Maximum Network Performance and Availability at ... - NetScout

MANUFACTURING SOLUTIONS
Challenge
To ensure maximum network
performance and availability
so that information flow, from
purchase order to delivery, moves
smoothly and efficiently.
Solution
Continental Automotive Systems
utilized NetScout’s Sniffer
Infinistream, in conjunction
with Visualizer and Application
Intelligence, to enable detailed
network analysis of the entire
network infrastructure.
Benefits
Continental Automotive Systems
has now achieved their goal of
establishing a modern network
and application management
system that allows for further
growth.
“NetScout has exactly met
our conception of a modern
network and application
management with the
Dashboard-to-Packet
solution. The scalable
system still leaves us lots of
room to grow.”
SUCCESS STORIES | MANUFACTURING
Maximum Network Performance and Availability
at Continental Automotive Systems
Introduction
Mounting customer expectations for made-to-measure goods and services require an
increasingly flexible service provision in all industry branches. For Continental Automotive
Systems, too, uncompromising quality comes first.
A division of Continental AG, a leading automobile supplier, Continental Automotive Systems
has secured itself a top position as a reliable partner for all world-leading automobile
manufacturers with systems, components and development expertise for intelligent driving
safety, comfort, chassis, drive engineering and electronic data transmission as well as
communication solutions. Headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the division has
over 30,000 employees and achieved a turnover of around EUR 6 billion in 2006.
For optimum performance of its company’s network – to which 60 factories, research
centres, offices and test tracks in 19 countries around the world are connected –
Continental Automotive Systems (CAS) relies on technology from NetScout Systems.
Global Communication
“In order to be able to manage our worldwide production network efficiently, all our sites
must remain in continuous contact with our main control centre in Frankfurt am Main”,
explains Christian Preiss, Head of Network and Communication at Continental Automotive
Systems Division. “When problems arise, we have to get to the bottom of them straight away
and eliminate the cause.”
Preiss continues, “We manufacture on demand. We must be able to have or deliver the right
parts at the right place, in the right quantity, at the right time and with the right quality. For
this reason, it is enormously important for CAS that the information flow—from the purchase
order, through production and invoicing right up to delivery—goes through without a hitch.”
The technical infrastructure is provided by a Local Area Network (LAN) with around 8,000
active Ethernet ports in the main control centre.
Increasing Quantities of Information
The acquisition of the automobile electronics division of Motorola in July 2006 has
considerably enlarged Continental Automotive Systems’ product portfolio and research
and development capacities in the fields of bodywork electronics and sensors, as well as
drive lines and chassis. And data-transmission technology will now be added to the product
portfolio.
Naturally, these developments and the accompanying increase in data volumes have had
an effect on the IT infrastructure. In order to achieve greater transparency and an enhanced
insight into the network, an efficient network performance solution was requested, with
which response times, network performance and data communication trends could be
monitored, a thorough analysis of data packets could be carried out and summary reports
could be generated. And so, at the start of 2007, CAS turned to NetScout Systems.

Scalable Package
“We have been using Sniffer Portable
for reactive troubleshooting since 1996.
Sniffer Distributed was added in 2001.
However, with continually increasing
information flows, we had to consider
upgrading our existing analysis tools,”
says Preiss.
In order to guarantee end-to-end
monitoring of time-critical applications
and optimum response times, Sniffer
InfiniStream is now being used at
CAS in conjunction with Visualizer and
Application Intelligence. With the new
network performance solution, data
can be recorded over a number of
hours, days or even weeks. Periodically
or intermittently-occurring network
problems can therefore be resolved
promptly and efficiently.
CAS also considered solutions by other
vendors. “However, we decided on the
flexible InfiniStream solution, which had
the advantage of also offering historical
data analysis”, explains Preiss. “When a
problem occurs, whether during normal
office hours or at the weekend, we
can quickly get to the bottom of it now.
This function, in combination with the
capability to precisely analyse individual
data packets, is essential. With the
system, CAS’s network management
team can drill down to the affected area
and conduct post-capture analysis using
Sniffer decodes and Sniffer Expert
analysis.
“The professional advice, from the
beginning of the project right through to
implementation and evaluation of the first
results, convinced us that, with Network
General, we had chosen the right
partner for the challenges of modern,
future-proof network and application
management”, says Christian Preiss.
Detailed Performance Analysis
Implementation of the new system
went smoothly and was finished in
just one day. Today the InfiniStream
system monitors data traffic through
the main control centre in Frankfurt
am Main. In conjunction with Visualizer
and Application Intelligence, Sniffer
InfiniStream allows a detailed
performance analysis of the entire
network infrastructure. Particular
attention is given to monitoring
bandwidth utilisation of the connections
to the Wide Area Network (WAN),
through which the worldwide production
sites are connected to the system, and
application response times.
The InfiniStream solution plugs in
between the Nortel switches in the
LAN and the Cisco routers in the WAN.
Christian Preiss estimates the monthly
data flow through this point to be around
3 terabytes. “With the new solution,
the response times of applications
from different sites are displayed on
the central server”, says Preiss. “It is
an invaluable advantage to be able to
predict bottlenecks that can create
disruptions in the global production
chain.” At the first sign of a network
performance problem, the network
managers are alerted via the Visualizer
dashboard and can immediately
compare current readings to historical
performances. In this way, the IT team
can intervene in good time.
According to Preiss, the expert function
in troubleshooting, the drill-down
capabilities and the simple, quick
and clear operation of the Visualizer
dashboard are particularly important for
his team. In addition, detailed analysis
functions provide information about what
precisely is running on the network and
where bandwidth is being unnecessarily
lost. Trend reports that help avoid
excessive system loads and response
times are further advantages of the
system.
SUCCESS STORIES | MANUFACTURING
About NetScout Systems
NetScout Systems provides advanced
network and application service
assurance solutions that deliver
complete visibility into real-time, packet/
flow-based operational intelligence.
IT operators at the world’s largest
enterprises, government agencies, and
service providers use the Sniffer and
nGenius solutions to troubleshoot service
degradations faster and more efficiently
in order to reduce MTTR.
Our world-renowned Sniffer and
nGenius solutions include:
n Intelligent Data Sources for high
capacity, deep-packet recording and
monitoring
n Analysis Software for real-time and
historical network and application
performance management, troubleshooting,
capacity planning, and
reporting
n Advanced Intelligence for early
detection and in-depth analysis of
complex or specialized application
services
Corporate Headquarters
310 Littleton Road
Westford, MA 01886-4105
Phone: 978-614-4000
Toll Free: 888-999-5946
www.netscout.com
European Headquarters
NetScout Systems (UK) Ltd.
100 Pall Mall
London SW1Y 5HP
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (0)20 7321 5660
Asia/Pacific Headquarters
Room 105, 17F/B, No. 167
TunHwa N. Road
Taipei, Taiwan
Phone: +886 2 2717 1999
www.netscout.cn
©2008 NetScout Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
NetScout, the NetScout logo, Network General, the
Network General logo, nGenius, Sniffer, InfiniStream,
Business Container, Business Forensics, NetVigil and
Quantiva are trademarks or registered trademarks of
NetScout Systems, Inc. Other brands, product names
and trademarks are property of their respective owners.
NetScout reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to
make changes at any time in its technical information
and specifications, and service and support programs.
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