Solutions by Industry
Find industry specific solutions for your organization with CCSS Solutions by Industry.
Click the links below for common, industry-related issues and the solutions available to meet your organization’s specific systems management needs.
Problem: Downtime is our biggest enemy as the financial consequences for the bank would be extreme. Our team is already stretched. If a critical message is missed or a problem occurs on the main production system, it could threaten our availability. We’re struggling to meet the demands of 100% availability, 100% of the time.
Solution: No team, however vigilant, can expect to maintain a gold standard of 100% availability, 100% of the time through manual monitoring. CCSS solutions offer centralized control to manage the challenges of even the most demanding networked environments from the financial sector. With QMessage Monitor, all non-critical messages can be filtered automatically giving operators time to focus on those that require dedicated attention, expertise or investigation. Real-time alerts to critical messages or breached, user-defined thresholds, ensure problems do not escalate out of control or have any possibility to go unnoticed.
Problem: When rolling out the migration of a new banking package to other off-shore sites, multiple journal receiver entries were generated and overflowed into the central ASP, leaving our data in the vulnerable position of being lost if the system crashed. How do we address this vulnerability and ensure circumstances like this don’t lead to a downtime situation?
Solution: With QSystem Monitor, users can define at-a-glance monitoring of ASPs and physical disk units in several ways. Operators can use real-time monitoring and associated alerts to immediately identify any issues. Critical ASP information is accessible and highly visible, showing operators a wide range of information including the percentage of ASP Busy Unit; number of ASP Busy Unit; ASP Space Free; ASP Space Used and ASP Status. QSystem Monitor also detects Independent ASPs that are unable to overflow into another ASP before they reach their maximum capacities, preventing potential loss of data.
Problem: For us, banking and security must go hand-in-hand. How can we monitor for password breaches and profiles being disabled for both audit compliance and improving our own security processes?
Solution: Analysis of these types of historical trends can highlight one-off instances or patterns that conflict with security protocol. Authorization lists in QMessage Monitor can tailor and restrict the viewing and interaction capabilities of each user. This reduces the opportunity for operators to either view or respond incorrectly to critical and sensitive messages. Based on historical analysis, new measures can be justifiably instated such as restricting in-house developers’ view of messages from the production machine, eliminating the chance of unnecessary mistakes. Once the incidence of unintentional breaches is reduced, malicious breaches become more apparent and managers can be alerted to their existence in real-time with immediate detailed information on the user, request/command and system.
Problem: We provide outsourcing services to clients from the financial industry. While there are common industry-related needs, such as 24/7 availability, their individual requirements are so diverse we cannot implement a one-view-fits-all standard to managing their systems. How can we centrally manage their unique requirements without the massive cost associated with increasing our team?
Solution: The detailed functionality of CCSS Solutions offers companies the convenience of centralized monitoring for all systems and, at the same time, the flexibility to customize each system view. QSystem Monitor provides a manageable and tailored ‘view’ for each system as defined by the user on a single console. This means an operator can effectively manage a number of systems for individual clients and switch between them to resolve issues as they arise, increasing efficiency without compromising the requirements of his or her clients. This solution allows outsourcing companies to create and enforce very precise SLAs which will keep them competitive in the market, fully accountable for their services, and profitable in their efficient use of resources.
Problem: We run a Transportation Management System (TMS) on IBM i and as part of that, have Service Level Agreements which must be upheld. If we encountered a significant problem on the system and were unable to resolve it quickly, it could breach those agreements causing disruption to our operations and potential revenue losses. That’s just not an option.
Solution: QSystem Monitor (QSM) alerts operators to any potential problem before it becomes a serious threat. Users can define thresholds that draw the line between the upper (or lower) limits of acceptable levels on virtually any system metric. Similarly, QSM can monitor many system elements for active or inactive status. QSM’s real-time alerts give operators advance notice to respond and identify the ‘what, where, why’ of each issue, dramatically reducing resolution time or preventing problems completely. Service Level Agreements that run in tandem with these pro-active measures, for either internal or external customers, have the highest ongoing success rates. Furthermore, QSystem Monitor’s graphical management reports make it easy for IT teams to accurately communicate to non-technical colleagues, management teams or customers any number of detailed, SLA parameters including availability (by percentage) on the systems at any given period.
Problem: One of the important factors in determining our profitability is how accurately we can create resource estimates for new customers.
Solution: QSystem Monitor’s Job Accounting feature can be used to document and interpret the resource demands of existing customers. Use of resource according to user, a group of users or defined systems or subsystems can become an effective way to scale and price for similar use by new customers. In environments where individuals, groups or jobs must be financially accountable for some or all resource usage, this can be extremely valuable.
