A Major Bank based in New York
This company is a global leader in securities servicing for issuers, investors, and financial intermediaries, and plays an integral role in the infrastructure of the capital markets, servicing securities in more than 100 markets worldwide. The company provides quality solutions through leading technology for global corporations, financial institutions, asset managers, governments, non-profit organizations, and individuals. Its principal subsidiary, founded in 1784, is the oldest bank in the United States and has a distinguished history of serving clients around the world through its five primary businesses: Securities Servicing and Global Payment Services, Private Client Services and Asset Management, Corporate Banking, Global Market Services, and Retail Banking. The bank has grown through more than 80 acquisitions worldwide in the past 10 years.

The Background
This fabled bank's IT department has consistently been an early adopter of new trends and technologies, and has always been open to innovative solutions from smaller companies, rather than simply endorsing more traditional solutions. The Network Engineering Group embraces this philosophy wholeheartedly, and chooses to follow a best-of-breed concept when seeking solutions to new challenges. The group is also willing to work directly with vendors to mold products to fit their requirements, resulting in major long-term cost savings and feature/function benefits.

One of the products chosen almost ten years ago was CLEVER/SNA from Applied Expert Systems, Inc. The Network Engineering Group utilized this product to diagnose SNA and APPC session and connectivity problems derived from GTF-based VTAM traces. The product was used extensively to speed up the extremely cumbersome task of reading trace output versus IBM-based ACFTAP reports. The product also provided expert recommendations on problem sources such as controller or modem hardware, and/or required corrective actions such as VTAM parameter changes.

Approximately seven years ago, the bank began an aggressive migration to TCP/IP from their traditional SNA-based network. The Network Engineering Group realized immediately that they would require a new product to monitor their OS/390 centric TCP/IP connectivity and workload since nothing in their tool kit could provide this critical capability. They embarked on another product search, ultimately returning to AES and their newest offering called CleverView for TCP/IP. The product has since become an integral component of their network monitoring tool kit.

With the TCP/IP migration underway, the bank realized their limitations in performing analyses of IP packet traces. IBM ISPF-based interface, IPCS, was found to be very cumbersome and confusing to use and, as with ACFTAP-based output, the reports were hard to read given their one-dimensional hardcopy-style. Again the Network Engineering Group turned to AES. In collaboration with the bank and their requirements, AES CleverView for cTrace Analysis was finalized. This product provides the bank's technicians with detailed trace analysis and reporting of IP packets captured through the z/OS Component Trace (cTrace) utility.

The Problem
The bank's Branch Automation group had been unable to migrate to TCP/IP given legacy SNA-based application dependencies. The Network Engineering Group faced another migration challenge. A solution was found with IBM introduction of Enterprise Extender (EE), which is based on a hybrid integration of TCP/IP and SNA technologies. More specifically, it utilizes the second-generation APPN features of High Performance Routing (HPR) in conjunction with UDP-based pipes to allow SNA packets to be tunneled between VTAM- and/or APPN-based Control Points (CP). The basic Enterprise Extender connectivity was adapted to incorporate APPN Branch Extender links, where each branch actually has an AIX?based Server CP running an underlying Downstream Logical Unit Requester (DLUR) software-based PU Gateway. Branches are able to access their traditional client service application via this much faster IP-based path, rather than an old 3x74 controller and 56 KB link.

With this new migration came the realization that there was a very limited monitoring capability for these new hybrid Enterprise Extender links. Traditional SNA monitoring tools could provide some display capability for the SNA-based connections but were incapable of viewing the UDP-based connections or providing insight into their performance and/or availability based on their TCP/IP connectivity. There were occasions when VTAM indicated that a PU connection was active, but the Gateway had actually lost communication for various reasons. While the company had efficiently rolled out the migration of 300+ branches, they were somewhat uninformed when it came to monitoring and reporting on the status of these critical connections. When the EE connections and underlying APPN and/or LU 6.2-based conversations had session problems, there were still instances requiring tracing and analysis.

The Solution
The bank again turned to CLEVER?Solutions from Applied Expert Systems. First, AES demonstrated how CleverView for TCP/IP had introduced the capability to monitor UDP port-based connections and report on the throughput for each defined link, in real time or historically. AES also showed how critical resource monitoring, an inherent feature of the product, could be utilized to monitor these new EE links from an IP perspective, instantly reporting outages and tracking IP network performance and historical availability.

AES provided onsite training for the bank's key Branch Automation and Network Control first- and second-level support teams on the concepts of Enterprise Extender and the pertinent key functions of CleverView for TCP/IP. The support teams learned how to utilize these functions to better identify potential EE outages, thereby minimizing their reliance on the Network Engineering team. As part of this initiative, Network Engineering had previously implemented the Java Server/browser interface version of CleverView for TCP/IP running on a Linux server. Since each team could readily access the user-friendly browser interface from any location, the training and monitoring rollout efforts were greatly simplified. Whenever Network Engineering personnel needed to intervene for problem resolution, they also had the same CleverView for TCP/IP functions available to them. The bank also learned that the latest version of CleverView for cTrace Analysis had APPN/HPR IP packet trace protocol analysis for Enterprise Extender.

The bank's team realized the goals of their collaborative efforts with AES in long-term dividends: resolution of their critical issues and containment of their budget.

AES focuses on the development of network performance and availability Business Service Management solutions. Through its strong emphasis on listening to customers, foreseeing far-reaching trends in the marketplace, and providing stellar support systems, AES continues to maintain its lead in providing state-of-the-art, easy-to-use performance tools for the very backbone of eCommerce.