American Savings Bank Switches to WhatsUp Gold to Improve the Performance and IT Infrastructure

Challenge

American Savings Bank (ASB) is a Hawaiian-based financial institution with 57 locations across five islands, making it the third largest within the Aloha State. Considering it is overall size, having a top-notch IT infrastructure monitoring tool is a priority for the financial organization’s server, network and data warehouse managers.

In 2020, SolarWinds was hit with a large-scale cyberattack, resulting in a noteworthy data breach for many of its customers. Peter Plotzeneder, a Server Administrator at ASB, recalled how lucky they were not to have a data breach because they were on an older release of SolarWinds and were unaffected. However, it gave the high-level executives and managers something to think about, as this event made them realize it was time to diversify their portfolio of IT management solutions.

Plotzeneder, his team and other IT managers at ASB sought a product that could meet their monitoring needs and was easier to use than its predecessor. After performing due diligence with other IT infrastructure monitoring products, ASB found Progress® WhatsUp® Gold to fit its needs.

Solution

Plotzeneder was previously familiar with WhatsUp Gold’s capabilities and was aware of its user-friendly features and how it can be deployed on-premise. The network team created a proof-of-concept and, in a short period, established successful monitoring, reporting and alerting workflows. The team also took advantage of the Progress professional services team to speed up and polish their final production deployment.

ASB has close to 700 on-premise servers and many devices as part of its extensive network. Three cross-organizational IT teams (network, server and data warehouse) manage many configurations. Plotzeneder found the WhatsUp Gold to be ideal for each team’s needs.

In addition to the Premium version, the team uses most of the add-ons from WhatsUp Gold. Plotzeneder particularly appreciates the Log Management tool, which breaks down log data from its many network devices. The solution simplifies and automates the process of looking for potential network issues.

“WhatsUp Gold’s Log Management feature was quite simple for us to set up filters to see which areas need monitoring,” said Plotzeneder. “The Global Search function makes it a fast process as opposed to going through a big, giant log management system, line-by-line.”

The Application Performance Monitor, another add-on ASB regularly uses, creates a broad overview of each business application and its usage. ASB is a large regional financial institution relying on complex applications to keep its business operations running. This add-on’s utilization fits one of Plotzeneder’s goals of immediately mitigating any potentially critical issues affecting the productivity of its employees and the experiences of its customers.

Results

The most significant advantage of WhatsUp Gold is how much easier the platform is to use for both new and advanced users. ASB now has an IT infrastructure monitoring solution for everyone, no matter their level of expertise. Entry-level IT workers to managers with decades of experience can log onto their ASB’s platform and check the health of devices. All without having to ping a server, network or data warehouse manager.

On a day-to-day front, all network users rely on autogenerated and configured notifications and reports. Before WhatsUp Gold, ASB’s IT managers focused on status screens on their computers. Nowadays, text messages and emails are the preferred form of communication regarding network alerts. The autogenerated reports provide comprehensive insights into the network status and allow the three management teams to research and analyze issues without a hassle.

One added benefit has been the ability to create custom dashboards. Plotzeneder explained that this is one of the first features they train new users on, as it enables anyone to see the status of a particular device(s) or system(s) quickly. Users can apply specific filters and criteria as part of their dashboard, leading to more refined insights. Plotzeneder compliments how this feature fosters greater collaboration at ASB.

“The best part about the dashboard feature is the ability to share them,” said Plotzeneder. “When employees come in first thing in the morning, you’ve already created an email where they can take a glance at the dashboard, double-check and see if they must log on to fix a problem.”

Watch the On-demand Video Interview:  WhatsUp Gold Is Right on the Money for Hawaii-based American Savings Bank

About American Savings Bank

American Savings Bank (ASB) has been serving Hawaii’s businesses and communities since 1925 and provides a full range of financial products and services, including business and consumer banking, home loans, insurance and investments. ASB is one of Hawaii’s leading financial institutions, with online banking services and branch locations throughout the state offering evening, weekend and holiday hours. ASB provides Hawaii’s consumers and businesses with more extended weekday and weekend hours than other similarly sized local banks, as well as convenient in-store locations. For more information, visit https://www.asbhawaii.com