fix the problem. Here at TNS, we understand the importance of identifying the problem in order to carry out an immediate recovery.

With that said, wouldn’t it be even better to know when your website may potentially go down and prevent it from happening altogether?

SSOC can do that and more. If your web server is running out of resources or hardware is degrading, such as a hard disk failure with the RAID or even a broken fan, SSOC will be able to tell and take corrective action accordingly. On top of this, SSOC monitors all of your major operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, SUN, HP, IBM, UNIX, Linux, NetWare, and even Macintosh and AS400.

The Issue

Network monitoring is far from being a new concept. In fact, companies have been offering professional network monitoring services to small- and medium-sized companies for almost a decade.

But even today, most services only detect problems after it is too late, and most monitoring is focused on the end-user’s point of view – see what the end-user sees at the same time or later and the services do not include helping trouble-shooting the causes. The majority of today’s monitoring services also do not cover the full range of IT hardware and software, from network devices, server hardware and operating systems to environmental issues like temperature, moisture and humidity. Nor do other monitoring services allow businesses to extend monitoring to peripheral equipment like bank’s ATM machines.

The solution

San Jose Credit Union (SJCU), a credit union that has been offering top-notch financial services to San Jose residents since 1932, has avoided and recovered very quickly from many potential downtimes thanks to SSOC since July 2003.

The credit union was also one of TNS’s first clients to take advantage of our state-of-the-art SSOC when it first came out in July 2003, providing around-the-clock monitoring and management to clients without the need for expensive investment.

For example, SSOC detected a dead router in SJCU’s San Jose City Hall branch one weekend. Another time, the router cable was unplugged by accident. By alerting SJCU of the router failures, our client was able to avoid significant downtime by replacing the dead router the following Monday with our engineer’s help and fixed the cable problem the same Morning.

SSOC has detected other potential problems for SJCU, including: server application failures, backup services failures, inadequate disk space in the firewall logging area and ATM machines downtime.

Dave MacArthur, IT engineer for SJCU, said SSOC has been so effective that the union no longer needs to worry about detecting network failures itself.

“When a server is acting up or there is a security issue TNS usually catches it before we see it here in the office; that’s how good their service is,” MacArthur said. “It's a nice feeling knowing that someone monitoring our network for us all the time.”

“The best everyday benefit of having SSOC is the 24x7 support we get,” he said.

How it works

Developed and integrated in-house, SSOC runs off redundant Internet connections using both T1 and wireless links scalable up to 10 MB and redundant fail-over routes using BGP connecting through the T1 and wireless connections.  In addition to that, multiple redundant and fail-over monitoring and managing hosts are set up to provide the best possible uninterrupted services.

With SSOC, TNS engineers are able to detect most potential problems with any of our clients’ Internet services (SMTP, HTTP, FTP), system performance (CPU Utilization, Memory Usage, Disk Space, Event Log) and services and processes (Exchange, SQL, Oracle, Domino). SSOC can also informs engineers of how secure our clients’ networks are when support devices are in the right places before a problem hits.

TNS senior partner Benson Yeung, who has been working in the field for more than two decades, said he has always visualized the need for such an affordable center.

“I have visualized many times the need for a facility that would reduce the total cost of ownership for network maintenance, while providing innovative, real-time, proactive service and support,” Yeung said. “Turning this vision into a reality was indeed a leap forward for TNS.”

All of SSOC’s managed nodes can be remotely restarted, or even cold-booted, if necessary to bring back our client’s mission-critical services. 

As far as security monitoring goes, SSOC detects most suspicious activities on our clients’ firewalls, tracks these suspicious activities and records them as necessary. Penetration assessment is performed on our clients’ monitored and managed sites regularly to ensure the best possible security for outsourced and maintenance clients. 

As part of the remote management services, TNS will also install critical security patches for both operating systems and server applications during late night sessions and weekend hours to reduce downtime and increase client productivity.

Should an emergency arise, our well-trained engineers are available to be dispatched to client sites on a 24x7 basis.

“With the SSOC, we combine the best of the breed in industry software solutions for each of the monitored and managed areas, and our engineers are ready to be on the ground-zero should the needs there 24x7.” Yeung said.

Client satisfaction

Since Triware Networld Systems (TNS) launched SSOC, the Center has grown to provide 24-hour monitoring and managing to more than several hundreds of Monitor Points (MPs) including overseas locations with more clients signing up each month.

Due to such high demand, TNS has upgraded the Service and Support Operation Center (SSOC) to Version 1.5, which includes new Windows security monitoring and advanced add-on software developed in house that monitors humidity, temperature and moisture / wetness around our clients’ mission critical devices. Environmental monitoring add-on hardware and software is also available to clients who monitor and manage their own networks through the TNS eStore.

Among its numerous clients, SSOC monitors international and national servers for financial institutions, schools, worldwide companies, defense contractors, restaurants, tour operators, venture capital firms and software development companies.

Our clients have been more than pleased with SSOC’s proactive approach to monitoring and managing servers.

“SSOC has informed us of potentially harmful situations more than once, allowing us to easily resolve those issues,” said an IT manager for the leading music school in San Francisco.

Another client, Gianfranco Venturelli, who is the IT engineer of Telekom Assist Europe S.p.A., an Italy-based worldwide company, said he particularly enjoys SSOC’s 24-hour availability. In case of emergency, highly skilled TNS engineers are available for answering questions and help trouble-shooting issues remotely.

“The best service I get out of SSOC is the reassurance that I have someone to call at any hour of the day for professional and high-skilled service,” he said.

Jun Pan, a manager of the largest tour operator in China, China Travel Service (USA), Inc., has subscribed to TNS services for more than 13 years and enjoys the “responsible and fast” approach that SSOC offers.

“The new SSOC system illustrates problems in a way that is very easy to understand,” he said. “It is a very cool service that I highly recommend to others.”

In the future

Yeung said TNS is never finished when it comes to making improvements and advancements to SSOC’s technological abilities.

“We plan to continue making enhancements to our current capacities to provide even more value and solutions to our clients,” Yeung said.

We at TNS challenge you to realize the benefits of signing up for SSOC. Please Click Here for more information.