On a campus of over 1000 computers and 60 different labs, the department of Information Technology is now providing faster response to the network issues in each building.
The hacking incident, which took place nearly a month ago, was detected by Network Node Manager, which monitors the state of each network on campus.
The University of Memphis' IT department purchased NNM from the suite Hewlett Packard OpenView and since then has provided information, whenever a network encounters a problem. The problems can vary, but the overall state of each campus building's network system is indicated with a colored circle on PC panel monitors. The monitors are located in the office of the vice president of IT and IT help desk in administrations.
Each circle's color in the software tells the risk rate for each specific network on campus, with green indicating there is nothing wrong and red notifying that there is a critical problem. The other colors between green and red include light blue, yellow and orange.
NNM gives IT the ability to answer any crisis immediately and not having to stare at an abyss for answers, said an IT staff member, who wished not to be named.
"It tells us when something is down and monitors it if it's broken," he said.
To delve more into NNM's abilities, though, there are two services that complement the entire software. They are Internet Services and Open View Operations for Windows.
The IS simulates a transaction against a Web serum. It monitors the uploading speed of University Web pages and indicates the problems whenever the Web page does not display within its usual time frame. If a Web page malfunctions, then its source alerts IT to define the problem.
"In doing this, you not only establish a baseline, but it tells you if something is out of whack," the staff member said.
A similar situation happens with OVOW, however it covers the different services of each network. Each service has hard drives, processors, web interfaces and network interfaces. When those components encounter problems, the circles on the screen will indicate the risk.
"It makes sure different services are working," the staff member said.
Since its purchase, officials in IT said the product has helped sharpen response rates.
"The tool is very customizable, and we wanted it to be our biggest attention getter," said Gary Hardwood, IT systems administrator.
Although other buildings are not aware of the software's presence, Tom Crafton, the director of strategy and administration, said it has helped IT gather data from multiple devices and has helped them understand an increasingly complex network.
"By implementing these tools, we have uncovered many issues and these issues were really put into one force," Crafton said.
Crafton also said the software has given a real benefit to the IT helpdesk and overall it will help them provide better customer service.
"It has very greatly reduced the amount of network issues," Hardwood said. "We get to fixing it and get to the roof of it about 30 percent faster than we used to. It's just a huge benefit."
