Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold Selected by Cascades Tissue Group to Keep its Operations Up and Running
Cascades Relies on WhatsUp to Monitor and Optimize Over 500 Devices Across 20 Sites
Lexington, MA – December 5, 2007 – Ipswitch, Inc., a leading developer of network monitoring, messaging and secure file transfer solutions, today announced that Cascades Tissue Group (TSX: CAS), a large paper products manufacturer based in Montréal, Canada, has selected WhatsUp Gold to manage and optimize its network. With 20 facilities spread over thousands of miles and two countries, Cascades relies on WhatsUp to collect, analyze and deliver data on over 500 devices, from industrial milling machines to handheld barcode readers.
“WhatsUp gives us insight into the performance of our software and hardware assets, so that we can optimize them to ensure peak efficiency,” said Cascades IT Implementation & Operations Coordinator, Dany Briard. “It quickly and simply tells us when and where trouble spots exist so we can improve productivity.”
Cascades uses WhatsUp to track bandwidth utilization, alert staff to network failures and start and stop services remotely. WhatsUp allows administrators to report on the network’s performance, discover and map network assets and analyze trend data over time.
“WhatsUp provides extremely robust reporting capabilities. It integrates seamlessly with our SQL Server, and enables us to derive information from the SQL Server from a period of months or years, which we never could before,” added Briard. “Now our networking teams have custom views to provide them exactly the information they need without having to search for it.”
When Cascades was preparing to overhaul its IT network in 2006 to better understand network usage, IT staff began to evaluate different network management solutions. After evaluating a handful of products from vendors such as SolarWinds and EMC, Cascades chose WhatsUp Gold due to its superior functionality, cost and integration support. In close collaboration with long-time Ipswitch Premier Partner Intrasoft Solutions, based in Montréal, Cascades was able to implement WhatsUp Gold across all of its 20 locations throughout Canada and the United States. Intrasoft experts created customized views of the mills and warehouses and the devices contained in them and met regularly with Cascades IT staff to ensure a smooth implementation. Today over 50 Cascades employees use WhatsUp to gather information about the North American WAN.
“Before using WhatsUp, when something went wrong, the proper people were notified days later. Today those notifications are immediate,” said Briard. “With its flexible reporting, low maintenance, and complete vision into every part of our network, WhatsUp allows us to achieve a level of efficiency not possible before.”
“WhatsUp is an easy-to-install, intuitive and complete network monitoring solution that keeps customers’ IT infrastructure running at peak performance,” said Mary Beth Westmoreland, vice president of network management products at Ipswitch. “With its advanced discovery, monitoring and reporting features and flexible architecture, WhatsUp scales easily to accommodate the needs of growing, successful companies.”
About Cascades, Inc.
Founded in 1964, Cascades produces, transforms and markets packaging and tissue products composed mainly of recycled fibers. Cascades employs nearly 14,000 men and women who work in some 100 modern and flexible production units located in North America and in Europe. Cascades' management philosophy, its more than 40 years of experience in recycling, its continued efforts in research and development are strengths which enable the company to create innovative products for its clients. Cascades’ shares trade on the Toronto stock exchange under the ticker symbol CAS.
About WhatsUp Gold - Know Your Network
Ipswitch™, Inc.’s network management division, the developer of the WhatsUp Gold suite of innovative network management solutions, manages thousands of networks worldwide. Built on a scalable architecture offering automated network discovery and network mapping, real-time network monitoring (including SNMP monitoring and WMI monitoring), and versatile alerting, notification, and reporting functionality, WhatsUp Gold provides intelligent and easy to use, extensive network management that goes beyond simple device availability and delivers comprehensive troubleshooting. Recently, Ipswitch, Inc. acquired Dorian Software Creations, Inc., the leader in providing complete, easy-to-use solutions for Windows Security Event Management (SEM) and Log Management for small businesses and enterprise-level organizations.
WhatsUp Gold scales from the small business to the large enterprise, and its functionality extends with additional plug-in modules: WhatsUp Gold WhatsConnected™ for Layer 2/Layer 3 discovery, mapping and visualization; WhatsUp Gold Flow Monitor and WhatsUp Gold Flow Publisher for network bandwidth utilization monitoring; WhatsUp Gold WhatsConfigured for automated Network Configuration and Change Management; and WhatsUp Gold VoIP Monitor for precise measurement of a converged network’s ability to provide the quality of service (QoS) necessary for VoIP. To learn more about WhatsUp Gold, download a free trial or to make a purchase visit: http://www.whatsupgold.com/products/download/
*All mentioned trademarks, product and company names cited herein are the property of their respective owners.*
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