Problem: We rely heavily on WebSphere® MQ (MQ Series) as it provides a direct communications channel to national customs. Recently a 3rd party vendor required remote access to carry out a routine troubleshooting task on an MQ Queue. During the task, they shut down the whole MQ Subsystem and forgot to restart it. As a result, we faced several hours of downtime with vital packages held up in customs because we lost our comms link with them.
Solution: QSystem Monitor’s ability to monitor WebSphere MQ means QSM immediately alerts managers when a MQ subsystem is down. Managers can quickly repair the problem, restoring the associated comms link and prevent delays in the business process. Avoiding downtime can help logistics companies meet their delivery agreements and retain their reputations for reliability.
Problem: We heavily invested in an expensive HA (High Availability) solution, and we thought this meant our data was totally protected in any downtime event. However, when a journal receiver became inactive, and the HA switchover occurred; large amounts of transactional data were lost.
Solution: While the HA solution performed as it should in this case, monitoring the active status of journal receivers is critical to guarding against data loss in planned or unplanned downtime situations. As with all CCSS monitors, if journal receiver status becomes inactive, QSystem Monitor will sound the alarm in real-time and invoke escalation alerts so operators can immediately resolve the problem.
Problem: Downtime is nothing short of disastrous, without system availability our business literally stops in every department (from R&D and Finance to Sales and Distribution). Recently, a job started to loop early in the evening and began to deposit replica spool files into a non-printing queue. Before long, hundreds of thousands of unwanted pages began to build up and because the job restarted each time, it was not immediately obvious that this was the problem. The operator was resolving another issue away from his console and before long the system crashed at 100% AUX. Our IT Team struggled for two days to find the cause of the crash with only a painstaking investigation of the history log to assist us.
Solution: These types of looping jobs can be immediately detected with QMessage Monitor (QMM). Once identified in real-time, QMM notifies operators with red flashing alerts on the product’s graphical user interface. Speech software can also be utilized to audibly alert operators and, if missed, QRemote Control’s automatic escalation procedure will send a text message or email directly to the operator. If again ignored or missed, the message will be sent to the next indicated team member or manager and so on until the issue is resolved. QMessage Monitor dramatically reduces investigation time as the needed looping job information is included in the message. With the thorough alerts and escalation procedures of QMM and QRC, the system is no longer vulnerable to this kind of negative exposure and impact.
Problem: If any of our day/week/month or year-end processing tasks experience problems that aren’t identified and resolved, associated accounting transactions do not get posted. These processes must complete to close out the day/week/month or fiscal year. Our business is so tightly integrated; an unresolved task could result in a customer not receiving a scheduled delivery.
Solution: QMessage Monitor’s event monitoring capabilities are ideal for ensuring regular and business critical tasks, such as end-of-day, complete smoothly and without incident. Managers can be alerted if the scheduled event failed to start or finish in the expected time parameters. This real-time call-to-action reduces the possibility of subsequent problems regardless of the time of day. The instant a defined event does not occur, QRemote Control will issue a message to a mobile phone and will continue paging members of the on-call team until it is answered. The message tells managers which system is affected and which system message requires action. The investigation time is effectively zero.
Problem: Following the launch of a new product, our global sales team was exceptionally busy taking orders from new and existing customers. The sales personnel began complaining they were experiencing very poor response time, which was slowing their use of the critical sales application. Our operators checked the system but the cause was not obvious. The network team believed it was a system problem, and we were convinced it was a network problem.
Solution: Sometimes network-related problems are not obvious. When the root of the issue is unknown, it’s easy to create a ‘blame deadlock’ between departments. QSystem Monitor offers an extremely useful ‘view’ of IOP utilization which, in this case, would highlight an issue with the original configuration – a problem so ‘hidden’ that it is unlikely to be investigated unless all other options have been ruled out. However, with the visibility of QSystem Monitor, operators can immediately pinpoint unusually high utilization on a particular processor. This observation combined with the knowledge of poor response time would immediately highlight that processor for a more detailed examination, dramatically reducing investigation time. A fast resolution, supported by QSystem Monitor, would have quickly restored optimal productivity levels for users.
Problem: In a classic example of bad timing, a TCP port became inactive and application generated messages sat in queues unanswered. The application in question was business critical and directly linked to the sales tills at nationwide branches. As critical levels of unanswered messages occurred, the application fell over and effectively shut down the tills, delaying business and inconveniencing customers.
Solution: QSystem Monitor (QSM) tracks the status of critical communications objects, as in this case, TCP ports, in real-time. The moment a TCP port becomes inactive, QMessage Monitor (QMM) alerts managers to the issue so they can implement the necessary measures to resolve it without any consequence to the related application. In the unique situation where a QMM message reporting an inactive port is ignored, managers will receive other notification and information pinpointing the problem. For instance, QSM users can set a threshold on the application message queue. If the threshold is breached, QSM and QMM will alert the operations team, giving them time to react before it negatively impacts business.
