Global Paper Products Manufacturer Resolves Voice and Video Issues with Improved Network Management
Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
CUSTOMER TYPE: Packaging and paper
INDUSTRY: Manufacturing
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
- Improve performance of voice and video applications across the WAN
SOLUTION
- Bring network application management in-house with LiveNX
BUSINESS RESULTS
- Increased visibility into network performance down to the flow level
- Significant improvement in video conferencing and VoIP performance
CHALLENGE
A leading global producer of packaging, paper, pulp and recyclable products with manufacturing operations employing 53,000 people in 40 locations in 24 countries was experiencing application performance issues with its outsourced wide-area network. VoIP, video, and telepresence apps suffered from poor audio and video quality and dropped connections. The network team determined that it was time to bring network management back in-house to acquire greater visibility and exercise control over network performance and service-level agreement (SLA) enforcement.
The company embraced the capabilities of software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) with Cisco’s IWAN solution to take advantage of the benefits of SDN, such as reduced hardware and operational costs while improving flexibility, availability, and resilience. They needed a network performance management platform that simplified configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting across dozens of locations while providing granular visibility into the network down to the level of flows and interfaces.
SOLUTION
After investigating the alternatives, the network team selected LiveNX from LiveAction, the Cisco-recommended management solution for IWAN. The LiveNX single-pane-of-glass view of the network allows network operation center (NOC) engineers to get a clear understanding of the performance of the WAN at a glance, and to drill down on trouble spots, as indicated through color-coding.
LiveNX seamlessly integrates support for Cisco’s Medianet Monitoring family of features for enhancing visibility into the network to accelerate voice, video, and data application deployment. The GUI simplifies end-to-end analysis and mitigation of QoS issues, dramatically reducing the time-to-resolution as compared to troubleshooting via the command-line interface.
RESULTS
Using LiveNX, the network team was able to bring network application management in-house and get immediate visibility into the quality of service (QoS) being delivered across the WAN for latency-sensitive applications such as voice and video.
Through Medianet Monitoring integration, the NOC used Mediatrace analysis to observe and control telepresence, VoIP and video application performance across 40 locations. Automated IP SLA jitter tests alerted network engineers whenever MOS scores fell below 2.0, a sure sign of media performance issues, allowing them to respond to and resolve problems quickly.
Customized IWAN management and LiveNX training for multiple groups, including the NOC, the help desk, engineering, the voice/video team, the security team, and the telecom team maximized the effectiveness of the solution.
The result was a significant improvement in VoIP/Video and application performance, troubleshooting and resolution.
“LiveNX provides superior network visibility extending from the data center and through the WAN end-to-end.”
– Network Data Architect for a Global Paper Products Manufacturer
About LiveAction®
LiveAction provides end-to-end visibility of network and application performance from a single pane of glass. We provide enterprises with confidence that the network is meeting business objectives, full network visibility for better decisions, and reduced cost to operate the network.
