Government Technology - August 2008 - (Page CA-7)

Hartsﬁeld-Jackson Atlanta International Airport As IT becomes more important to the airport, so does network performance. “We are currently adding new airport systems to our network on a regular basis. That requires us to more accurately monitor what the infrastructure is doing.” — Myreon Guyton, IT infrastructure supervisor, Information Services, HartsﬁeldJackson Atlanta International Airport he Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the busiest airport in the world, and it’s expanding. With funds from Atlanta’s Capital Improvement Program, the airport can keep pace with the rapid growth of the city itself. Serving nearly 90 million passengers last year, the airport now depends on IT more than ever before. That responsibility is extremely important to Myreon Guyton, IT infrastructure supervisor for Information Services, a division within the airport’s Department of Aviation. “Network performance has become increasingly important,” said Guyton, “not just in recent years, but in recent months. We are currently adding new airport systems to our network on a regular basis. That requires us to more accurately monitor what the infrastructure is doing.” Guyton and his team depend on CA SPECTRUM® to monitor activities on the airport’s vast network. T “The airport actually presents a unique challenge,” Guyton said. “We have equipment scattered all over our sprawling campus.” One reason the airport chose CA SPECTRUM is the tool’s ability to show detailed equipment information. It allows IT staff to create and name groups and subgroups of equipment, and efficiently manage the related information. It lets Guyton and his staff know where everything is, be aware of changes and have documentation available whenever needed. A Good Fit CA SPECTRUM has become a vital tool in the division’s efforts to serve the airport and its customers. “Everyone will presume that things will work all the time,” said Guyton. “We’ve set up a mentality here where we try to respond to an error situation with a sense of urgency. So if there’s a piece of equipment down, or a process has failed, with that mindset — with our goal that we’ve set as an organization — it does create a challenge for us. We want to support customers even before they notice an outage.” CA SPECTRUM helps with that effort in numerous ways. It enables staff to run detailed, customized reports on availability and problems. It lets staff check service levels against the department’s service-level agreements. CA SPECTRUM also improves productivity by allowing IT staff to isolate network outages quickly. When choosing CA SPECTRUM, the IT team knew what it was looking for. “We wanted to go with a more robust network monitoring system,” Guyton said. “The system we were using before didn’t give us some information we needed, like root cause analysis, keyword filtering for various events or the type of event correlation we wanted. Those were the main driving factors, along with the reporting; that was big for us.” The reporting function gives visibility into the network that Guyton and his staff didn’t have before. It also helps with asset inventory; it can report on assets by category, such as by group or vendor. The keyword filtering that works on various alerts is another feature Guyton really likes. It eliminates false positives and allows staff to focus on the real network issues. CA SPECTRUM also lets users model the relationship that a device has to other devices on the network. That gives a quick understanding of the effects a problem device will have on others. Guyton is so pleased with the performance of CA SPECTRUM — and CA itself — that he would be happy to do more projects with the company. With the airport’s network continuing to expand, he may soon get the chance. ❖ 7

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - August 2008

Government Technology - August 2008 Contents Point of View The Last Mile Big Picture On the Scene Four Questions for... Net Gains A Government Technology® Industry Profile: CA CA Contents IT Network Management: State and Local Governments Face New Challenges MyFloridaNet Arkansas Department of Information Systems Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Government Tightens Its Belt Rocking the Vote High-Speed Portal Project On Track Wi-Fi on a Shoestring From Paintball to Video Virtually Vulnerable How It Works Products signal:noise

Government Technology - August 2008

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