Success Stories

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Customer Name: Netsurion
Industry: Cybersecurity for retail, hospitality, healthcare customers
Location: 514 NE 13th Street, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33304

Background

Netsurion had basically managed all the network devices manually before selecting Net LineDancer (NetLD) in their large network of 17,000+ devices.

Challenges for configuration managements at Netsurion

1. Ability to complete configuration and /or firewall policy queries and updates across large numbers of devices in a time frame required by our customers.
2. Ability to efficiently determine if deployed configurations meet specified compliance guidelines.
3. Access to devices without need for knowledge of login credentials.
4. Ability to efficiently determine firmware revisions across the devices in the deployed fleet.

There was a Q&A talk with Mark A. Cornwell, CIO of Netsurion as in the following.
The comments below are clear and concrete, which allowed us to easily imagine how Net LineDancer contributes to streamline a large number of tedious updates and tweaks of devices to keep up with fast and never-ending changes nowadays in their cybersecurity network.

What are biggest payoffs since NetLD was deployed ?
→(NS):

• After training the senior members of our support team on NetLD, they now use the Command Runner and Smart Change features to query and update the configurations in our deployed fleet. This has increased their efficiency and productivity and has allowed them to satisfy customer requests in a reasonable timeframe.
• NetLD satisfies our firewall configuration storage and versioning requirements, and the rich API provides us the ability to rapidly perform complex analysis against all of our firewall configurations.
• The centralized location for device configurations allows for easy access via the web UI, and the config comparison tool is invaluable for quickly evaluating updates over time.

Unexpected benefits brought about by NetLD ?
→(NS):

• NetLD provides another view into our deployed fleet that is a useful measurement point against the views in our vendor-based firewall management. For example, we can modify a location in our other systems and purge the firewall from our management servers but miss physically removing the firewall. netLD has made it simple for us to detect and highlight these kinds of mistakes for corrective action.
• The status of the last backup gives us a concise view for quickly identifying device issues such as invalid credentials or communication failures.

What best 3 features of NetLD have in fact helped improve efficiency,compliance and productivity ?
→(NS):

• Command Runner and Smart Change Jobs for configuration queries and updates.
• The NetLD Integration API which allows for programmatic access to the NetLD DB for automating more complex queries, updates, and comparisons within the NetLD DB and to contrast/compare that data with Netsurion’s other device DB information.
• Compliance Policy and Rules to identify configuration compliance issues against a defined set of devices.

Where are points that you like most about NetLD ?
→(NS):

• Ability to use the built-in Terminal utility to access the CLI of a device without any knowledge of the login credentials with all activity in that session automatically logged.
• Ability to utilize Command Runner, Smart Change, or the API against a defined set of devices to query or update configuration information.

What are features that can be taken advantage of for other network management groups ?
→(NS):

• The product has been received well, and engineers from our other groups are exploiting the platform for their own purposes. We will be happy to share with you any novel uses they devise.

About Netsurion

Netsurion is a leading provider of cloud-managed IT security services that protect small and medium-sized business information, payment system and on-premise public and private Wi-Fi networks from data breaches and other risks posed by hackers. Netsurion’s patented remote installation technology and PCI compliant cloud-based solutions simplify the implementation process and ongoing support. The company serves the retail, hospitality, healthcare, legal, and insurance sectors.

About LogicVein

LogicVein is a leading provider of supporting to eliminate network configuration management cost, frequent errors and a number of updates in the environments where senior and novice engineers work perfectly as a team in comprehensive way.

Our Net LineDancer is targeted to network configuration management with unparalleled price performance. With the tool, users of the product claim that it can process network manual jobs to one-tenth in maximum.

ArticlesNetsurion Success Story(PDF: 695KB)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Customer Name: SoftBank Corp.
Industry: Telecommunications / Carrier
Location: Tokyo, Japan Net sales: $2.3B (FY2016)

Background

SoftBank had handled all its network configuration management (NCM) manually for ten years before deciding on Net LineDancer (NetLD) to manage and maintain its Managed CPE-S or CPE bundle carrier services in 2011.

BUSINESS CHALLENGES

• In 2011 they and support vendors manually handled the NCM for over 250 customers.
• It took 10 days to make customer requested changes.
• Network engineers traveled to each customer location at least twice per year (500+ trips) plus engineering salaries.
• There were differing views between SoftBank and their support vendors about which party would assume responsibility for maintaining all the configurations.
• All teams required overtime just to keep up with the NCM workload.
• They needed multi-vendor support so Cisco PI would not work for them.

