In this case study

Challenge

In 2019, WWT and ScienceLogic were engaged by the Network Operations team of a leading U.S. airline. They needed expert help identifying and integrating a next-generation AIOps platform and IT Operations Management (ITOM) solution that offered visibility across its distributed IT environments. The incumbent's contract was set to expire in Q3 of 2020, so time was of the essence.

Several issues were complicating the airline's search for a new enterprise monitoring tool. Due to COVID-19's massive impact on 2020 revenue, the airline had been forced to request voluntary furloughs for the first time in company history. The subsequent exodus of IT talent took with it a wealth of institutional knowledge. The remaining IT team was forced to do more with less, ushering in a renewed focus on operating more efficiently with existing tools within a tightened budget.

However, from a business and technical perspective, the need for a next-gen AIOps platform became IT's main focus when it chose to let the incumbent's contract expire.

In searching for and validating a new AIOps solution, the airline's main goals were:

  • To quickly reduce the number of viable products to assess and test.
  • To identify a solution that offered the right visibility into network, compute, storage and applications.
  • To leverage automation to move incidents rather than relying on manual processes.
  • To ensure seamless integration with both Cisco ACI Fabric and AppDynamics.

Solution validation

The airline had been curious about ScienceLogic as early as 2018, when it engaged WWT to spin up multiple demonstrations to showcase the technology's capabilities. While the airline did not end up investing in ScienceLogic then due to budgeting constraints, their curiosity resurfaced as they began their search for a new AIOps platform.

WWT's AIOps experts helped the airline quickly scour the market for viable solutions. Based on the airline's requirements, goals and preferences, our experts recommended a sophisticated ScienceLogic SL1 solution rooted in ServiceNow and AppDynamics. This approach would offer the level of enterprise network monitoring needed to navigate the quickly changing world of airline travel.

The airline wanted to spin up a proof of concept to test and validate our integrated solution, but they were unable to do so in their own environment. So, they turned to the robust testing capabilities within WWT's Advanced Technology Center (ATC).

WWT engineers leveraged the ATC's pre-built environment to spin up ACI Fabric and AppDynamics instances, plus virtual machines (VMs) that could be monitored and validated by the ScienceLogic SL1 Platform.

Because the airline is large consumer of AppDynamics, our engineers demonstrated how a wide range of AppDynamics solutions could integrate with the SL1 platform, VMs and AWS public cloud instances. This served to highlight the value of the underlying solution infrastructure supporting the applications being tested.

Setting the stage for success

Our proof of concept was a huge hit with the airline's Network Operations team. 

By leveraging the extensive POC capabilities of the ATC to de-risk the often-lengthy process of product vetting and validation, the airline significantly accelerated its search for the right AIOps and ITOM enterprise monitoring solution — all while working within their budget, IT talent pool and time constraints.

Following the POC, the airline has since realized that WWT's recommended solution has unlocked many more AppDynamics integrations than initially anticipated. This should allow Network Operators to continue growing the airline's AIOps capabilities at their own pace in the coming months and years.

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