The Urban Community of Saintes's computer network is under close surveillance with Paessler PRTG
About the Urban Community of Saintes
The Communauté d'agglomération de Saintes (Urban Community of Saintes) came into being on January 1, 2013. Comprising 36 communes, it is the result of a merger between the Communauté de communes du Pays Santon and the Communauté de communes du Pays Buriaud, as well as an extension to include 6 other communes, and now has a population of over 62,000.
Saintes, one of the largest towns in the Charente-Maritime department, is considered the department's second-largest commercial center. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor has enabled the entire public services IT system of the Saintes conurbation to increase its stability and performance.
"We are very satisfied with the functionalities offered by Paessler's solution, and in particular its 24/24 availability, the reliability of the application, and the possibility of having a 'history' of failures, an overview, and maps."
Pierre-Marc Lis, DSIT for the Urban Community of Saintes
Optimizing the management of an extensive network
This IT system is comprised of some 220 interconnected structures, in various sectors of activity: education, health, social, environment and leisure, etc. And more specifically, IT equipment for educational and extracurricular establishments (schools, day nurseries, crèches...), cultural buildings (libraries, conservatories...), sports facilities or administrative buildings such as registry offices, or institutions in charge of finance.
This represents a total of 4,000 active items of equipment (servers, computers...) requiring ongoing management and maintenance. Autonomous networks, i.e. those that do not require the intermediary of an operator, are mainly located in Saintes itself or within a 3-kilometer radius of the town.
The agglomeration wanted a solution that would enable it to manage this vast network, prevent any problems, and ensure that it was running perfectly at all times, so as to guarantee optimum quality of service for all these administrations.
“The IT of our public services is essential! We have reached a critical level, with over 4,000 active elements. We have to guarantee a high level of performance to ensure the smooth running of the agglomeration, as well as maintaining a good level of service to citizens”, explains Pierre-Marc Lis, DSIT of the Urban Community of Saintes.
Implementation and use of PRTG for the Saintes urban community
PRTG quickly appeared to be the right solution to meet the various expectations of the Saintes conurbation. It was installed in July 2013 and used from September of the same year. Nearly 1,300 sensors were then installed for the agglomeration's infrastructure, which also adapted the software to its environment.
Work was carried out by the existing team and a dedicated person on the project to refine the choice of sensors and keep only those relevant to the business. Monitoring with PRTG covers active network links and equipment, server systems and multifunction devices, video surveillance, etc., with a particular focus on servers and switches. More specifically, servers, switches, Wi-Fi and FH antennas, Wi-Fi terminals, multifunction units, NAS, and some client workstations.
“We needed a product that was fast, efficient, and easy to implement. We had to be proactive to detect any faults or irregularities, and intervene before users even noticed them,” emphasizes Pierre-Marc Lis.
Conclusion
The Saintes IT management and maintenance team has noted significant improvements in network responsiveness and time savings. The entire organization has been positively impacted by the adoption of PRTG: two large screens in the heart of the town hall offices now display the status of the network at all times, guaranteeing complete control over its smooth operation.
Pierre-Marc Lis recommends Paessler's solution and testifies to its use by other local authorities, which has become indispensable for network management in the Saintes conurbation.
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