Global network and application performance drives business innovation with nGeniusONE
Customer Profile
Agilent Technologies is a global company with interests in life sciences, scientific testing and diagnostic equipment and services, and applied chemical markets. Agilent has leveraged both acquisitions and internal innovation to post steady growth since 2015, generating revenue of US$4.47 billion in fiscal 2017. The Santa Clara, CA-based company employs about 13,500 people worldwide.
The Challenge
Like many companies, Agilent Technologies is moving to a digital business model that depends heavily on cloud technology. The company, which makes scientific testing and diagnostic tools, plans to digitize life sciences through a variety of initiatives, from building Internet of Things (IoT) connected lab tools to offering SaaS-based laboratory management software through its iLab Solutions group. Agilent also uses cloud applications and services to enhance organizational flexibility and user productivity. For example, the company recently implemented a cloud-based analytics suite across the company. Mike Schicktanz, Agilent's global networks director, noted in Network World's 2016 State of the Network report that the company is moving 'commodity type' services to the cloud. "We are getting the same, or better, service and functionality that's more scalable at the same or lower cost," he said.
Not surprisingly, such cloud adoption has led to massive growth in network traffic across the company's 120 locations. "The drawbacks are managing our networks as we see a big shift from intranet traffic to internet traffic," Schicktanz said.
In today's digital economy, the network functions as the central artery for digital transformation, and Agilent implemented a software-defined wide area network to increase bandwidth and availability for critical services, as well as to steer WAN traffic across the most efficient transport links. "It's clear that in a global enterprise today, employee productivity is largely impacted by the performance and reliability of the global network," Schicktanz says. "Our product development teams are also creating innovative products that leverage analytics and the cloud, so maintaining great performance and availability is paramount."
Solution in Action
Agilent needed to assure service quality and performance across its global network, as well as retain corporate control over public and private clouds. To make this happen, Agilent turned to a data-driven approach that provided visibility into traffic flows. By implementing NETSCOUT's nGeniusONE service assurance platform, the company uses smart data available in real time to quickly pinpoint better answers to complex issues that can impact service, application, and infrastructure performance across hybrid and multicloud environments.
In a third-party survey of NETSCOUT customers conducted by TechValidate, Schicktanz characterized the company's ongoing investment in NETSCOUT products as extremely valuable for expanding visibility across the entire service delivery infrastructure, both on-premises and in the cloud. The company uses NETSCOUT solutions to retain visibility and control over service quality, manage service performance, and conduct service triage in a complex environment. For example, the company uses nGeniusONE platform to improve visibility and monitoring capabilities across legacy, cloud, and IoT infrastructure, and monitor and measure infrastructure performance in cloud or data center environments, all of which Schicktanz characterized as extremely important.
The Results
The company is in the implementation phase of its global rollout, and the payoff is already evident. "We've had great results identifying and correcting issues across our global network with the nGeniusONE solution," Schicktanz noted in the TechValidate survey.
Schicktanz reported that NETSCOUT is Agilent's first choice for solving service performance and user experience problems. He strongly believes that his ability to implement service assurance, security assurance, and business intelligence in a multicloud environment requires wire-data-driven visibility. Similarly, he strongly agrees that gaining actionable performance insights requires smart data that is well-structured, contextual, and available in real time. Not only does the company rate NETSCOUT as best in class for service, application, and network assurance, but it also helps lower risk and save time. The company estimates that nGenius service assurance has reduced business risk associated with the delivery of new digital services between 50 and 75 percent.
Agilent's digital transformation efforts rely on the performance of the company's global network and associated cloud services, making pervasive visibility and service intelligence paramount. With smart data proven to provide consistent real-time intelligence and actionable insights, it's clear that the advantage lies with NETSCOUT.