Learn how Splunk AppDynamics optimizes hybrid and on-prem application performance with full-stack observability linked to business performance.
Performance insights across multiple cloud platforms
As key components of a full-stack observability solution, AppDynamics and ThousandEyes provide powerful visibility across the complex reality of Admiral's modern applications and network infrastructure. Together, they deliver key performance insights across multiple public cloud platforms and the crucial API interactions required for modern application experiences.
"AppDynamics and ThousandEyes are incredibly useful for us," says Erickson. "They take us straight to the root cause of an issue."
Admiral first deployed AppDynamics in 2016, while the adoption of ThousandEyes was fast-tracked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Admiral went from 70 users working from home in February 2020 to 7,000 by March 2020.
ThousandEyes—already being tested in an Admiral sandbox environment—quickly established visibility into 7,000 endpoints all looking to access the corporate network.
"We then spent a year mapping out different customer use cases and network journeys for all business services. That design was so thorough it then took only two weeks to deploy," Erickson explains. "ThousandEyes fits our needs perfectly."
The adoption of AppDynamics and ThousandEyes was engineer-led, but it has ignited the broader IT team.
"We have a team of 35 looking at monitoring, change management, and network operations. They're the first to respond in the event of an issue. Our engineers recognise Cisco ThousandEyes and Splunk AppDynamics are best in class, and now our CIO has also got onboard. He now has access to the dashboards and reporting. He understands the importance of improved visibility across application and network health."
Industry-leading resiliency with comprehensive visibility
Admiral has established what it believes is industry-leading resiliency across its multi-cloud infrastructure. Confidence in its ability to quickly pinpoint and resolve issues led the IT team to establish a two-hour SLA on resolving any application or network downtime; the industry standard, meanwhile, is four hours.
"The financial services sector is pretty hot on addressing downtime," says Erickson, "and we're well within the two-hour SLA. We haven't come close to two hours in the last 12 months. That's the power of Splunk AppDynamics and Cisco ThousandEyes."
Greater uptime means greater productivity for 7,000 hybrid workers and error-free performance across Admiral's digital channels. "The dream is a 24/7, high-performance digital experience for all customers," Erickson adds.
For the network operations team, the impact of Cisco ThousandEyes has been to pivot away from being seen as the “fixers” of network problems to providers of evidence of the business' digital progress.
Looking ahead, Erickson anticipates even tighter integration between the two solutions as the company moves further along in its observability journey. This will empower Erickson to take his mission of minimizing downtime, securing applications, and delivering exceptional user experiences to the next level.
"We don't have teams doubting us. ThousandEyes and Splunk AppDynamics are trusted. Our north star is full-stack observability, and that is the direction of travel of Cisco. If we can hitch our wagon to Cisco’s solutions, we'll end up where we want to be."
