APE Conseil chooses Paessler PRTG to proactively monitor its network infrastructure
About APE Conseil
For 25 years, APE Conseil has been offering a complete IT maintenance solution: on-site assistance, remote maintenance, network security, troubleshooting, consulting, hardware and software supplies, and more.
APE Conseil supports its customers in the analysis, implementation, training, and maintenance of their information systems. The company offers a precise analysis, an audit of the current information system, and then determines the solution(s) best suited to the expectations and budget of each project.
APE Conseil works mainly with SMEs. Most of this clientele comes from the construction industry, but the company has diversified in recent years and now has a portfolio of customers from all sectors (local authorities, service companies, the medical sector, etc.).
As part of its outsourcing services for customers under maintenance contracts, APE Conseil is responsible for the overall supervision of each customer's network infrastructure, in addition to monitoring its own network.
"PRTG gives us better visibility of our customer base, enabling us to anticipate numerous problems and plan preventive maintenance. We're delighted with our choice of PRTG, which now gives us greater responsiveness, which has greatly improved our image, especially when meeting new customers. What's more, we appreciate the speed, quality, and relevance of Paessler's technical support whenever we need it."
Matthieu Vocanson, Technical Manager at APE Conseil
APE Conseil’s requirements for monitoring
APE Conseil is responsible for keeping servers running smoothly, monitoring disk space availability and network throughput, and detecting any network connection faults. APE's Technical Service Manager, Matthieu Vocanson, is responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the network monitoring tool implementation project.
Configuring such a network infrastructure represents a major challenge in terms of both security and proactivity. Matthieu Vocanson was looking for a solution to meet the following needs:
- Strong software capabilities
- Easy to install and configure
- Good value for money
- Quality and availability of technical support
"For several years, we used solutions created in-house, but without conviction. When we decided to opt for a professional solution, we were interested in the open source Nagios solution. The complexity of installing and using this solution, as well as the time we would have had to devote to implementation and learning, proved to be prohibitive. Once we'd ruled out the open source solution, we also turned our attention to the licensing model best suited to our needs, namely one that was as clear-cut as possible. Other solutions on the market, such as GFI Remote Max and OP Manager, offered neither the appropriate licensing model nor the ease of installation and configuration we were looking for. For all these reasons, we chose PRTG", explains Vocanson.
After testing several network solutions, APE Conseil chose Paessler PRTG Network Monitor in March 2011 for its simplicity and performance.
PRTG in use
Installation and implementation of the solution was completed very quickly, just enough time to install 1,472 sensors. PRTG monitors the following data lines: routers, switches, disk space, RAID card status (VB script), Windows services and Windows servers (Exchange, Uptime, Processor, RAM, etc.) as well as a few VMware servers, since 10% of the monitored infrastructure is virtualized.
The company currently uses 41 remote probes, all installed directly on the server.
PRTG enables APE Conseil to monitor not only internally-hosted servers and applications, but also those hosted by its customers. Each member of the IT team can access the web interface directly from his or her workstation in real time. This network visibility means that, for example, when disk space on the Microsoft Exchange server runs low, you can intervene proactively before an availability problem occurs.
APE Conseil's 7-strong technical team use PRTG both on site, via the PRTG web interface, and on the move, thanks to the PRTG app for iOS that transmits alerts in real time.
Conclusion
For Vocanson, the main advantages of PRTG are :
- Easy to use and configure
- Probe availability
- Graphical interface ergonomics
- Affordable cost
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