Case Background

Daniel Webster College (DWC) is a New Hampshire-based educational institution with a focus on professional entry, advancement, and advanced studies in the fields of aviation, computer science, management, engineering, and social science. Students prepare through residential and continuing studies programs which emphasize the integration of theory and practice through interactive teaching and learning in the professional and liberal studies.

Daniel Webster College is a typical educational environment, using multiple hardware vendors, running on open systems and Windows platform, with limited IT resources. What makes the DWC environment slightly more complex is that its instructional center is fully equipped with a flight dispatch area, classrooms, offices, and a lab equipped with single and twin-engine Aviation Simulation Technology flight training devices.

Daniel Webster College- IT Challenges

DWC faced a significant IT challenge in examining how to bring an Open Source Jet Flight training device with minimal product support online. The College’s flight instruction team had been dealing with downtime issues on their existing propeller flight training device. This issue had to be rectified before a course with a 737 flight training device could be introduced. For every semester this flight training device was not online revenues were lost due to classes postponed and/or canceled. The challenge was to identify why the system was not able to successfully last a full class without some form of technical issues. Unfortunately, being a flight training device, the servers running the application were connected to flight controls and not screens. Everything had to be remotely diagnosed which posed an even greater technical hurdle. The staff had very limited access to the servers running the training device as they were located inside the Aviation Simulator.

“This issue was a resource drain on our IT depart- ment and was costing the College revenue every time we couldn’t complete a scheduled class or offer a new course,” said Joseph A. Donovan, Assistant Director Information Technology Services. “The professors as well as the students were getting annoyed at our inability to keep this flight training device operational.”

To remedy the server availability problems, DWC needed to find a single, easy-to-use product that could provide a simple view of the flight training device and enable staff to monitor and identify potential problems proactively and remotely resolve server issues before they occur. DWC needed to move from reactive problem resolution to proactive infrastructure management. With DWC being defined as a small educational institution, resource restric- tions created a significant challenge. A large, cumbersome system management solution was not an option.

DWC required a solution that could increase the system administrator’s ability to manage their environment remotely and proactively, while not yielding incremental headcount costs. A unified system management solution, that was simple to deploy and use, would allow the system administrator to monitor eight servers simultaneously, receive alerts as problem conditions are indicated, and diagnose problems quickly with minimal investment.

SyAM Software’s Resolution

SyAM Software’s systems area management solution addresses the problems inherent in the College’s complex infrastructure environment. Both simple to deploy and use, SyAM Software is a platform- agnostic solution which collates the metrics of the IT infrastructure into a single view, integrating effectively with the Intel architecture and enabling environment management on Intel and non-Intel platforms solutions. Eliminating the need for a cobbled-together monitoring environment consisting of systems area monitoring software from different vendors, SyAM Software facilitates the integration of systems area management functionality with both its ability to monitor hardware and software and its capacity to integrate with any enterprise monitoring solution that have been deployed.

With SyAM Software, The DWC system administrator can use a browser to access SyAM Software informa- tion from any location. Consequently, SyAM Software enables the remote monitoring of systems that may well be located all over the world. SyAM Software provides a single point of access for monitoring all systems, regardless of location.

SyAM Software streamlines the systems area management process by providing an integrated approach for monitoring the environment and analyzing trends pertaining to performance, capacity, and recurring problems. By providing a comprehen- sive monitoring solution, SyAM Software at once reduces the number of individual vendors manage- ment solutions and provides information about the environment that would otherwise be unattainable. With SyAM Software, it is possible to monitor from a single dashboard and receive alerts when the software indicates that a problem is on the horizon.

As an added benefit, DWC gained the ability to real-time manage hardware and software assets. Traditional IT reporting often results in an asset management snapshot that is inaccurate, but still consumes extensive amounts of time and financial resources. In an environment with multiple monitoring systems, reporting processes become increasingly complex. System administrators must gather data from multiple sources, collate this data into a coherent format, and map data elements from different systems’ reports. This manual approach is fraught with inaccuracy, error, and the unavoidable bias of a system administrator’s personal judgments. Through effective asset tracking, IT organizations can extend the useful lives of their equipment by monitoring opportunities for repair or optimization instead of having to replace the equipment.

“We selected SyAM Software because the solution is easy to use and can be deployed rapidly, resulting in the faster realization of ROI benefits,” said Donovan. “Unlike other solutions, SyAM Software did not require extensive requirements gathering, intricate installation procedures, or time-consuming tuning and validation processes.”

A single system administrator can install and configure SyAM Software in minutes, generating an almost instantaneous return on a small investment in IT availability and efficiency.

Net Impact to Daniel Webster College Systems

DWC derived a considerable return on its investment with SyAM Software. The system administrator’s capabilities have been extended substantially, allowing him to take control and pro-actively manage their IT infrastructure effectively and efficiently. The flight training device for the 737 was now operational with all hardware issues resolved and allowing revenue from training classes. Problems are identified and resolved before effecting the users or postponement of instructions. All of this was done far more cost effectively than adding additional dedicated IT staff or by implementing a complex expensive enterprise management package. With SyAM Software, DWC has greater visibility into its corporate technology assets, and the company can manage its environment remotely and proactively—anticipating problem situations before they occur and disrupt the schools operations. SyAM Software helped DWC address its most pressing technology challenge and with a minimal financial investment.

“SyAM software enabled us to remotely monitor our servers in our flight training devices, identify any issues in real time, and proactively take corrective action,” said Donovan. “We will now be able to confidently schedule training classes in the jet simulator, plus we eliminated the downtime issues on the existing propeller flight training device. Our professors and students are very pleased.”

SyAM Software’s robust reporting and trend analysis capabilities enable the DWC system administrator to provide the same world-class infrastructure management services to this small educational institution that typically are available only to the upper echelon of Educational Institutions. Environmental trends signal the need for proactive management, and forecasting facilitates all aspects of environment management. Further, DWC can keep its financial asset registers current and complete, control maintenance and support costs, and keep the instructional classes up and running to key performance.