In mid 2004 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Hawaii (HMSA), the largest provider of healthcare coverage in the state, found itself with a rapidly expanding network and data center. Our network devices, servers, and software were all growing in complexity and we knew that we would have to leverage technology, not headcount, to gain better control of our IT systems and network.

In the past, we confronted the same dilemma that systems administrators in all IT organizations face: weighing the value of simple monitoring solutions versus expensive, feature-rich enterprise solutions that require labor intensive maintenance. We attempted to implement a large-scale system and network monitoring package from a major vendor but found the product was never fully implemented or adopted by the users because of its overbearing complexity. We then quickly implemented an inexpensive, low-end package that provided basic monitoring – but lacked much of the deeper functionality our organization required, such as performance and application monitoring.

In order to manage the growing data center complexity at HMSA, we knew we had to take a completely new approach, because both low-end and complex enterprise network monitoring projects had met with limited success. Prior to evaluating any new technology, we decided to develop a set of best practices to ensure that new investments in system and network monitoring would be successful. These best practices for system and network monitoring should be a model for other health plans and IT organizations seeking to manage increasingly complex IT environments.

At the core of these best practices are two themes – simplicity and cost-effectiveness. We believe that great systems should be easy to use and justify their expense. HMSA’s core best practices rest on five elements:

- Data center monitoring technology should be Web-based. Web-based technology simplifies rolling out the system, because no client-side application must be installed and upgraded. In addition, administrators can work from any location. Web-based user interfaces are also typically easy to learn, easing adoption and lowering training costs.

- Monitoring technology should be standards-based. HMSA chose to adhere to industry standards such as Simple Network Monitoring Protocol (SNMP) in order to simplify setup and installation and to avoid getting locked into one vendor’s solution. Because SNMP is supported by almost all hardware and software vendors, monitoring a heterogeneous environment composed of many products is greatly simplified.

- Monitoring technology should be automation driven rather than consulting or manpower intensive. Expending costly and valuable IT resources on long-term enterprise software projects has proven risky and expensive. (How often do enterprise software projects finish on time and to budget, delivering on all the promises made at the outset?) HMSA chose to leverage new data center automation technology, automating many tasks traditionally done by consultants as well as lowering installation costs and ongoing maintenance overhead.

- Data center operations should be viewed as a business process. IT departments tend to look at monitoring technology as something that displays trending graphs and sends alarms when there are network problems. HMSA chose to take a more holistic approach, viewing IT as integral to a business process. Monitoring technology should support a strong operations and process model.

- Monitoring technology with simple license terms is preferable to products with many add-on or hidden modules. To control the costs of a monitoring implementation, a company needs visibility of up to five or 10 years of ongoing maintenance costs. Many enterprise software vendors’ products are composed of many modules and components that have separate pricing models and require different training and support. HMSA believes that products with a number of components tend to be more expensive and complex to maintain over time.

We evaluated more than 15 vendors against these best practices and found that CITTIO’s WatchTower monitoring platform was the closest fit. Equipped with WatchTower and our strong best practice approach, we successfully deployed enterprise-class system and network monitoring on 500 servers and network devices in a timely and cost-effective manner. Moreover, we are gaining the complete system control and network visibility our large, complex organization requires.

Through effective networking monitoring, payers can be aware of IT problems before they escalate out of control and affect end users ultimately – decreasing IT costs and providing customers with better quality service.

Rod Fukunaga is the Operations Analyst supporting five major units of the Production and Support Services Department of the Information Technology Division at HMSA. He has been active in the IT industry for over 37 years. He can be reached at Rod_Fukunaga@hmsa.com.

Cittio can be reached at www.cittio.com