Solution

Net LineDancer on Private Cloud

BUSINESS RESULTS

• NetLD is managing over 10,000+ devices on a large number of customer networks for SoftBank worldwide.
• SoftBank tracks all configurations now without depending on their several support vendors.
• NetLD access-control provides clear delineation between SoftBank and its support vendor’s responsibilities.
• Config changes can occur remotely now in minutes instead of days, saving hundreds of trips per year.
• SoftBank engineers and sub-contractors can now easily keep up with NCM duties, spend time doing other important jobs and can even handle NCM from home.
• NetLD has become an indispensable part of SoftBank’s managed service business model.
• NetLD’s Terminal Proxy allowing “automatic login” and trace “session logs” for their several support vendors has been very effective!
• Intelligent management of all the information for device recovery: configuration, OS version and module information.

Background

SoftBank Corp., formerly SoftBank Mobile Corp., launched ‘SoftBank’ branded mobile services in Japan in 2006 after it was acquired from Vodafone Group in the same year. Today it is one of the largest telecommunications carriers in Japan. It has over 17,000 employees and its net sales were $2.8B in fiscal year 2016. SoftBank had been doing NCM manually for its Managed CPE-S or CPE bundle carrier services for ten years. At one point SoftBank wanted their subcontractors to claim ownership and maintain the configuration files, but the subs wanted SoftBank own them. SoftBank purchased netLD and this is no longer an issue. “We primarily bought NetLD for configuration changes, but now it is crucial for accessing our customer networks. It would be impossible to do our job now without NetLD.” Kazuhiko Maruko, Network Engineer SoftBank

Selecting an NCM Solution

SoftBank selected Net LineDancer for managing and maintaining Managed CPE-S or CPE bundle carrier services. It allows its subcontractors to access and manage devices with total control via Net LineDancer which has proven convenient and facilitated the unification of their configurations at reasonable cost. SoftBank engineers had considered a Cisco NCM solution, but even if they decided to buy all Cisco equipment in-house, their customers would still use everything else imaginable so Cisco PI would not have worked. According to Kazuhiko Maruko of SoftBank, “NetLD’s vendor coverage is much broader than its competitors. It covers more types of network devices, more supplier products, and provides greater utility.” SoftBank additionally works with several subcontracting network companies and has NetLD managing the NCM for all of it. With NetLD on SoftBank’s cloud, NetLD provides secure access for its subcontractors with SoftBank maintaining total control of each subcontractor’s access and permissions.

Growing Fast and Saving Money

In 2010 SoftBank was manually handling the NCM for over hundreds of customers with the help of several maintenance partner vendors. Engineers had to travel to hundreds of customer locations twice per year (hundreds of trips) costing huge. With NetLD SoftBank was able to scale their business and take their service offering internationally. Currently SoftBank is managing over 10,000+ devices on over a large number of customer networks in United States, Canada and Asia. Keeping up with customer NCM requests used to be a full time job for the team, but now they are able to handle NCM issues quickly, provide appropriate levels of secured access to sub-contractors, and now have time for other important tasks as well. SoftBank employees can even make changes from home now. According to Kazuhiko Maruko of SoftBank, “We primarily bought NetLD for network configuration, but now it is crucial for accessing our managed CPE. It would be i mpossible to do our job now without NetLD.”

The Real Success Story

The real success story has been the development of a great working relationship between SoftBank and LogicVein. SoftBank needed a capable and responsive NCM vendor who would work with them to provide the flexibility and capability in an NCM product they could use. LVI has never stopped working hard to make sure SoftBank and all our customers are happy and productive. LogicVein has turned NetLD into a product our customers find they cannot do without. “LogicVein is very flexible and continually provides us with the changes and features we ask for. It is flexible to provide this level of support.” Kazuhiko Maruko, Network Engineer SoftBank

SoftBank’s Favorite NetLD Features

Manage who, when and how a job has been done:
It is important to manage the history of operations accomplished by partner vendors. History of config changes and access logs can be easily managed and maintained by SoftBank and partner vendors. SoftBank can support inquiries of customers immediately. Access logs are automatically stored, which allows SoftBank to see who did what.

Make changes without remembering login IDs/Passwords:

With credentials linking a devices to NetLD accounts, NetLD allows SoftBank to manipulate devices without thinking about login IDs/Passwords. Allows handling devices without thinking of IDs/Passwords. SoftBank has no need to disclose IDs/Passwords to partner vendors and with NetLD has only to make changes to Credentials of NetLD to recover problems in case of a security incident.

Unique access control per user:

The ability to mix and match 20 types of access controls provides the right access to every user. NetLD provides SoftBank granular control of its users including authority to add or delete an SoftBank SE, SoftBank operator or partner vendors.

