Plixer Provides Ski Resort With NetFlow Network Traffic Trail Map

KENNEBUNK, ME--(Marketwired - Nov 19, 2013) - Securing its position as a leading provider of NetFlow-based network traffic monitoring and threat detection technology, Plixer International, Inc., today announced Squaw Valley Ski Holdings, LCC -- is successfully monitoring its network with its Scrutinizer™ technology. The ski resort is effectively leveraging the network flow monitoring technology to ensure reliability and boost performance of its 60-server data center.

Site of the 1960 Winter Olympics, Squaw Valley is a 3,600 acre resort hosting a vibrant base village with lodging, restaurants, bar and retail stores. Located near Lake Tahoe, it has more than 2,800 vertical feet of skiing and welcomes thousands of daily guests and hundreds of employees each season. With such volume, network performance for key business-critical functions is critical.

"When the snow flies, our network must be ready to support an influx of seasonal staff and large volumes of guests. In addition to the wired and wireless connections for guests, we offer Internet hotspots for crowds gathering near ski lifts and in lodges where cell coverage can be spotty," said Steffan Vigano, IT Infrastructure Manager, Squaw Valley Ski Holdings, LCC. "Combine this influx of traffic with business-critical applications riding on the same network and you can see why monitoring performance is so important."

In their on-site data center the resort operates more than 60 servers, with over half in two vSphere clusters. Each cluster includes three physical Dell servers and an EqualLogic data store. Cisco Catalyst switches route traffic across the network, while Cisco Adaptive Security guards external connections.

Prior to Scrutinizer™, the IT department had little or no visibility into bandwidth constraints driven by employee and guest traffic. The 1Gb backbone provided sufficient bandwidth within the Village, but they had no way to monitor the two DS3 (44.7 Mbps) Internet connections to prevent overload. Staff and guests securely share these connections with core business applications such as point-of-sale and reservations. When business transactions were slowing Squaw Valley needed to ensure priority to critical applications when a link was overloaded. 

Continued Vigano: "Previously, we lacked visibility into the network traffic. When we had any saturation, spikes or latency, there was no way to see what was going on or who was consuming the bandwidth."

To solve these challenges and drive performance, the resort turned to Scritinizer™. The technology is the foundation of the resort's network flow, analysis and reporting architecture. Available as a physical/virtual appliance or Windows download, Scrutinizer performs seamless collection and reporting of NetFlow, IPFIX, sFlow, and related technologies. The offering then delivers real-time situational awareness into the response times of all applications and their behaviors on the network.

The technology provides a customized dashboard to immediately display a map of the network - demonstrating the real-time status of every link. This not only significantly boosts uptime, but also allows IT to provide business-level detail of performance and bottlenecks. The tool enables Vigano to spot rogue machines sending out too many packets to know if the machine is mis-configured.

"Despite the increasing complexity of IT infrastructures today, many companies still waste valuable time and money reactively addressing IT issues and downtime," said Michael Patterson, Founder and CEO, Plixer International. "But with unified views and proactive management of the entire enterprise, businesses gain the actionable intelligence necessary to keep core infrastructures up and running. Squaw Valley is a perfect example of the high impact results that come from efficient Netflow-based network traffic monitoring."

Moving forward, Vigano plans to expand his use of Scrutinizer. Vigano concluded, "With Scrutinizer in place, we're no longer in firefighting mode when the winter hits and our network activity increases exponentially."

Download a free trial of Plixer's Scrutinizer or schedule a live demo by calling: (207) 324-8805 or via email at sales@plixer.com. For more NetFlow insight, follow Plixer International on their Blog, Twitter, Facebook or join NetFlow Developments Group on LinkedIn. Learn about these new features by taking one of their Advanced NetFlow Training classes being offered around the country.

About Squaw Valley

Host of the 1960 Winter Olympics, Squaw Valley is a year-round mountain destination offering world-class adventures in every season. Squaw is renowned for its legendary skiing and riding that spans 3,600 skiable acres, six peaks and 30 chairlifts including a unique mountaintop beginner area and unrivaled expert steeps, chutes and bowls. In summer, the resort welcomes a full line-up of live music and festivals and Squaw's Aerial Tram offers a scenic ride up to a host of mountaintop activities. For the ultimate slopeside lodging experience, guests can stay in one of The Village at Squaw Valley's one, two or three bedroom suites, each with a fireplace, kitchen and balcony.

Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows joined forces in November 2011, bringing the two ski resorts under common ownership. Skiers and riders can access 6,000 skiable acres, 43 lifts and 270+ trails at Squaw and Alpine Meadows on one lift ticket or season pass.

About Plixer

Plixer International, Inc. develops and markets network traffic monitoring and analysis tools to the global market. All of the tools are built from the ground up with valuable feature sets and ease of use in mind. Plixer tools have been used to analyze and troubleshoot irregular traffic patterns by IT professionals with some of the largest networks in the world, such as CNN, The Coca-Cola Company, Lockheed Martin, IBM, Regal Cinemas, Raytheon, and Eddie Bauer. For product and sales information, contact Plixer International, Inc. at 207.324.8805, or visit http://www.plixer.com.