Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc.
Alliance Atlantis IT Team Delivers a Blockbuster Hit with MOM 2005
|
|
Company Overview
In the movies, superheroes can travel around the world at the speed of light. The IT team at Alliance Atlantis – a leading specialty broadcaster, film distributor and co-producer/distributor of a limited number of television programs in Canada and internationally – realized they would either need similar powers, or a centralized management tool to manage the company’s global network.
Business Challenge
With eight offices in multiple time zones spread across three continents, the seven-person Alliance Atlantis IT team found it challenging to monitor and maintain critical applications for their colleagues. With the majority of the company’s IT resources and personnel based in Toronto, Canada, the IT team had limited insight into the daily operations of the overall global network.
“We were using a monitoring tool for the Toronto system that only allowed us to view the heartbeat of the network and some very specific information about the server hardware,” says John Kemp, Director of Operations, Alliance Atlantis. “We used additional on-site tools at our global sites, but they didn’t allow our Toronto-based team to easily view information. We needed a centralized tool that would provide a more in-depth picture of the hardware and software on our whole system.”
Since the company already relied on applications like Microsoft® Exchange Server and Active Directory® directory service to communicate critical business information, the IT team wanted a tool that would synchronize with its existing system and monitor such applications. To help find the right solution, Alliance Atlantis employed the help of LegendCorp, a Microsoft Gold Certified partner.
|
Solution
After looking at several competitive solutions, including products from Open View and Tivoli, Alliance Atlantis chose Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 for its centralized management capabilities, tight integration with other Microsoft products, and affordability.
“We knew that MOM 2005 would allow Alliance Atlantis to leverage its existing Microsoft infrastructure, helping to provide more value and functionality than competitive products,” says Andy Papadopoulos, president, LegendCorp. “MOM 2005 allows Alliance Atlantis to get the most out of its IT team by reducing resources needed for standard monitoring and management activities.”
By delivering operational knowledge and subject expertise directly from the application developers, MOM 2005 helps simplify the identification of issues, streamline the process for determining the root cause of the problem, and facilitate quick resolution to restore services and prevent potential IT problems. For Alliance Atlantis, these characteristics, along with its competitive price point, made MOM 2005 a natural choice.
“Compared to competitive products, MOM 2005 provides all the critical management functionality at an affordable cost,” says Kemp. “As part of Microsoft’s Windows Server System™, MOM 2005 also easily integrates with other Microsoft applications and provides the most detailed feedback to our IT team.”
Working with LegendCorp, Alliance Atlantis deployed MOM 2005 across its global network on schedule, without any additional costs.
Business Benefits
Alliance Atlantis began realizing benefits from Microsoft® Operations Manager 2005 almost immediately upon deployment. MOM 2005 quickly identified several critical configuration issues within the Alliance Atlantis system, which the IT team previously had no way of recognizing.
“The first thing MOM did when we plugged it in was identify several configuration issues with our system,” says Kemp. “We noticed security issues, physical memory issues, process issues – without MOM 2005, we had no way of knowing that these problems existed.”
Addressing these issues will help improve the reliability of Alliance Atlantis’ IT systems, and help reduce long-term costs associated with network maintenance. Much like the superheroes in the movies, the Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis IT team can now accomplish more than what seems humanly possible, thanks to MOM 2005.
Improved Issue Resolution
When comparing MOM 2005 to competitive products, the Alliance Atlantis team was impressed with the relatively large amount of information that accompanied system alerts. Since Alliance Atlantis uses a range of Microsoft tools in its IT infrastructure, the in-depth information will help improve the speed and accuracy of issue resolution.
“One of the most important benefits of MOM 2005 is the amount of information that is available right out of the box,” says Kemp. “Unlike other tools, MOM 2005 outlines exactly what issue is being identified, and provides in-depth information on the best corrective actions.”
Improved Staff Efficiency
As Director of Operations, Kemp is responsible for dividing tasks among his IT team and ensuring they have the tools that enable them to work efficiently. MOM 2005 helps make his job easier by allowing managers to segregate access to management information, and enable IT professionals to focus on specific applications or geographical areas.
This functionality, along with the robust alerting system, enables the Alliance Atlantis IT team to identify critical issues and resolve problems in a timely fashion.
“MOM 2005 will help our team focus on the problems that really need fixing, as opposed to chasing phantoms,” says Kemp. “In my mind, this is one of the main benefits because it has a very positive effect on the efficiency of my department.”
Centralized Management
One of the most critical benefits of MOM 2005 for Alliance Atlantis is centralized management. MOM 2005 helps the Alliance Atlantis IT team improve their ability to keep critical applications running properly across the geographically dispersed system.
Additionally, MOM 2005 helps reduce the reliance on outside contractors for visiting remote sites to search and identify system problems. Using only three percent of bandwidth on the Alliance Atlantis system, MOM 2005 provides these capabilities without tying up disproportionate amounts of its infrastructure.
“When we began looking for a management solution, our main goal was to find a tool that would allow us centrally monitor our system and resolve any critical issues,” says Kemp. “MOM 2005 delivered that capability and much more. The solution will have a positive impact on Alliance Atlantis systems for years to come.”
Microsoft Windows Server System
Microsoft® Windows Server System™ is a comprehensive, integrated, and interoperable server infrastructure that helps reduce the complexity and costs of building, deploying, connecting, and operating agile business solutions. Windows Server System helps customers create new value for their business through the strategic use of their IT assets. With the Windows Server operating system as its foundation, Windows Server System delivers dependable infrastructure for data management and analysis; enterprise integration; customer, partner, and employee portals; business process automation; communications and collaboration; and core IT operations including security, deployment, and systems management.
For more information about Windows Server System, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about LegendCorp products and services, call 416-465-4540 or visit the Web site at: www.legendcorp.com
For more information about Alliance Atlantis products and services, call 1-866-679-6722 or visit the Web site at: www.allianceatlantis.com
