DATAMETRICS S Y S T E M S C O R P O R A T I O N The Performance Experts

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System Performance Soars at United Airlines Across Multipiatform Environment

»1 n the highly competitive airline business, one of the most important measures of success is on-time flights - a statistic that has a dramatic and immediate affect on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Anything an airline's

IT staff can do to keep its information sys­tems up and rmining m peak condition can often contribute directly to the company's ability to serve the flying public better and protect its market share.

At United Airlines, the world's largest air carrier (and one with an impressive record of on-time performance), the IT staff knows the import^ce of well-tuned systems. Accord­ing to Chuck Wessel, Computer Systems Engineer, top-notch performance is critical to operational success at United. "Our systems take care of vital issues like flight operations, crew management, and resources such as

seat availability. Obviously, finely timed computer systems wi l l get the job done more efficiently."

For example, without solid system performance, the flying public may have to stand in line longer for seat assignments. Or they may experience delays in pushing back from the gate ~ because, once all passengers are on board, the airline's computer systems must make final weight and balance calculations. And if the flight operations system is not performing well, it may take longer to complete flight plans, which can also lead to delays.

Simply put, the performance engineers at United must make the most of the company's computer systems to keep the business running most effec­tively and competitively.

DATAMETRICS

T O R C H

V I E W P D I N T

Real-Time Performance Management Makes a Difference

That's where ViewPoint - and its real-time performance management tools ~ comes in. Says Wessel, "Several years ago, we realized we needed to look at infor­mation more dynamically, especially when we were nearing an upgrade situation. Clearly, you want to delay expenditures as long as possible without causing a disruption to service. ViewPoint's real-time capability allows us to evaluate perfor­mance and capacity data much faster, so we can make better judgments in tmiing. If a machine is reaching its limits, we can fine tune it to ensure we are getting the best performance."

With three massive Unisys 2200 boxes to manage, the technical team uses Viewpoint's featrue-rich capabilities to gather exactly the information they need to ensure peak performance. " I make heavy use of ViewPoint Expressions," explains Wessel. "Early on, one of our biggest requirements was to analyze information about the individual components of our application - which ones were using the most resources."

He continues, " I used ViewPoint to produce some graphics and reports with all the details we needed. Our management was very impressed ~ that one report sold them on the value of ViewPoint. And there's been no looking back."

Today, Wessel and his team use ViewPoint for a host of performance activities. For example, they find EventScope valuable to determine what transactions are running and the amormt of system resources they are using. "On one of our largest systems, we run 80 to ICQ transactions per second. With that type of volume, EventScope lets me monitor transaction counts and pinpoint unusual spikes. At the same time, I can see the approximate resources the system is using. Plus, I can quickly determine response times for individual disks. It's a great tool to help me spot trouble at a glance and head off performance problems."

Viewpoint Racks Up 70% Time Savings

One of the most impressive benefits of ViewPoint has been its impact on produc­tivity. Prior to bringing in the tool, Wessel had to gather and manage much of the performance and capacity information manually - a laborious, potentially error-

prone process.

He recalls, "Before ViewPoint, we were manipulating a lot of data through Excel spreadsheets and relying exclusively on printed reports. It

''Overall, I am 60 was a very time-consuming process. On one project alone - conducting calculations on historical data against multiple variables - 1 was able to cut my time by 85%! That's a significant savings."

By automating many of his manual processes, Wessel has f omid himself much more efficient - and effective - in his job. "Overall, I am 60 to 70%

thanks to more productive thanks to ViewPoint," he says. "And because I'm not spending as much time on manual efforts, I can do things that provide more value to the company - and that use my time and talent better."

to 70% more

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ViewPoint/

Powerful Cross-Platform Capabilities Eliminate Learning Curve

When a software solution allows a company to deliver better system perfor­mance and dramatically boost productivity, it's a wimier by any measure. When it also helps them keep pace with the future of computing, that solution becomes virtually mdispensable.

