performance data from various Situation systems. Having performed over 300,000 eye surgeries, Pacific Cataract and SCOM provides PCLI IT staff with a Laser Institute (PCLI) is one of North text-based listing of many different America's most unique and system issues, but it was difficult to experienced eye care facilities. effectively review issues raised and Founded in 1985 in Chehalis, identify systemic issues from a text Washington, PCLI is a referral and display. According to Jeffrey Grimes, consultation facility specializing in a Systems Engineer in PCLI’s IT LASIK procedures and cataract care, Department, SCOM is a good tool and complements the expertise of for tracking data and understanding optometric physicians throughout what is happening across systems at the Pacific Northwest. The Institute any given time, but it operates more provides high caliber medical care in like a back end application with a the areas of cataract surgery, LASIK limited user interface. This made it surgery, glaucoma care, corneal care, difficult to interpret system health eyelid surgery, and retinal care. indicators and data, particularly for IT department staff unfamiliar with the PCLI’s IT Department is comprised of “If application. the tool isn’t easy to approximately thirteen employees, use, no one will use it. It’s useless to and is responsible for the overwhelm your IT staff with system management and maintenance of all information, because you can’t software and hardware connected to process the information quickly the corporate network, from enough to identify systematic traditional servers and desktop issues,” explains Grimes. “What we hardware to specialized medical wanted was a simple tool that could equipment. give us the majority of the information needed to make logical To effectively manage both local and decisions around what to do next.” remote systems and assets, PCLI’s IT Department staff utilize 4-6 different Difficulty accessing and interpreting monitoring programs to understand system health information had a the health and responsiveness of number of impacts on PCLI’s IT their technology at any given time. department: The department’s primary tool for Increased system downtime, as evaluating system health is Microsoft staff could not always interpret System Center Operations Manager systematic issues fast enough to 2007 R2 (SCOM). SCOM provides an pre-empt failures, API that system administrators can use to communicate with their servers and extract status and
Situation Having performed over 300,000 eye surgeries, Pacific Cataract and Laser Institute (PCLI) is one of North America's most unique and experienced eye care facilities. Founded in 1985 in Chehalis, Washington, PCLI is a referral and consultation facility specializing in LASIK procedures and cataract care, and complements the expertise of optometric physicians throughout the Pacific Northwest. The Institute provides high caliber medical care in the areas of cataract surgery, LASIK surgery, glaucoma care, corneal care, eyelid surgery, and retinal care. PCLI’s IT Department is comprised of approximately thirteen employees, and is responsible for the management and maintenance of all software and hardware connected to the corporate network, from traditional servers and desktop hardware to specialized medical equipment. To effectively manage both local and remote systems and assets, PCLI’s IT Department staff utilize 4-6 different monitoring programs to understand the health and responsiveness of their technology at any given time. The department’s primary tool for evaluating system health is Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 (SCOM). SCOM provides an API that system administrators can use to communicate with their servers and extract status and performance data from various systems. SCOM provides PCLI IT staff with a text-based listing of many different system issues, but it was difficult to effectively review issues raised and identify systemic issues from a text display. According to Jeffrey Grimes, a Systems Engineer in PCLI’s IT Department, SCOM is a good tool for tracking data and understanding what is happening across systems at any given time, but it operates more like a back end application with a limited user interface. This made it difficult to interpret system health indicators and data, particularly for IT department staff unfamiliar with the application. “If the tool isn’t easy to use, no one will use it. It’s useless to overwhelm your IT staff with system information, because you can’t process the information quickly enough to identify systematic issues,” explains Grimes. “What we wanted was a simple tool that could give us the majority of the information needed to make logical decisions around what to do next.” Difficulty accessing and interpreting system health information had a number of impacts on PCLI’s IT department: Increased system downtime, as staff could not always interpret systematic issues fast enough to pre-empt failures,
PCLI_Visio2010_CS.docx