Logistics Server Provider Keeps Applications on the Right Track

No more reboots and frozen servers

Eight years ago, Vos Logistics decided to centralise applications with solutions from Citrix. Approximately 5,000 employees at 30 subsidiaries switched to server-based applications running on about 40 servers. The organisation wasn't actively looking for a management solution. But more and more users experienced a server load of 100%, resulting in non-responsive applications, frozen sessions and down time. 

“It wasn’t easy to pinpoint the problem, but it seemed that the front-end of our main business application, Lovos, was not terminal-server aware,” said Bob Mulders, Team Leader, Systems and Network Management at Vos Logistics. “We developed and maintain this C++ application ourselves – the ‘Rolls Royce’ of the transport management systems – and it’s vital for our business.” 

Mulders explains that the Lovos application is necessary for many business processes — from communication with truck drivers, tracking the location of trucks, to even printing invoices. The only solution to get Lovos available again for employees on the hanging terminal server was to reboot it. 

“Coincidently,” he says, “we heard about Ivanti Performance Manager and what it could do for us. After a demonstration we decided to buy Ivanti User Workspace Manager, which includes Performance Manager, to manage the Lovos application and users’ desktops. We installed Ivanti Performance Manager on our servers right away. Performance Manager made a difference: by limiting the CPUs that Lovos consumes, the runaway application is now under control. Rebooting servers is no longer necessary. By eliminating reboots, the cost of User Workspace Manager was recouped within a few months.”

Moving to the second phase

Subsequently, Vos Logistics decided to renew its IT architecture and expand the centralised environment. The company upgraded to Citrix XenApp 4.5 and Windows Server 2003, introduced VMware ESX Server with VMotion, a NetApp storage area network and selected Microsoft App-V technology for streaming applications to the desktops. 

“One of the requirements for the new infrastructure was the continuation of Ivanti Performance Manager,” continues Mulders. “Performance Manager has been reliable for many years, doing its monitoring and optimising duties in the background, without manual intervention. Even with out-of-the-box settings, memory and CPU management functions worked perfectly. We wouldn’t even consider running our Citrix servers without it and this makes Performance Manager a strategic part of our IT infrastructure.”

A secure, locked-down and standard desktop from LAN to WAN

Ivanti User Workspace Manager helps Vos Logistics standardise applications and the user environment on virtualized desktops. The company publishes full desktops with Citrix XenApp. Employees access this standardised, locked-down, virtualized desktop on thin clients or on PCs that also run local applications. Mulders states, “The same standard desktop environment is used from home locations. Staff responsible for planning can now access Lovos from home. And thanks to User Workspace Manager, they can even print to their local home printer that’s mapped automatically as a default printer. It isn’t possible to run unauthorised applications, so there’s no danger of virus or spyware contamination initiated by the home PCs.”

No more silos

Previously, Vos Logistics had to instal each application separately on each individual Citrix XenApp server in the farm, publish applications with the Citrix management console and manage settings manually. Now, the company can stream applications to the XenApp servers and Ivanti handles application access seamlessly, sets application shortcuts, loads registry keys for users when needed and maps printers and other devices. 

“We now know that XenApp servers are identical, and using application streaming in tandem with User Workspace Manager eliminated the need for siloing, thus reducing the total number of XenApp servers,” added Mulders. 

“With User Workspace Manager, we are much more flexible. Application publishing and defining user environments dynamically become very easy. Should new settings cause a problem, we can roll back the change very easily, just by enabling the previous settings using User Workspace Manager.”

Complex user environment settings become easy to manage

With only two IT staff responsible for day-to-day administration, not having the Ivanti solution would have made it almost impossible to troubleshoot application problems and user settings. Ivanti Environment Manager keeps user-environment settings under control, including: 

• Drive and printer mappings. 
• Application-specific logon settings and registry settings.  
• Cleaning up the recycle bin when a user logs off.  
• Proxy server settings. 

Mulders concludes, “Ivanti User Worksoace Manager’s ease of use saves a lot of time that we can now spend on more important things. Ivanti software is very easy to use. We now have a very practical approach for introducing IT technology.”

_{Note: A customer’s results are specific to its total environment/experience, of which Ivanti is a part. Individual results may vary based on each customer’s unique environment.}