UK's Largest Zoo Chooses Fluke Networks' OptiView XG to Help Identify and Fix Network and Application Issues Fast

EVERETT, Washington, April 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Chester Zoo, the largest zoo in the UK and home to more than 11,000 animals, has selected Fluke Networks' OptiView™ XG Network Analysis Tablet to gain visibility that helps quickly troubleshoot problems with its network and applications.  With more than 175 PCs, 300 IP phones, 100 PC-based electronic point-of-sales cash registers (or EPoS tills) and 50 printers, the 400 person staff relies heavily on the zoo's network to meet the needs of the more than 1.4 million visitors a year. The OptiView XG allows the IT department to proactively monitor performance, and when problems emerge, immediately isolate and take issues by the horns before they impact productivity and operations. 

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130426/SF02156-INFO)

"Prior to the OptiView XG, when an application crashed or the network went down, more often than not, we were notified by actual users in the field. At this point, the damage was already done and we had to hoof it to fix it as fast as possible," said Martin King, IT manager at Chester Zoo. "Since most of our tools were complex and required significant training, engineers would spend days hunting down a problem and would have to manually correlate mountains of data to find a root cause. We just couldn't fix problems fast enough."

The zoo IT department also struggled to proactively monitor the overall health and performance of the network. Using a mixed bag of outdated tools, King and his team constantly burrowed into key network and application devices daily to verify performance. This took a tremendous amount of time, sometimes more than two hours a day.

"The solutions we had in place gave us some really basic 'up or down' insight into key technologies we had deployed, but we were blind as bats to real granular readings that gave us foresight into problems that might be building," King said. "We needed a solution to automate and streamline this process. The OptiView XG was it. Not only does it give us visibility into performance in just minutes, but also when a problem does rear its ugly head, we can instantly use it to isolate that problem, from a remote location, and then send an engineer to the exact location to perform a fix. "

The OptiView XG has already paid for itself many times over at Chester Zoo and continues to save IT staff significant amounts of time and money. "It gives us proactive insight into information that previously we could only see by reacting with complex tools. Its built-in intelligence and graphical format helps us fix the problems fast, we can dig into packet level details, and the mobility of the tablet means we can quickly head into the field and get more detailed information from the source, if need be," King said. "I'm so impressed with its ease-of-use and the depth of information it provides – it's now our go-to networking guru."

For more information on the OptiView XG or to arrange a demo, visit the website.

About Chester Zoo
Chester Zoo is a registered conservation charity located in Cheshire and welcomes more than 1.4 million visitors a year. It was established in 1931 and is the largest zoo in the UK. It is home to more than 11,000 animals and 500 different species, many of which are endangered.  For more information, please visit the website.

About Fluke Networks
Fluke Networks is the world-leading provider of network test and monitoring solutions to speed the deployment and improve the performance of networks and applications. Leading enterprises and service providers trust Fluke Networks' products and expertise to help solve today's toughest issues and emerging challenges in WLAN security, mobility, unified communications and data centers. Based in Everett, Wash., the company distributes products in more than 50 countries. For more information, visit www.FlukeNetworks.com or call +1-425-446-4519.

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