US Airways opts for NetScout’s nGenius Performance Management Solution

US Airways is using NetScout’s nGenius Performance Management Solution to proactively ensure the performance of online reservation and information services and corporate networks.

US Airways’ website generates more than $7 million in revenue per day on average, in addition to receiving millions of hits from customers checking flight schedules or conducting advance check-in. According to an official release, the airline chose the nGenius Solution for its ability to provide detailed, comprehensive views of the networks and applications supporting its corporate website.

“In the highly competitive arena of online travel booking, every second of responsiveness in the website counts,” said Tom Volante, senior manager of network operations, US Airways.

“The root causes behind application slowdowns can be complex, making a quick diagnosis impossible unless you have a detailed understanding of what is running in the network links surrounding the site. With NetScout’s nGenius Performance Management Solution, we can immediately analyse the utilisation of every application within a link. Without a doubt, NetScout provides the most complete picture for diagnosing performance problems of networked applications such as degradations,” said Volante.

For example, US Airways used the nGenius Solution to identify the source of a significant slowdown on its website impacting a number of online functions. It took US Airways network staff just 15 minutes to isolate a problem that would have taken hours or days to find previously. A third-party travel site was abnormally accessing several web servers at up to ten times the normal rate, eating up bandwidth and slowing performance. US Airways blocked the offending application traffic until the partner could reconfigure it. Left unresolved, the problem would definitely have interrupted business transactions, likely driving customers to another airline.

Volante added: “We can now contain the impact of application slowdowns on web business. Operationally, the consolidation of key functions into a single product has increased our efficiency, while improving our ability to demonstrate the business impact of capacity and other technology issues to our executives.”