SK Telecom

SK Telecom has made a number of historical breakthroughs in the Korean telecommunications industry over the last 21 years. The developmental history has evolved from a first generation analogue cellular system, to the world’s first second generation CDMA, then to the 2.5 generation CDMA 2000 1X system as well as the world’s first third generation synchronized IMT-2000 cellular system (CDMA 2000 1x EV-DO). Based on these advanced mobile communications technologies, SK Telecom has become a pioneer in clearing the path into a next generation network arena that includes the development of the 4th and 5th generation mobile communication technology. The continued support, affection, and encouragement of their valued customers have made possible the two decades of brilliant accomplishments by SK Telecom.

Based on rapid network advancement, the information communication sector is facing unparalleled changes that are dismantling the boundaries between the realms of different industries. To meet the challenges of these paradigm shifts, SK Telecom has mapped out a variety of future growth engine that continues to create new values for its customers. Our focus is on the development of the wireless Internet business, e.g. MelOn, GXG, and Mobile Cyworld. They are also concentrating on exploring new services like MONETA, Satellite DMB, and 1mm, in preparation for the increasing convergence in telecommunications, broadcasting, finance, and entertainment.

Situation

SK Telecom needed a tool to help them manage their increasing IT infrastructure, especially in WAS area. As the number of servers increased, SK IT team was faced with more frequent system performance problems; the amount of work they had to do to constantly administer and maintain the servers seem like an impossible task. In order to manage multiple different systems environments that provide variety of different services (home shopping, customer account management, website, mobile phone services etc…), SK Telecom needed an APM solution that allow the administrator to monitor all systems in a single, elegant view that is comprehensive in providing vital information about the system environment but also simple and intuitive enough even for a WAS novice to use and understand. They also needed a solution with the ability to monitor services and catch system errors for 24×7 x 365 in real time bases. Finally, they wanted a monitoring solution which the monitoring screen can be accessed easily from anywhere with convenience.

Solution

With Jennifer, SK Telecom found the answer to their prayers. Jennifer was able to collect and utilize data from 36 different systems in a single view through Jennifer’s comprehensive and intuitive Dashboard screen. With Jennifer’s Dashboard, system administrators achieved resolution of existing application performance problems as well as prevent the future performance problems, and enhance system efficiency by tuning bad site codes and inefficient DB queries. Jennifer also provided administrators with email and SMS alerts whenever an error is detected in the system so that administrators are informed of any problem ASAP. Finally, system administrators were able to access Jennifer monitoring screen from any computer with a web browser and web connection, allowing administrators to use Jennifer from virtually anywhere.

Developers and system administrators can receive vital support on troubleshooting system performance problems from the Jennifersoft and partnering vendor’s technical support team, making Jennifer a One-Stop solution for WAS administration, maintenance, and performance problems.

Benefit

Determining and resolving the root cause of a performance issue can be a tedious and difficult task even for a WAS expert if the system monitoring data poor or is not laid out in a logical and relevant manner. Jennifer provided such logical and relevant view of the performance data to the administrators. By providing ability to display relevant data in real time when a performance problem occurs in a comprehensive, relevant and easily understood view, Jennifer can help reduce the amount of time spent on identifying the root cause of the performance problem and help in creating resolution quickly even for administrators with intermediate WAS skill level. Indeed in case of SK telecom, the average time spent for the administrator to identify and resolve a typical performance problem was reduced significantly after implementing Jennifer.

Before Jennifer, development team and operations team had difficult time working together when faced with a performance problem. Because there was no data to help them point their attention into right direction, development team and operations team frequently butted heads, playing blame game on what is causing the performance problem and who should fix it. With Jennifer, both teams were able to collect relevant data that helped clearly identify the root-cause of the problem, preventing conflict and promoting interdepartmental team work.

In case of performance diagnosis and administration of system tests, IT team previously spent 2 weeks per each system performing diagnosis and running performance tests. After Jennifer was implemented, all performance data was available to the IT staff in real-time, eliminating the needs to run additional performance tests and diagnostics, saving valuable time and IT resource.