Paessler PRTG gives Compuquip a distinct advantage in the competitive MSP market

Filling the void

As a growing managed IT service provider, Compuquip had begun to notice a void among its customer base—few had any way to monitor their network performance beyond uptime/downtime, despite their increasing reliance on connectivity. A few were using metrics solutions like SolarWinds or Whatsup Gold to track uptime/downtime, and occasionally an ISP would offer some type of basic solution, but none of these seemed to offer the cost-effective scalability Compuquip required in order to extend the solution across all of its clients.

Looking for something to fill the void, Compuquip’s Director of Technical Services Jorge Azcuy discovered PRTG at a Cisco conference. After giving the free trial a test run, he was eager to see what the latest full version brought to the table.

PRTG’s remote probe feature uniquely enables the Compuquip team to collect and monitor network performance data from its customer sites in Florida and other parts of North America without the need to infiltrate the customers’ firewalls and eliminating the need to access on-premises equipment or network services. Azcuy says this unique minimally-invasive capability was unlike any other monitoring system on the market and came at an unbeatable price point.

“PRTG blew away the competition in terms of value and functionality,” he said. “The other products we looked at didn’t offer the remote probe feature, yet they were in the $80,000 range. PRTG’s combination of extremely useful features and all-in licensing made it the natural choice.”

Granular network performance detail

In addition to enabling the Compuquip team to work more efficiently, it also allows them to do so more thoroughly. With built-in NetFlow capability and granular reporting detail on as many ports and nodes as they desire, PRTG enables the team to track down and isolate the specific root cause of network issues. PRTG’s historical reporting functions track performance and activity and condense this detail in to useful, easy-to-interpret graphical snapshots.

Network performance lags that would have once taken hours or days to find the culprit—if a source could even be found in the case of intermittent problems—can now be tracked back to specific activities and events within minutes, down to the specific switch, router or even end-user workstation.

“One of our clients actually had a virus outbreak that was sapping their bandwidth. Based on the network activity reported by PRTG, we were able to track it back to the specific computer that was causing the problem in a very short period of time,” said Peter Cook, Enterprise Network Engineer with Compuquip.

“With any other system, we would have only been able to get to the switch level and would have resorted to manual troubleshooting from that point.”

PRTG’s automatic alerting features help the team keep abreast of adverse or out-of-spec network events. The system allows them to configure specific thresholds for a wide range of monitoring and reporting functions. When a problem occurs, such as a circuit nearing capacity, PRTG sends an alarm to Azcuy and his team via text message, email or phone call.

When the alert comes in, the team can quickly go to the PRTG web interface from home or any other remote location—anywhere with a web browser—and assess the situation. (The free PRTG app for iOS and Android even puts mobile access right in the palm of users’ hands.) PRTG consolidates reporting from all 15 remote probes into an integrated user interface that allows the Compuquip staff to view and compare data from multiple sites, solutions and nodes on the network.

All-in pricing yields competitive advantage

With all of these features, Azcuy says the one that really sets PRTG apart is the fact that you get all this at such a competitive price point. No other solution offered the wide range of functionality with an all-in-one licensing model. All of the other products Compuquip looked at were monitor-price dependent, which would have restricted them to monitoring only core switches.

PRTG offers the ability to monitor all ports at a reasonable, fixed cost eliminating the need to have to choose specific ports to save money. This not only saves Compuquip money, but enables the company to provide more comprehensive service to its customers.

“PRTG enhances our standing in the market and gives us the same capabilities of larger, more nationwide firms,” Azcuy said. “It definitely separates from the competition, especially smaller firms that don’t have the resources to offer this kind of service.”