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Improved web performance, scalability, and manageability at NCAR

Last quarter's edition of The Barking Seal brought to light one of the common hurdles faced by organizations when maximizing the performance of a network. The following case study highlights one organization's efforts to improve its Web hosting environ-ment. In this particular example, the organization had already addressed Ethernet configuration problems, but still desired to further increase the stability and performance of its Web sites.

The Challenge
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (N CAR) was experiencing unacceptable levels of downtime in its Web hosting environment, and was looking for an independent analysis of its architecture from three perspectives: performance, scalability, and manageability.

The Solution
NCAR engaged Applied Trust to evaluate the existing architec-ture and make recommendations for improvement. Applied Trust put together an interdisciplinary team of certified experts, including networking, Unix, and Web hosting engineers, to per-form the analysis. After analyzing NCAR's Web architecture and configuration in detail, Applied Trust provided an actionable, pri-oritized set of recommendations for improvement. Because Applied Trust is not influenced by vendor commitments or alliances, we provide unbiased, fact-based recommendations.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (N CAR) is a research and development center that focuses on improving the understanding of the atmosphere and how it interacts with the sun, the oceans, the biosphere, and human society. The orga-nization's Web sites are critical communication tools for the dif - ferent programs within NCAR, as well as for NCAR's member universities.When NCAR's Web sites experience downtime, organizations and universities across the country are negatively impacted. Because of this, NCAR hired Applied Trust to help improve its site stability.

The first element of any analysis project is to gather infor-mation. Applied Trust gathered data about the current

NCAR system and network architecture and its behavior. This informa-tion was condensed, and a combination of engineer experience and industry best practices was used to formulate a set of rec-ommendations. Applied Trust made more than 30 recommenda-tions, each one including generic estimates of effort and total cost to implement. During the presentation of the data, Applied Trust additionally provided expert opinions on which changes would offer the most immediate and long-term performance improvements to the NCAR Web environment.

Within this set of recommendations was a suggestion that NCAR consider using a single hardware load balancing system rather than the existing architecture. It was Applied Trust's expert opinion that, given the current and projected Web traffic demands and the requirements of NCAR, a change in hardware would reduce both complexity and downtime and improve overall manageability of the environment.

NCAR agreed and commissioned Applied Trust with an additional project to test and evaluate load-balancing appliances from multiple vendors to determine which would be best suited for NCAR's environment. First, Applied Trust worked with NCAR to develop a set of requirements that represented how the load balancer would need to perform. Next, the load balancing appliances were subjected to a series of perform-ance, functionality, and manageability tests designed to assess their ability to meet NCAR's specific requirements.This pro-duced both qualitative and quantitative results. For NCAR, it that the systems perform well, but also that they pro-vide sufficient scalability and ease of man-agement. Based onthe measurements,analysis, and results, Applied Trust made a single recommenda- tion for the most appropriate solution.

Applied Trust's engineers have a wide array of technical certifications, including CISSP, ISSAP, ISSMP, CCIE, and MCSE, and they are well-versed in helping organizations meet both business and they are well-versed in helping organizations meet both business and technology needs through vendor-neutral, cost effective solutions.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research is operated by UCAR under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation and other agencies. Opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not neces-sarily reflect the views of any of UCAR's sponsors.