AUDI
Audi stands for premium quality, innovative technology and sporty design
About Audi
With its headquarters in Ingolstadt, Audi AG is one of the oldest and most renowned automobile manufacturers in Germany. Founded in 1909 by August Horch, DKW, Horch and Wanderer merged in 1932 to form Auto Union AG. With the slogan “Vorsprung durch Technik”, Audi AG positions itself as a premium manufacturer for sporty vehicles, high-quality workmanship and progressive design. The company is also striving to achieve this lead through technology with regard to its monitoring.
01. challenges
Eric Pfaller and Stefan Groth, who work in the IT Data Core Technologies/Monitoring department at Audi AG, were no longer sure whether monitoring with the Tivoli Enterprise Console was the right tool for the job. Two points had given them pause for thought: firstly, the immense license costs associated with the software, and secondly, the upcoming Tivoli upgrade, which completely overturned the previous concept. With unfavorable consequences for Audi AG.
The IT managers at Audi set about looking for an alternative. The new solution was to be a highly scalable, flexible and economical monitoring system that can be used in a distributed manner and guarantees maximum availability. It should also be easy to integrate into the existing structures.
02. solutions
Modular open source solutions were considered as a surrogate. The choice fell on Icinga. The dynamic, flexibly customizable user interface and the transparent, continuous development offered by the Icinga stack were the decisive factors. During the ongoing project, NETWAYS is gradually replacing the previous software to ensure a seamless transition. At times, both systems worked in parallel and the results delivered were compared. Icinga had to compete directly with Tivoli – and won the race! For systems of this size, the tool saves literally weeks of tedious configuration work and also streamlines the effort required for future changes. Monitoring in the fast lane – so to speak.
What other advantages came into play? Problems must be identified and assigned quickly. Ideally, a system should therefore provide exactly the right information in as concise and clear a form as possible. The basis for this is provided by the various customization options in Icinga. With the support of NETWAYS, Audi has customized messages and views for the respective recipients. In concrete terms, this means that alarms run as “custom host and service” variables in Icinga-Web; messages are expanded with additional information according to customer specifications. Last but not least, user access rights can be precisely regulated by authorization, right down to individual hosts and services. Perfect for the different user groups at Audi.
03. success
NETWAYS was able to achieve the goals set by Audi AG with Icinga. Encouraged by the resounding success of the migration, Audi has since expanded the Icinga monitoring area to include additional branch offices in Győr, Brussels and San José, Mexico. The 50,000 services monitored at the time were doubled in the years that followed. With the technical advantage that Icinga offers, Audi can continue to cover the monitoring of its complex production and IT services and ensure uninterrupted operation.
A head start through technology – even when monitoring with Icinga.
Solutions
Monitoring
Scaling
Automation
Industry
Automobile
Location
Worldwide