For Application and Performance Management, kubus IT relies on know-how and experience from amasol

As an IT service provider, the kubus IT GbR ensures reliable IT operation for AOK Bayern and AOK Plus and supports 17.000 users in the federal states of Bavaria, Thuringia and Saxony. With headquarters in Bayreuth and 750 employees, the company‘s service portfolio ranges from the complete operation of technical systems, through application and user support, to consulting and development. To meet the crucially important goal of providing the best possible user experience for its customers, kubus IT has developed a sophisticated system for application performance management. In implementing and operating this system, the company relies on specific know-how and many years of experience of the amasol in Munich.

Project overview

Application Performance as an „ongoing theme“

As a software application for all central business processes, the AOK uses the industry solution oscare® based on SAP for Insurance. Via Citrix, the users access the solution‘s more than 20 system components. ”As we at kubus IT are not only responsible for the operation of the SAP application, but also for application and user support, the topic of application performance is an ‚ongoing theme‘ for us“, explains Jörg Witzgall, Division Manager for Applications and Processes. The technical monitoring solutions used at kubus IT in the past, which were purely focused on the IT components (network, server, etc.), unfortunately often led to the conclusion that the monitoring results did not coincide with the end-user experience of the AOK employees. Jörg Witzgall recalls: ”When it came to the central question of performance problems: ‚Where is the trouble?‘, I often received only the succinct response of the staff responsible for the monitoring of the individual system components: ‚Everything looks normal to us.‘“ Therefore, the search for the actual fault domain took excessively long. Ultimately, it became clear that a central solution for End User Experience Management / Application Performance Management is essential.

APM at kubus IT: Dynatrace DC RUM + synthetic + survey tool for user satisfaction

As part of the introduction of the most comprehensive EUEM / APM platform, kubus IT first looked for a solution for ”real user monitoring“, meaning the recording of the actual activities of the AOK users. ”Within the framework of a market research, we evaluated Dynatrace Data Center Real User Monitoring (DC RUM) as the market leading solution for our requirements criteria and decided at the beginning of 2017 to implement the solution at kubus IT“, Jörg Witzgall recalls. Therefore, Dynatrace DC RUM was installed centrally at the data center sites in Bayreuth. For data tapping from the network and the supply to DC RUM, traffic access points (TAPs) and switches from IXIA are used.

In addition to the Real User Monitoring with Dynatrace DC RUM, kubus IT uses the solution ServiceTrace of the manufacturer of the same name for synthetic monitoring.
Asked about the reasons for this ”double monitoring strategy“, Jörg Witzgall explains: ”On the one hand, additional synthetic monitoring makes sense for SLA billing, because only then can the agreed performance levels be measured in times with little or no user activity (marginal working hours). In addition, synthetic monitoring serves to objectify the performance, because specific user behavior that improves performance can be extracted; for example, behavior that influences search queries.“
Via an amasol import module, the reporting results from ServiceTrace are integrated into the DC RUM interface and visualized there.

The third instrument for evaluating the user experience is a survey tool developed by kubus IT together with the faculty for Computer Science at the University of Würzburg.
Jörg Witzgall explains: ”A timed pop-up appears once per hour on the screens of a randomly selected user group and asks for evaluation of the current satisfaction with the IT performance using a ’smiley system‘. The initial problem of visualizing the survey results was solved by amasol creating an import module similar to the ServiceTrace integration, which allows integration into the DC RUM interface.“

In DC RUM, three parallel dimensions are displayed today: the report from Real User Monitoring with DC RUM itself, the report from the synthetic monitoring with ServiceTrace, and the results from the survey tool. ”This integration provides us with an interesting comparison between the data from the monitoring tools and the subjective perception of the end user. This makes it possible to map the objective performance view with the subjective perception of the end user, „explains Jörg Witzgall.

Manufacturer‘s recommendation: amasol is a partner with high Dynatrace-DC RUM competence

Before the implementation of Proof of Concept from Dynatrace DC RUM at the beginning of 2017, kubus IT was still working directly with the manufacturer Dynatrace. However, when it came to the implementation of the solution, at the request from kubus IT, they proposed amasol as a local implementation partner with high Dynatrace DC RUM competence. Jörg Witzgall recalls: ”It was clear to us from the beginning that a local contact partner would ensure greater efficiency for the implementation project. For this reason, we were glad that with amasol we could rely on such a local partner and immediately booked the amasol implementation package for Dynatrace DC RUM.“

As part of this package, amasol not only undertook the technical implementation of the solution, but also trained the employees and implemented the above mentioned integration with the synthetic monitoring solution from ServiceTrace and the self-developed survey tool. In addition to standard software maintenance, kubus IT also decided in favor of the amasol system service. In practice, this means that even after implementation, amasol is responsible for the entire operation of the Dynatrace platform, regularly inspecting the entire system remotely and then taking care of all the necessary maintenance. Jörg Witzgall explains the decision: ”As in many IT organizations, the staff capacities at kubus IT are limited. Our employees therefore focus on the core business of our customers. The operation of an additional, new system would have resulted in a disproportionate additional effort. Outsourcing to an external service provider, who knows the solution best, seemed to us the far more sensible and economical alternative.“

amasol: This recommendation was spot on

Looking back on nearly one year of cooperation with amasol, Jörg Witzgall is still happy about the manufacturer‘s recommendation: ”Dynatrace‘s recommendation of amasol was absolutely justified. The team responsible for us is highly competent in the areas of end user experience management / application performance management in general and DC RUM implementation and integration in particular. The colleagues work extremely flexibly and efficiently and are always on hand with help and advice.
By outsourcing the operation of the EUEM / APM platform, we were also able to conserve our already scarce human resources while on the other hand we can be sure that there is someone who will continuously take care of the smooth operation of the platform.“

For Application and Performance Management, kubus IT relies on know-how and experience from amasol

Project overview

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Application Performance as an „ongoing theme“

APM at kubus IT: Dynatrace DC RUM + synthetic + survey tool for user satisfaction

Manufacturer‘s recommendation: amasol is a partner with high Dynatrace-DC RUM competence

amasol: This recommendation was spot on

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