Quest Foglight for Databases delivers for Swiss Postal System

Benefits

• work seamlessly with multiple database platforms. This cross-platform functionality allows the team to monitor relational, NoSQL and cloud databases from the same console.
• Longevity – Foglight has a long history and is a well-established and stable product that’s backed by years of development. The knowledge base is robust, and the user community is active. This made the Swiss Post team feel confident that Foglight would be supported for the long term.
• Usability – The user interface, graphical representations and other performance visualizations make the product intuitive.
• Security – Foglight minimizes the number of open firewall ports needed, which is a critical factor for database security.
• Responsiveness – Swiss Post was impressed with the responsiveness of Quest representatives when it came to answering questions, providing product information and setting up a proof-of-concept (POC).

The Story

Swiss Post was at an inflection point when it came to monitoring the performance of their diverse database environment. The current solution had limitations, particularly when it came to automation. These limitations drove database team members to use other solutions that were not harmonized, making it difficult for the team to share and compare information and communicate effectively.

According to Hans-Jörg Bütler, Head of Database Operations, “It was crucial that we got reliable monitoring. We didn't have satisfactory analysis tools, and we needed automation options. This is what really drove us to look for an alternative.”

Swiss Post was also concerned about security and wanted a solution that relied on fewer open ports, while still integrating all performance monitoring within a single tool to provide a comprehensive picture. Ideally, with everyone using the same monitoring tool, it would be possible for team members to collaborate with each other and also with other teams by providing self-service performance monitoring and analysis capabilities.

With their many years in IT, members of the database team were already familiar with Foglight® by Quest®. Although the team looked at other products, they selected Foglight for Databases for several reasons:

• Modularity – Foglight for Databases has a broad set of “cartridges” that enable it to work seamlessly with multiple database platforms. This cross-platform functionality allows the team to monitor relational, NoSQL and cloud databases from the same console.
• Longevity – Foglight has a long history and is a well-established and stable product that’s backed by years of development. The knowledge base is robust, and the user community is active. This made the Swiss Post team feel confident that Foglight would be supported for the long term.
• Usability – The user interface, graphical representations and other performance visualizations make the product intuitive.
• Security – Foglight minimizes the number of open firewall ports needed, which is a critical factor for database security.
• Responsiveness – Swiss Post was impressed with the responsiveness of Quest representatives when it came to answering questions, providing product information and setting up a proof-of-concept (POC).

In fact, Swiss Post entered into a fiveyear contract for Foglight because they were so convinced of the value of a longterm partnership with Quest. In particular, during the POC, Swiss Post saw the range of functionality available in Foglight and recognized that it would be worth the multi-year investment of time and effort to realize the full capabilities of the product.

Throughout the process, Swiss Post engaged with Diso, the Swiss platinum partner for Quest who facilitated the sales process. For over 20 years, Diso has been planning and orchestrating IT infrastructures, and its holistic philosophy of providing comprehensive support helped Swiss Post to succeed. “We enjoyed the collaboration with Diso throughout the sales and implementation process,” said Jonas Friedrich, License Manager at Swiss Post. “With their transparent communication and coordination with all parties, we got to know Diso as a trusted and professional partner.”

During the POC, the Swiss Post team readily embraced using Foglight for proactive performance monitoring, diagnosis and analysis. Going forward, they’ll use it as their primary monitoring tool for Microsoft SQL Server.

Said Francis Clenin, System Engineer Database Operations, “Foglight is going to save us a lot of time in the end. And of course, it will help make us more proactive and not reactive. Although we are proactive now, there is still room for improvement in many areas, especially when it comes to automation.”

Swiss Post has been relying on a separate database for reporting purposes. This central database is fed performance data by other databases for analysis and reporting on the aggregated data set. They expect to be able to simplify this process significantly and eliminate the reporting server by using the historical data natively collected and stored within Foglight.

The team also sees the benefit of using Foglight to enable DevOps teams to move quickly and test the impact of changes on database performance. Finally, they expect to automate many performance-based maintenance tasks, such as allocating disk space.