In its move to manage distributed computing, United is finding that ViewPoint is already there. "We are now using ViewPoint in a cross-platform environment - to manage both our Unisys mainframes and our Unix client/server machines," Wessel notes. " I t easily handles both environments. Best of all, we didn't have to learn how to use a new tool. With View-Point, the portion that rtms on the PC is the same - no matter what platform you're looking at."

Today, Wessel has ViewPoint installed on 10 of United's Unix machines - with more to come in the future. One of the main systems he monitors is a cargo application for United's freight forwarders. Because it's a revenue generating system, good performance is especially impor­tant. Without ViewPoint on the job, managing the four servers that run that application would be difficult, at best.

Not only has ViewPoint positioned United for its move to a distributed architecture, the solution has proved highly flexible in that enviromnent as well. "The other advantage of ViewPoint is the various Unix platforms it is prepared to handle. It's always a step ahead. When we started, we had Unisys U6000/65, HP 9000/G50s, and IBM RS6000 Unix boxes. And ViewPoint allows us to handle all of them without re-learning anything. It cuts across the entire environment."

As with other companies. United is finding that the biggest problem with measuring performance m a Unix environment is the sheer number of boxes you have to monitor. Simply collecting data from so many servers is a real challenge. Until now. Says Wessel, "The latest version of ViewPoint makes it even easier to monitor large quantities of Unix boxes. As we add more machines to the mix, ViewPoint wi l l help us keep pace."

Telcon and Torch Capabilities Make ViewPoint an Easy Choice

Now that United has achieved impressive success in its cross-platform perfor­mance management efforts with ViewPoint, it's interesting to consider why they chose the tool in the first place.

According to Wessel, it was an easy decision. "ViewPoint had two primary advantages going for it. First, it allowed us to manage our extensive Telcon network. We have 22 DCP40s (paired) running our network. Soon we'll upgrade to five DCP600s. That's an important part of our system, and only ViewPoint allowed us to monitor i t . "

The second reason for choosing ViewPoint was its built-in links to United's historical capacity planning database. That database for the company's Unisys machines is created and maintained by a product called Torch - another solution from Datametrics.

"We've been using Torch for almost 10 years at United," says Wessel. " I t allows us to look at trends and resource use over critical periods. Every three months, that information goes into a tactical plan that forecasts where we anticipate needs for the next 18 months."

He adds, "Torch lets us watch things like CPU capacity. And it shows historic trends for disk performance, which is a critical element of response time for om-

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computer systems. Also Torch's workload characterization capabilities have been very beneficial. We can easily look at individual components within a large application for comparison of growth. It gives us the granularity we need to evaluate how our applications are affecting capacity usage."

By combining Torch with ViewPoint, United can now manipulate _ and display its historical capacity information graphically. And that's been an unexpected bonus according to Wessel.

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What's in Store

For United, the futmre holds expansion. "We're gearing up to begin monitoring any and all of our Unix servers to know where we are in terms of capacity on them. The job of the future is to start managing them all. As we grow our distributed environment, ViewPoint wi l l grow with us and deliver more capabilities for management."

He concludes, "We w i l l be moving in the direction of NT servers in the future, and we know that ViewPoint for Windows NT is waiting for us when we get there." •

Datametrics Systems Corporation

Founded in 1980 to help people improve the performance and capacity of their computer systems, Datametrics develops and markets timesaving analysis tools for performance ttining and capacity plaiming.

Our mission is to dramatically improve people's ability to manage computer systems; to provide a work environment that recognizes and rewards individual creativity and initiative; and to build long-term relationships with customers based upon service, commitment, and trust.

We are committed to providing the highest quality solutions and services in the data processing industry. To accomplish this, we know that we must listen to our customers, be sensitive to their needs, and strive to provide superior products and services.

both environments.

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R i l or further information on any Datametrics service or product,

contact an account representative at

(800) 869-3282, (703) 385-7700, or 95-800-678-1094 (Mexico).

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Datametrics solutions are available for mainframe, midrange, open

systems, and database platforms. Call today for a detailed listing of products offered.

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