Camera and imaging company sets priority guidelines for bulk imaging data to ensure transfer of business data

Camera and imaging company sets priority guidelines for bulk imaging data to ensure transfer of business data

Ritz Camera & Image had a large private communications network with no Quality of Service (QoS) control, which led to delays in the transfer of business data.

As a result, it has implemented Scrutinizer NetFlow and sFlow Analyzer from Plixer to give Ritz Camera & Image senior network engineer, D. Michael Smith, the network insights he needed for prioritising traffic.

Ritz Camera is a photographic retail and photofinishing speciality retailer with close to 300 stores across the US. “Because of the nature of our business, much of our bulk data is imaging and graphics – large files travelling over our network with no priority designation,” said Smith. “Business data like credit card transactions and inventory reporting was smaller but more crucial in terms of timely transmission. Running over the same connections, bulk data would constantly interfere with business data, delaying timely transactions.”

In search of granular control

After a long search, Smith came across Plixer’s Scrutinizer NetFlow and sFlow Analyzer. The powerful monitoring, reporting and forensic capabilities of Scrutinizer have helped Smith build out QoS policies and implement them so that traffic could be prioritised properly. With the right prioritisation, business traffic would no longer be interfered with.

Smith explained: “The key was to have Scrutinizer tell us exactly what was being presented – how much of the traffic was defined one way or the other, percentages of use, etc. – and then build our QoS policies based on the information that the program collected.

Managing network traffic efficiently

“Prior to implementing Scrutinizer, traffic was intermittently dropping. Business departments were upset because information took too long to reach them. In general,” he said. “The network was not running as efficiently as it could have been. Since we implemented Scrutinizer, the QoS we implemented based on the collected data has ensured that everything is working in a timely and efficient manner – with dropped transactions becoming almost inexistent.”

Imaging and business groups at Ritz Camera were both content with the results. Additionally, Smith has used Scrutinizer to help improve network security and to bolster ongoing monitoring capabilities.

Scrutinizer’s database feature also provides Smith with the power to do forensic analysis quickly and easily. “Using the database, I can go back and pinpoint historical information to find out exactly what was happening, say, two weeks ago,” added Smith. “From a network perspective, the ability to see exactly what was happening on any given day and review the information gives me a powerful forensic advantage.”