Problem: Over a busy trading holiday, a vital stock replenishment order for a flagship retail store was held up on a system. The user had submitted the job to a heavily utilized job queue, QBATCH, in held status and forgot to release it. Dispatch of the stock was not received in time for the next day’s trade, directly impacting the profits of the company.
Solution: Jobs that are this important must be monitored. Unless highlighted, a job could be held in the queue indefinitely. Running a simple check in QSystem Monitor will automatically alert managers when jobs have been held in a queue beyond a particular amount of time. This time period can be defined as needed by the user. In this and similar situations, QSystem Monitor helps operators pro-actively resolve issues before they result in loss of revenue.
Problem: Our top customer recently requested an urgent shipment of goods to be delivered on the same day. This information was submitted in a dispatch note, but the job that generated it suddenly became inactive, compromising service to our customer. We only became aware of the problem when the user complained that he could not process the order.
Solution: User complaints are the hallmarks of a reactive environment. QSystem Monitor identifies stagnant jobs (those that become inactive) in real-time with its job monitoring module. By monitoring job queue activity on QSM, operators can identify rogue jobs before they impede other jobs from completing and, importantly, before they affect a customer and disrupt the smooth operation of business processes.
Problem: A new client of ours has a very strict accounting protocol that requires regular proof of system resource use. To help them report this information is a value-added service we’d like to implement for all of our clients. Is there an easy way to do this for each client given they all have unique requirements and environments?
Solution: For this business requirement, QSystem Monitor’s Job Accounting module produces easy-to-understand, resource reports for colleagues, non-technical users, management teams and customers alike. QSystem Monitor (QSM) can track resource use by user, user groups, system or subsystem. For outsourcing companies with internal Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that dictate resource accountability (financially or otherwise), these resource reports deliver the precise usage and availability information required– be it by subsystem, disk, application or any other system component monitored by QSM. In addition, outsourcing companies can benefit from QSM’s long-term historical analysis and predictive forecasting reports which allow for greater accuracy in estimating the resource use for a new client with similar demands.
Problem: We run a large scale System i environment for over 1,000 customers, each with unique SLAs. Our team of operators is time-short and task-heavy. How can we improve the service we offer to customers without the expense of increasing overheads by adding team members?
Solution: Automating tasks and monitoring systems for potential threats allows operators to accurately and efficiently identify whether problems are transient, trend-based or recurring. This increases productivity and, importantly, reduces the likelihood of future occurrences. CCSS automation and monitoring products are designed to help operators be pro-active and maximize efficiency in all of their routine tasks. Alerts can be escalated according to calendar, shift and team availability schedules so that even a small staff can ensure the most effective management of an expansive System i environment. The result of implementing pro-active management is win-win for both operators and customers with fewer ongoing system challenges and more productive use of staff time.
Problem: For each customer there is a unique set of requirements. How can we offer a tailored approach to such a diverse set of customers without incurring the huge expense that this traditionally requires?
Solution: From unique SLAs, resource demands and even external compliance regulations, establishing monitoring and reporting requirements for each client is a totally unique and customized process. To practically and economically manage this scale of diversity, managed service companies must approach client systems management pro-actively with automation, real-time alerts, and centralized visibility and control. QSystem Monitor can help companies meet this challenge. For instance, multiple, customized QSM monitoring sessions can be run on a single PC screen allowing operators to respond immediately to priority system issues without neglecting other clients’ systems. With this high degree of visibility in place, even the most diverse and large scale environments can be managed effectively without incurring additional expense or compromising the individual requirements of each customer.
Problem: If the conditions of a Service Level Agreement (SLA) are breached, it means a financial penalty for our business. How can we be sure we are doing all we can to avoid these kinds of penalties?
Solution: The challenge of meeting SLAs requires reducing the risk of any potential violation that results from either anticipated or exceptional circumstances. With an advanced monitoring solution, system threats can be highlighted at a stage of escalation and further identified for immediate problem resolution. Providing a combination of 24/7 real-time alerts and centralized system visibility, QSystem Monitor and QMessage Monitor have what it takes to not only catch system threats, but to notify the right staff in order to protect the system and prevent any potential penalties. Upper and lower system thresholds defined within QSM give operators advance warning to problems for virtually any system metric. Similarly, should a system element suddenly become inactive, this can be highlighted for immediate resolution. Even in a worst case scenario, such as an exceptional downtime incident, QMessage Monitor (QMM) can automatically switch to a backup system without any loss of data or monitoring capability and then revert back to the central system when it is restored. Pro-active data centers that are accountable to SLAs have little opportunity to incur financial penalties with QSM and QMM in place.
