Technology Firm ArdentMC Boosts System Availability with Enterprise-Grade Monitoring Solution

Ardent Management Consulting, LLC (ArdentMC), is a Tulsa-based technology firm and a federal government contractor administering mission-essential geospatial mobile and web-based solutions. The firm also provides professional services teams to manage and operate enterprise geographic information system (GIS) deployments for its government clients.

One client of ArdentMC is a United States federal agency that relies on the firm for the operation and maintenance of the agency's cloud-based enterprise GIS and underlying infrastructure. The mission of this agency is to protect the nation from a variety of human-made and natural threats and keep America safe, with more than 260,000 employees dedicated to issues like cybersecurity and emergency response.

Real-time data is essential when responding to an emergency event and can enhance recovery efforts by connecting first responders with the resources they need. As a large amount of its work occurs in the field, the client needed high availability from its enterprise GIS to ensure that staff have the data they need to support these critical missions.

ArdentMC deployed ArcGIS Monitor, a product designed to optimize enterprise GIS, ensure its availability, and help staff better monitor system health via reports and customized alerts. Monitor has helped ArdentMC deliver highly performant enterprise geographic information systems to its clients to better enable them to achieve their mission of protecting and securing the nation. 

ArdentMC, an Esri Silver Business Partner, empowers clients to use data to create actionable insights and keep systems safe and resilient. Eric Anderson, a GIS administrator at ArdentMC, says that a small team at the firm administers and manages several ArcGIS Enterprise deployments for one client, including software installation, upgrades, and new functionality. Recently, ArdentMC supported the client's requirement to migrate from an on-premises deployment to a cloud-based solution to increase the system's availability and support rapid user growth.

The client, a federal agency, had a requirement for a highly available system, which can be a difficult challenge to meet without an enterprise monitoring solution. Anderson says, "Having 24/7 availability of ArcGIS components is critical. [We strive to] bring something new to the client, so we wanted to show them a new tool that can help us maintain a high-availability enterprise."

Dan Brumm, GIS administrator at ArdentMC, explains that the nature of his client's work involves a lot of field operations. ArdentMC's GIS team wanted to ensure that the client's system wasn't overloaded; eliminate any bottlenecks in order to deliver the system availability the client needed; and provide field tools for operational needs.

The previous enterprise architecture in use by ArdentMC's client was a system hosted in a commercial cloud, which had many challenges, says Julie Carter, director at ArdentMC. ArdentMC's team was working with a managed service provider to deploy software to the enterprise GIS, but because of the system's instability, the team wanted to find a solution to monitor the client's deployments and system health and deliver better service.

"The job [our client's staff are] trying to do is super challenging. They're going out into areas where there's likely no cell signal, no electricity," says Carter. "They're walking through dangerous conditions. And when the system is unstable or not working, they can't get their job done."

The ArdentMC team first heard of ArcGIS Monitor at an Esri conference and thought it could be a valuable solution for large-scale enterprise GIS deployments. ArcGIS Monitor is designed to optimize the health of an enterprise GIS. Anderson says it was a better fit than other solutions on the market because ArdentMC already utilizes ArcGIS Enterprise and other Esri technology.

Michael Karikari, a GIS solution architect at ArdentMC, says, "The main reason [we chose Monitor] was because it was fully integrated with the Esri stack. We had the opportunity to evaluate and consider other tools, but the fact that our clients had an existing interest in Esri tools made our decision that much easier."

Anderson adds, "[ArcGIS Monitor is] more tailored to ArcGIS software. So, it's a more straightforward solution out of the box, if you're dealing with monitoring ArcGIS software."

Karikari says he likes that Monitor provides easy access to view everything in one place. "We didn't necessarily have to go to three different applications to pull application-specific information or service and infrastructure-related metrics. The fact that it was unified was probably one of the biggest reasons [we wanted it]," he says.

Brumm began by reading instructional articles and watching YouTube videos about ArcGIS Monitor and says the setup was straightforward. He easily configured alerts to help the GIS team better monitor the enterprise GIS, and they filter the alerts to find the most critical ones that require action.

"Having to train others on using ArcGIS Monitor is very simple. Every time we bring someone in, I give an overview training of how it works. Our clients and our team like that the dashboards are easy and intuitive," says Brumm.

Brumm checks Monitor alerts from the previous 12 hours in the morning to see what issues might need attention, such as when services or applications go down. If the team is experiencing any performance issues, he will troubleshoot by checking the performance of a feature service to see how it has been running for the day versus the week versus a month.

ArdentMC has been using Monitor for the client since 2020, and the alerts to manage the system have helped ArdentMC staff provide the highly available enterprise the client needs. Anderson says the alerts help the GIS team gain efficiency in resolving critical issues before the client notices, and the team can more quickly address outages and service disruptions.

"Being ahead of [system issues] and getting alerts on our side before we hear from customers is crucial," says Anderson. "Monitor was a game changer in that sense. It keeps us ahead of the curve when it comes to service outages and application issues."

The alerts also save the small O&M/administration team a great deal of time. Karikari explains that the team has four different systems, a finite amount of resources available to manage them, and the responsibility of providing 24/7 operations support. He says the alerts alleviate stress when the team is not working because they are notified about potential issues in real time.

"[Monitor] provides a lot of granularity that we didn't have before. And the fact that the metrics can be brought into one view makes it that much easier and I think more efficient for us in combination with . . . other tools," says Karikari.

Carter adds, "We're proactive rather than reactive. Especially with systems supporting field operations and disaster recovery and needs that require real-time attention, the ability to be proactive is a huge benefit for the team."

Brumm enjoys the fact that reports are available within Monitor, which he describes as critical. The Excel report feature enables users to receive logs, metrics, and alerts in spreadsheet format. Brumm reviews the report weekly, looks at recommendations, and adjusts settings accordingly. This feature has been especially helpful during the client's peak season because it keeps track of response times and notifies the team if there is a memory issue or if they should increase/decrease the number of instances for web services. 

ArcGIS Monitor has given the GIS team more informed insights about how the enterprise GIS is running. Karikari says that because Monitor is designed around tools the team already uses, data is more accessible and doesn't require additional configuration.

Anderson says the team has let the client know how much Monitor has helped prevent issues and have received very good feedback as a result. Karikari says it helps the client see that they are using not just one solution to manage the system but a multilayered approach that includes Monitor to get a holistic view.

"For us, it's nice to have something to point to when people are saying things are running a certain way," says Brumm. "It's an important tool in our enterprise GIS for that."

Anderson adds, "The great thing about Monitor is that we're ahead of the curve in identifying potential problems. So, if we do the right thing, it almost goes unnoticed by the client."

Monitor has helped ArdentMC deliver better service to its national security client, and the firm plans to offer Monitor to others in the future. According to Carter, since there was not a solution previously in place for the client, it was important to ArdentMC to give the client a better understanding of its enterprise GIS.

"When we took on the task of taking the system to the cloud and really making it performant, it was important for us to be able to deliver on that promise," says Carter. "Monitor positions us to be proactive and deliver on the promise of a highly available, secured, performant system."