When you live in a warm climate, you expect the air conditioning to work and the lights to stay on when you need them.
Like all energy suppliers, this client, which supplies electricity to 15 million people across a territory of approximately 50,000 hot and humid square miles, has a very low risk tolerance for any event that negatively impacts service to its valued customers. As a result, the lack of fault tolerance in the company’s infrastructure created an unacceptable level of risk.
million energy customers
square miles of coverage
employees
The Challenge
Outdated systems expose company to unacceptable levels of risk
The company’s original infrastructure, deployed in 2016, was no longer up to the task of limiting the risk of adverse events. Since the initial installation, DX NetOps had released multiple new features, including improved security, but because the client was several versions behind, it couldn’t leverage the new features.
The Solution
Assess, update and strengthen DX NetOps
Assessment: The Enterprise Studio at HCLTech team worked with the client to perform a detailed review of the current state of its DX NetOps solution—custom features, configuration changes and the like. HCLTech initiated a planning workshop, which allowed all stakeholders to start from the same baseline of understanding.
Planning: HCLTech then developed a plan to deploy the latest version of three DX NetOps components: Spectrum, Performance Manager (PM) and Network Flow Analysis (NFA). In addition, HCLTech integrated DX NetOps Spectrum with the client’s Telenuim system, its Remedy ticketing software and its Unified Infrastructure Management (UIM) solution. The plan, which called for an updated design built on the client’s existing configuration and customizations, included the latest security features and multi-datacenter fault tolerance. Because the client didn’t have DX NetOps’ latest secure communication options, the plan also called for an in-parallel upgrade to ensure accurate monitoring during the upgrade.
Testing: The team installed a QA test environment for Spectrum, PM and NFA. The team then successfully tested the components and their required integrations in the client’s environment.
Installation: The team installed the three components in a new production environment and tested the solutions and their required integrations in the client’s environment. Initially, the old and new production environments ran in parallel. HCLTech then successfully cut over to the new production environment exclusively.
The Impact
Minimal disruption and maximized success
- The client is now taking advantage of enhanced communication security among the DX NetOps components.
- Multi-datacenter fault tolerance reduced the risk of operational blindness during routine upgrades and monitoring component outages.
- With these upgrades, HCLTech reduced the client’s risk of adverse events negatively impacting service to its valued customers.