Flexible design:

LogicVein has been flexible and supportive with changes and functionality SoftBank has needed as they go.

Designed for collaboration:

Net LineDancer for managing and maintaining Managed CPE-S or CPE bundle carrier services. Allows its partner vendors access to manage any number of devices with a total control. Made NCM and the task of unification of their many disparate networks easier and at a reasonable cost.

Articles
Softbank_Success_Story2016

Real impact on network operations efficiency in ways they didn’t even expect.

Background

Atria Senior Living creates vibrant communities where older adults can thrive and participate. Established in 1996, Atria has 12,500 employees serving 20,000 residents in 28 states and 7 Canadian provinces.
Atria Senior Living has high standards when it comes to quality, because they know what’s at stake for customers and employees.
A replacement was needed for the SolarWinds’ Orion Network Configuration Manager Software module to back up their configurations in a mixed vendor environment. NCM, while functional, was often clunky and difficult to obtain support for. After staring at the daunting task of getting a RANCID deployment set up, and then keeping it up to date, they started evaluating alternatives and found Net LineDancer.

Business Challenge

Back up their configurations in a mixed vendor environment. NCM, while functional, was often clunky and difficult to get support for.

Solution
Immediately, they saw the value in Net LineDancer.

• The demo was easy to set up, and within minutes of installing it they were able to add devices and test the software.
• Once the full service was acquired they were able to add all of their devices in to the system in no time and saw an almost immediate benefit from the purchase of the software.

Business Results

1. Discovered over 80 devices that had been operating with their running configurations unsaved to the startup configuration including one with an entire sub interface unsaved. One command in NetLD and all of their configurations were saved to flash and backed up.
2. Used NetLD to audit local user accounts on the devices and discovered over 20 local user accounts set up by various admins over the years. With a few command pushes from NetLD were able to eliminate all of the extra user accounts and standardize the passwords for the one account they wanted to allow.
3. Able to determine which of their devices were running out of date software versions, determine which of them had enough space to push the newer code to, and then push the updates to the ones that could be updated and configure them to boot to the new code on the next cycle. All without a single fault or failure.
4. Able to implement the terminal proxy feature to allow helpdesk users access to view mac address tables and the like, without having to worry that they could make unauthorized changes.

Net LineDancer

“Working with NetLD has been a case of night and day. With SolarWinds NCM, configuration management was an emergency backup that we very rarely referenced and hated having to deal with when it was needed. NetLD on the other hand has had real impact on our network operations efficiency in ways we didn’t expect to get from a configuration management software.”
-Ryan Brown, Senior Network Administrator

Articles
Atria Senior Living Success(PDF: 321KB)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Background
As one of the biggest MSP in South Africa, AppCentrix monitors and manages IT resources to accurately pinpoint and project the health, performance, and availability of IT applications and services for their customers in the retail and financial industry. They had been looking for an ideal NCM tool and have decided to deploy Net LineDancer as their network configuration manager.

Articles

Web Host Industry Review July 25th, 2012

Product Purchased
Net LineDancer Enterprise 3,000 nodes license with SmartBridge option

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Background
US Interop 2013 now takes advantage of Net LineDancer to prepare for an extremely large network!
Net LineDancer was adopted as Network Configuration Tool working together with EM7 of ScienceLogic, NMS for a large network and cloud, in Interop Las Vegas in May of 2013.

Product Purchased

Net LineDancer Enterprise

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Background
The company, as a MSP and Data Center, controls the configuration management of a number of enterprises and government departments. Net LineDancer was selected and deployed because of its unique feature called SmartBridge, handling the same IP addresses scattered across multiple network segments.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Background
“When we started, we were sending engineers overseas, on site, to configure the network devices,” says Takeshi Utsumi, an Assistant Team Manager of Sega’s AM Sales Support Team. In deploying a network they call “ALL.Net” that connects all the amusement centers scattered in Asia, they were looking for a way to reduce administrator’s burden of installing and configuring network devices there.

Solution:

• Net LineDancer
• Automatic configuration distribution
• Zero-Touch*

What is Zero-Touch?

Zero-Touch* is a Net LineDancer feature that deploys configurations into remote devices by taking advantage of Cisco IOS AutoInstall and Cisco Networking Services (CNS). As soon as the device is plugged into the network, Net LineDancer will automatically configure it.

Outcome:

• Reduced network configuration management costs by automating configuration of devices overseas.
• Reduced configuration errors and improved standardization of configurations because they can now manage configurations remotely from their headquarters.
• Reduced engineer working hours to configure devices to one sixth.

Product:

Net LineDancer Enterprise For mode details, please see following document:
Sega Corporation Zero-Touch Case Study