Hospital Taps CCSS for i/OS Monitoring Expertise

Published: June 8, 2010

by Alex Woodie

San Diego-based Alvarado Hospital has adopted i/OS systems management software from CCSS to manage its System i server, the vendor announced recently. With QSystems Monitor, QMessage Monitor, and QRemote Control keeping a watchful eye on the hospital's System i server, its IT staff has become more proactive towards performance issues.

Alvarado Hospital is an independent 306-bed medical center that was founded in 1972. About 1,200 employees work at the hospital, which provides more than 40 medical specialties, including a spine institute that is considered one of the best in the region. \r\nSupporting operations at Alvarado are core applications running atop more than 60 servers running a wide mix of i/OS, Linux, Unix, Windows, and VMS operating systems. The hospital's System i server, 9406-M25 equipped with Power6 processors, required a team of five to manage, according to CCSS. But the team struggled to keep on top of potential performance problems before they hurt the server's availability.

Things began to change when the hospital adopted the QSM, QMM, and QRM products from CCSS. These products are designed to automatically watch System i performance metrics and various logs for hints of problems. When a problem does crop up, the software immediately alerts the administrator, who no longer must manually comb through logs to pinpoint problems. Administrators can also monitor key problem areas from a central graphical console, which customers can customize to fit their exact needs.

Alvarado Hospital benefited immediately from the CCSS software. Soon after installation, the CCSS products detected problems with four of the System i server's hard drives.

"That was incredibly significant," states Glenn Anderson, the hospital's network manager, in CCSS' press release. "In examining the issue, we found that the system had been running like that for more than 30 days. Without the CCSS solutions, we would not have known about these drives until resulting problems occurred."

The IT staff also benefits from QRM, which enables administrators to receive alerts on mobile devices, and also to send commands. "Thanks to QRC, we can enjoy our weekends without worrying about the system," Anderson says. "We have the same ability to manage the system, regardless of our location."

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