• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • AAA Carolinas Gains Greater i Visibility with Software from CCSS

    May 6, 2008 Alex Woodie

    Keeping an eye on the AS/400 was largely a manual task for operators at AAA Carolinas, a branch of the American Automobile Association that insures and supports drivers in North and South Carolina. As a result, the company’s reaction to unusual events wasn’t always as swift as it could have been. But now that it’s implemented the i (formerly i5/OS and OS/400)-based systems monitoring and management suite from CCSS, the company’s computer operators have become more proactive in identifying and resolving issues before they become problems.

    AAA Carolinas started selling insurance only eight years ago, but it’s already the sixth largest automobile club in the United States with 1.7 million members, and with a 23 percent increase in premiums last year, it’s the fastest growing, too.

    Backing up this business is an IBM System i Model 520, which runs a variety of insurance and membership applications that are accessed by 300 users. The server provides an exceptionally strong foundation for business applications, but without a well-defined system for monitoring the server’s message logs and its vital signs (disk, processor, I/O utilization, etc.), AAA Carolinas was running the risk of a critical message or abnormal state slipping past the operators and potentially hurting availability.

    As a result of this reactive state of affairs in the IT department, AAA Carolina relied upon its users to notify the company’s helpdesk of any potential problems with the i OS business applications. The company realized this was not an ideal situation, so it sought to install a systems management package that could automate much of the work of monitoring the system logs and notifying the administrator before minor issues escalate into major problems.

    AAA Carolina’s search led it to CCSS, an English developer of i OS systems management software that has its U.S. headquarters in North Carolina. AAA Carolina installed CCSS’ QMessage Monitor, which examines important logs and queues in the i OS and ensures that someone is notified of abnormal situations through its escalation procedures.

    With QMessage Monitor in place, AAA Carolinas has a way of automatically filtering through the thousands of inconsequential log entries, and highlighting the few urgent messages that could impact availability if left untended. If an important message hits the system, QMessage Monitor initiates the escalation procedure corresponding to the day and time, which ensures that the message is brought to the attention of the administrator or operator on call at that particular time. If the administrator or operator fails to respond to the initial e-mail in a timely manner, QMessage Monitor will call the administrator’s cell phone or pager, or request assistance from a preselected backup.

    With QMessage Monitor on the job, AAA Carolinas is enjoying greater accountability and ownership of its applications, says CIO Laura Fanning. “We are now consistently meeting or exceeding service level agreements for these critical applications,” she says. “We have a greater understanding of critical dependencies amongst Internet, data warehouse, and financial applications that reside on different platforms but require information from the membership and insurance operational systems. And finally, we have been able to be more proactive in identifying, responding to, and resolving issues before they become known to or communicated by our user community.”



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags:

    Sponsored by
    ARCAD Software

    [Webinar Series] Demystifying DevOps on the IBM i

    Join us for this 3-Part Roundtable Webinar Series, where ARCAD experts will demystify the move to Git and an automated process with options that work for everyone!

    This Series will be an engaging discussion on key DevOps topics as Git, Builds, Automation and much more.

    Part 2: Branching & Building (Thursday, February 9th, at 12:00PM ET / 9:00AM PT)

    During this 2nd session, we will discuss Feature/Release and Branch Management and building the branches with tools like Bob and ARCAD.

    Part 3: DevOps – Automated Workflow (Thursday, February 23rd, at 12:00PM ET / 9:00AM PT)

    During this 3rd session, we will discuss what can be automated in the IBM i DevOps process starting from the build to other steps in your workflow.  We’ll discuss pipeline tools like Jenkins and the new automation features of Git packages.

    Register NOW

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Sponsored Links

    COMMON:  Join us at the Focus 2008 workshop conference, October 5 - 8, in San Francisco, California
    MoshiMoshi:  An Interactive Experience for the System i Community. See Episode 1 now!
    Help/Systems:  Explore operations automation and BI, June 17 - 20, 2008, Minneapolis, MN

    IT Jungle Store Top Book Picks

    Easy Steps to Internet Programming for AS/400, iSeries, and System i: List Price, $49.95
    Getting Started with PHP for i5/OS: List Price, $59.95
    The System i RPG & RPG IV Tutorial and Lab Exercises: List Price, $59.95
    The System i Pocket RPG & RPG IV Guide: List Price, $69.95
    The iSeries Pocket Database Guide: List Price, $59.00
    The iSeries Pocket Developers' Guide: List Price, $59.00
    The iSeries Pocket SQL Guide: List Price, $59.00
    The iSeries Pocket Query Guide: List Price, $49.00
    The iSeries Pocket WebFacing Primer: List Price, $39.00
    Migrating to WebSphere Express for iSeries: List Price, $49.00
    iSeries Express Web Implementer's Guide: List Price, $59.00
    Getting Started with WebSphere Development Studio for iSeries: List Price, $79.95
    Getting Started With WebSphere Development Studio Client for iSeries: List Price, $89.00
    Getting Started with WebSphere Express for iSeries: List Price, $49.00
    WebFacing Application Design and Development Guide: List Price, $55.00
    Can the AS/400 Survive IBM?: List Price, $49.00
    The All-Everything Machine: List Price, $29.95
    Chip Wars: List Price, $29.95

    JDA Software Has Its Best First Quarter Ever Accurate Program References

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Volume 8, Number 18 -- May 6, 2008
THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY:

LANSA
Aldon
Bsafe Information Systems
Maximum Availability
BCD

Table of Contents

  • Bsafe Updates Security Tools for i OS
  • GDCM Seeks to ‘Defrag’ the Data Center for Higher Efficiency
  • GeneXus Brings Web 2.0 Home with Version X
  • Terminix Overcomes Hurdle to New B2B System, Thanks to LANSA
  • NSPI Launches CBU as a Service Offering
  • Infor Gives Southern Distributor an A+ for ERP Selection
  • ALTech Taps ASNA to Migrate Food App from RPG to .NET
  • Oracle Supports i 6.1 with JD Edwards World
  • AAA Carolinas Gains Greater i Visibility with Software from CCSS
  • TallyGenicom Introduces Hybrid Thermal Barcode Printer

Content archive

  • The Four Hundred
  • Four Hundred Stuff
  • Four Hundred Guru

Recent Posts

  • Power Systems Did Indeed Grow Revenues Last Year
  • The IBM Power Trap: Three Mistakes That Leave You Stuck
  • Big Blue Decrees Its 2023 IBM Champions
  • As I See It: The Good, the Bad, And The Mistaken
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 5
  • N2i Gains Traction Among IBM i Newbies
  • Realizing The Promise Of Cross Platform Development With VS Code
  • 2023 IBM i Predictions, Part 3
  • Four Hundred Monitor, January 25
  • Join The 2023 IBM i Marketplace Survey Webinar Tomorrow

Subscribe

To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

Pages

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Four Hundred Monitor
  • IBM i PTF Guide
  • Media Kit
  • Subscribe

Search

Copyright © 2022 IT Jungle

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.