Quest Software Supports Equens in Oracle Database Control

Equens SpA, the leading Italian company in ATM and POS authorization and back end processes management, has reduced operational costs and improved Oracle database performance with Quest Software solutions Spotlight^® on Oracle, Space Manager with LiveReorg^® and Foglight^® Performance Analysis for Oracle. Equens SpA offers a comprehensive solution for electronic payments management, as well as all the infrastructural, software and operating services that allow banks to issue domestic debit, international debit, credit and pre-paid cards.

Equens SpA processes and manages a huge volume of critical data for the banking sector. As do many other businesses throughout the world, the company makes use of Oracle databases to save and manage data that often contains business-critical information. Since delays, irregularities or malfunctioning are not acceptable when providing services of this nature, it goes without saying that the company’s need for database functions are of the highest order, and has brought Equens to seek out a partner capable of satisfying their stringent requirements. Their choice, therefore, fell on Quest Software and its solutions, particularly Spotlight and Foglight.

In Quest, Equens SpA found a valid solution provider right from the start. The initial implementation focused on Spotlight on Oracle, a monitoring and diagnostics desktop tool that provides exceptional visibility on database processes and performance. With this Quest application, DBAs at Equens SpA are capable of conducting real-time database monitoring, controlling all the primary parameters that indicate a positive or negative operation, as well as performing drill-downs (exploring a function in detail, examining its behavior with other related parameters to provide an in-depth and decisive analysis in little time).

“The features provided by Spotlight on Oracle were intuitive and easily practicable,” said Raffaele Zeuli, Services Management Coordinator for Distributed Systems at Equens SpA. Zeuli added that Spotlight is a powerful diagnostics tool with advanced graphics features, which makes it possible to isolate problems related to database performance, graphically displaying database activities in an intuitive interface without any need to use custom scripts or complex utilities.

As a result of  its excellent experience with Spotlight, Equens SpA extended the product suite, first, by acquiring and implementing Space Manager, and, subsequently, by adding Foglight Performance Analysis for Oracle, always with the aim of simplifying the work for DBAs.

The second product implemented was Space Manager with LiveReorg, a complete solution designed to optimize space and performances in Oracle databases. Thanks to its powerful tools for reorganization, detecting problems and planning data growth, it makes the most of existing storage resources, with minimum impact on applications and users. Space Manager with LiveReorg provided Equens DBAs with an effective tool for reorganizing database data in real time, without interrupting the service delivery, or at most with a micro-interruption of a just a few seconds. Simply by using this Quest product, Equens was able to cut its management costs without service disruption – a considerable advantage – especially for a player dealing with banks, and thus working with SLAs that are quite strict. Similar to Spotlight on Oracle, the features of Space Manager with LiveReorg are executed very rapidly and intuitively.

“Thanks to Quest, our DBAs optimized their workloads and reduced the time needed to resolve problems deriving from database management,” Zeuli said. “For instance, among the products currently being used, the functionality of LiveReorg is especially appreciated, as it allows us to plan maintenance tasks during standard work hours, without having to perform them at night or on holidays.”

The third product implemented was Foglight Performance Analysis for Oracle, a complete solution for diagnostics and optimization of workloads for Oracle instances and applications, which analyzes the database’s performances and historical behavior.

“The ability to examine an event after it has elapsed is a valuable asset when an analysis is required for a problem reported after the fact by users. With Foglight Performance Analysis for Oracle, we were immensely satisfied in this respect,” said Zeuli, who added that, in addition to cutting management costs, Foglight Performance Analysis for Oracle has enabled Equens to provide a value added service for its end users, who can now analyze problem issues even after they have occurred, not just as they are happening.

All of these tools are used by Equens DBAs, both in ongoing mode to pinpoint whether critical issues emerge on databases, and for on-demand situations where customers request an analysis of certain operations on which they have noticed a malfunction. All the implemented Quest products take advantage of features found in native Oracle tools, integrating them in extremely intuitive, user-friendly interfaces. Their use has allowed for a reduction in management costs and convinced Equens to further invest in Quest products for database management. These features have increased productivity for database administrators, allowing them to obtain added value from the tools at their disposal.

Before engaging with Quest Software, Equens sustained higher operating costs, required a complex monitoring of its databases, and lacked the ability to perform an in-depth analysis of problem issues pointed out after the fact. Given the overall positive scenario which has ensued from the use of Quest Software products, Equens has decided to extend their use to other areas, as well. Two other extensions of the Foglight platform have already been purchased: vFoglight^® (for monitoring the VMware infrastructure), and Foglight for J2ee (for performance monitoring of Java infrastructure). The first module (for VMware) has been implemented in the past few months, while the second (J2ee) is due to be set up later this year.