PerformanceGuard is a software solution that monitors your IT systems and tells you if anything is wrong.

Wrong means, for example, unusually long response times, congested networks, unusual resource usage or unusually large amounts of traffic.
Unusual typically means something that crosses predefined thresholds, for example if DNS response time goes above 50 milliseconds.

What's DNS?

It's the service that your computer uses to convert addresses like bbc.com into IP addresses (like 212.58.246.78) so that your computer can communicate with other computers and servers over the internet. That's why you don't want long DNS response times: they mean slow communication.

PerformanceGuard reports exactly what's wrong, and which of your organization's locations and computers are affected. You can get alerted when something looks like it could go wrong, rather than when it has gone wrong. That way you can fix potential problems before they become real, and users begin to get affected.

Let's look at some examples:

Get Fast Service

You call your insurance company to file a claim. The call center guy who answers your call looks up your details in a database.

Yesterday, that database began to respond slowly, but PerformanceGuard detected it, and the insurance company's IT division fixed it. That's why you get a quick response from the call center guy today. Your time is precious, so you're a happy customer.

Without PerformanceGuard, every caller would have waited an average of 30 seconds longer today. For a call center that gets 1000 calls a day, that would have meant a total of 8½ hours' extra waiting time, which in turn corresponds to an entire working day that could have gone to waste.

Watch Your Service Providers

Do you use external providers of IT services?

Do they live up to their promises? Are the services always available? Do the services respond quickly? Do you get whatyou pay for?

PerformanceGuard can tell you.

If you provide IT services yourself, PerformanceGuard can also tell you whether you live up to your own promises.

Analyze & Optimize

Because PerformanceGuard monitors the efficiency of your IT systems, you can use it to identify optimization opportunities and for comparing before-and-after scenarios.

Are all of your networks able to handle periods with increased loads? Can you improve your service if a particular server gets a hardware upgrade?

Did you get the full effect of your network changes, server upgrades, etc.? Was your IT business plan successful?

Do a bit of analysis in the PerformanceGuard web interface and you'll quickly know the answers.

Convince People with Facts

Are you an IT guy who needs to convince your boss that you need a hardware upgrade for a server?

Or are you the boss who wants the IT guy to provide a business case for his server upgrade request?

PerformanceGuard will make both of your lives easier, because it provides facts about causes and effects.

Keep People Informed

Bosses and other stakeholders can automatically get reports from PerformanceGuard about KPIs, service levels, productivity across locations, application availability, etc.

In short: all that stuff that makes decision making easier, because bosses can base their decisions on facts. Not best guesses; facts!

You can also subscribe to reports yourself, and automatically get daily, weekly or monthly overviews.

Help People Fast

Even bosses' computers can get slow, and if a boss calls helpdesk about a slow computer, the helpdesk guy better act fast to solve the problem.

Fortunately, PerformanceGuard provides helpdesk with all the tools they need to quickly pinpoint the cause of a problem.

This means that the right people can fix the problem fast, regardless of whether it's a network, server, client or application problem—or a user misperception.

Clarify Misperceptions

You're in a hurry to get handouts of your presentation printed shortly before an important meeting on a Friday morning. Your kids misbehaved all morning, traffic was terrible, and you got to the office much later than you had planned. Now your computer (not to mention the printer) suddenly feels incredibly slow, even though it's actually just as fast as usual

If you call helpdesk to complain after your meeting, you're what helpdesk people humorously call a PEBKAC case (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair).

Fortunately, PerformanceGuard helps everyone quickly deal with such cases: "Mr Jones, your computer actually started up slightly faster today that it has done since Tuesday last week. Were you in a particular hurry this morning, Mr Jones?"

Want to Know More About how to Use PerformanceGuard?

We recommend that you read about the PerformanceGuard web interface (that's the web-based user interface where you view performance data and configure PerformanceGuard).

If you're new to PerformanceGuard, also read our Get Started guides for administrators or users.

If PerformanceGuard has already collected some performance data for you, we also recommend that you read I Want to Know ... (it's about how to interpret your performance data) and When Is Performance Good or Bad?

Want to Know More About how PerformanceGuard Works?

For a guided tour of a real PerformanceGuard system, see How Does PerformanceGuard Work? Also, take a look at Concepts and Terminology.

For the technical details, look in the top menu under API & Tech Reference.

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