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Kwik-Fit UK selects WhatsUp Gold to monitor its remote sites and provide bandwidth utilisation of critical offices

Kwik-Fit UK selects WhatsUp Gold to monitor its remote sites and provide bandwidth utilisation of critical offices

 

Kwik-Fit, the automotive parts repair specialists and leading fast-fit tyre supplier in the UK, is using Ipswitch’s network management division WhatsUp Gold to monitor the network status of over 700 remote sites.

 

“WhatsUp Gold allowed us to do exactly what we wanted to do – provide up/down monitoring and alerting of all our remote sites coupled with bandwidth utilisation of critical offices, while also allowing us to expand our monitoring capabilities through SNMP and WMI monitoring,” said Neil Mitchell, Kwik-Fit UK network manager.

 

Traffic visibility strengthens security

 

“With WhatsUp Gold we are able to monitor critical applications such as mail queues, the number of remote VPN [virtual private network] users connected and the core device environmental data. The NetFlow plug-in is also being used at some of our critical offices, enabling us to see exactly what traffic is flowing in more detail and instantly troubleshoot network issues.”

 

With WhatsUp Gold installed, the IT department can be much more pro-active in fault resolution. As Mitchell explained, it often knows when there is a problem before the users have even realised themselves. “We can also determine patterns. For example, if a site has gone down a number of times in a short period, it may indicate a circuit stability issue, or we can check for network problems retrospectively ? if one of our overnight processes fails we can check to see if there were any network issues at the time.”

 

Fault detection adds support boost

 

“If our helpdesk gets a call from an employee complaining of a drop in connectivity we can check the live WhatsUp Gold data and which sites are down. If WhatsUp Gold deduces that these sites are all connected with a particular ISP [internet service provider] we can raise a call with them to ensure swift problem resolution. Using the historical reports we can even advise the ISP of exactly when and for how long a particular site was down.”

 

WhatsUp Gold has proven almost instant return on investment as the IT department needs spend far less time troubleshooting issues, as WhatsUp Gold does all the groundwork, leaving them time to work on other IT projects that will help take the company forward.

 

“As our business develops, the importance of network connectivity becomes more critical. WhatsUp Gold certainly helps cut the time taken to resolve issues,” added Mitchell.