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Reserve Your Seat Today"DPS Telecom gives us a reliable way of accessing a variety of equipment, regardless of the brand or provider. We now have a common interface for our existing system."
KMC Telecom has deployed 60 NetGuardians and 120 NetGuardian Expansions. The Huntsville Networks Operation Center (NOC) monitors approximately 3,000 alarm points. That sheer number of alarm points should give you an idea of the scope of KMC's operations.
Monitor data from the NetGuardians is sent as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps to the Huntsville NOC, where it is then displayed using HP OpenView Internet usage manager software. Harold Moses, of KMC Telecom, says that the decision to use the NetGuardian came from knowing the quality of older DPS Telecom products and research into current alarm monitoring offerings from a number of vendors. The deciding factor was that the NetGuardian gave KMC a cost-effective means of using its already existing equipment. This decision led to KMC saving an estimated $2 million per year and increasing their response time by up to 30 minutes.
The NetGuardian 832A G4, pictured above, monitors 32 discrete alarms and 8 analog alarms, pings 32 network elements, controls 8 relays, provides LAN reach through access to 8 serial ports, and reports via SNMP or DCPX, e-mail, or pagers. It also has dual ethernet support for secure network access where both network interface cards (NIC) can have access to the NetGuardian but not to each other. Being RoHS 5 approved means that it can be used for overseas clients that require RoHS compliant units. The multiple customizations and expansion options offered shows how flexible and versatile the NetGuardian 832A G4 can be.
Take a look at the newer version of the NetGuardian 832A.
"DPS Telecom gave us a reliable way of accessing a variety of equipment, regardless of the brand or provider. We now have a common interface for our existing system. We did quite a lot of research on what was available. We thought that the NetGuardian had a lot of flexibility, in terms of the various software options and terminal capacity," says Moses. According to Dale Stinson, manager of the Huntsville NOC, the NetGuardian was the solution that made the most sense for cost and capability.
"NetGuardian was the only solution that met both our technical and our budget needs," Stinson says. "The NetGuardian is tightly integrated with the way we work, in how it handles SNMP Traps and its tight integration with HP OpenViewMonitoring the network in-house has also improved KMC's monitoring visibility in ways that are impossible to accomplish with a third-party provider", Stinson adds.
"The NetGuardian is tightly integrated with the way we work, in how it handles SNMP Traps and its tight integration with HP OpenView."
"It's really added to our peace of mind to be able to see what's going on real-time. Outsourced monitoring can't see problems in real time," Stinson says. The real-time monitoring capability was of great service on the morning of November 11. Tornadoes had ripped through Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. Several commercial power supply to many of KMC Telecom's site were knocked out. "9 out of 10 of these sites are unmanned," says Stinson. "We have automatic backup generators, but we still need to send a technician to the site. It would have taken us several minutes longer to respond if we were still using outsourced monitoring. Being able to do real-time in-house monitoring probably shaved 30 minutes off our response time.
