Core Laboratories, a prominent oil and gas reservoir optimization and core analysis company, is headquartered in Houston, Texas but has a global workforce of over 3,600 employees.
Managing over 500 servers across 50 different countries, the IT team needed an efficient and reliable IT infrastructure monitoring solution to ensure Core Laboratories’ operational success. Their expansive reach in the industry demands consistent uptime and seamless data flow, which are crucial for their specialized services in oil reservoir characterization, production enhancement, and reservoir management.
Facing the complex challenges of managing a vast array of hybrid IT resources across varied geographic locations, Core Laboratories’ commitment to leveraging cutting-edge technology and innovative solutions has been fundamental in maintaining their leading position in the competitive oil and gas sector.
A quest for better monitoring
Chad Price, the Corporate Windows System Administrator at Core Laboratories, outlined the pre-LogicMonitor era as one fraught with challenges. The disparate systems, including other monitoring tools like Splunk, made it hard to separate signal from noise, which impacted IT efficiency and impeded incident resolution. The result was a fragmented IT environment where unplanned outages and server issues could remain unnoticed until they escalated into significant problems, impacting business operations. These service disruptions can result in financial losses, reduced customer satisfaction, and harm to the company’s reputation.
A particular vendor service could be down and IT would not be aware of the issue until a business unit complained that their job-critical application was down. Then they had to log into several different systems and comb through alerts to identify the issue.
“The consequences of not having efficient monitoring were stark. Core Laboratories’ field inspections, which often took place during weekends over non-standard hours, relied heavily on application access. Without effective monitoring, these critical operations could grind to a halt, severely impacting the company’s field operations”, shared Chad Price, Corporate Windows System Administrator, Core Laboratories.
For those not familiar with the petroleum industry, this scenario highlights the importance of efficient monitoring in any business or industry. In the context of oil drilling and refining specifically, efficient monitoring is essential for ensuring the safety and reliability of operations. This includes monitoring various aspects such as equipment performance, environmental factors, and worker safety. Without proper monitoring, any issues or malfunctions may go unnoticed, potentially leading to accidents or costly downtime.
The inconsistency and limitations of their old systems were a bottleneck in their operational efficiency. It was crucial for Core Laboratories to have a solution that could provide clear hybrid visibility so they could improve responsiveness across their global IT landscape.
To address these challenges, Core Laboratories needed to:
- Consolidate disparate monitoring tools into a unified solution for comprehensive oversight
- Enhance real-time alerting to pre-empt and prevent potential outages
- Establish a more intuitive and accessible platform for all team members
- Ensure continuous and reliable monitoring to support field operations around the clock
This transition was not just about adopting a new tool; it was about transforming the way Core Laboratories approached IT infrastructure management, requiring a partner that provided a holistic view of their operations and aiding and advising on the agility to adapt to the dynamic needs of their global business.
Resolving errors between servers and enhancing operational efficiency
These growing challenges led Core Laboratories to explore a partnership with LogicMonitor. The team was particularly drawn to LogicMonitor for its support during the onboarding process that included hands-on experience with the dashboard and actual implementation steps. This approach enabled Core Laboratories to start realizing the benefits of LogicMonitor right from the early stages of implementation.
With LogicMonitor, Core Laboratories’ IT team has revolutionized how they monitor the company’s complex global hybrid IT environment. Administrators have begun to monitor critical aspects such as their disaster recovery link in Las Vegas and circuit-specific interfaces. This new system allowed for the creation of specialized dashboards for different purposes, from monitoring windows services to getting an overview of the entire global network. These dashboards became instrumental in understanding and managing the IT infrastructure more efficiently and effectively.
The integration of LogicMonitor into Core Laboratories’ operations has enhanced both internal and inter-departmental efficiency. One of the notable achievements was the creation of read-only dashboards, which facilitated improved cross-communication and quick resolution of issues, like identifying an overloaded SQL database.
In addition, LogicMonitor’s scalable nature is a perfect fit for Core Laboratories’ modernization and optimization initiative, while the company is actively evaluating all their systems and updating legacy solutions to ensure that their entire tech stack remains cutting-edge.
A contrast in clarity
“We were blind. We had no dashboard to login to and monitor our systems,”Chad Price, Corporate Windows System Minister, Core Laboratories.
Reflecting on the time before LogicMonitor, Core Laboratories was essentially flying blind when it came to understanding the operational status of their hybrid IT infrastructure. The shift to LogicMonitor’s LM Envision platform represented a move from reactive to proactive IT management. This transformation meant potential issues could be identified and addressed before escalating, a stark contrast to their previous approach of logging into several systems to check for alerts.
A significant aspect of Core Laboratories’ positive experience with LogicMonitor has been the quality of support. The ability to open support tickets and receive timely assistance, coupled with the ease of learning and managing the system independently, has been a game changer.
Since adopting LogicMonitor, Core Laboratories has experienced a range of significant benefits in their IT infrastructure monitoring, including:
- Enhanced visibility across global operations
- Real-time alerting and proactive problem solving
- Streamlined IT processes
- Improved decision-making with data-driven insights
- Increased operational uptime
- Enhanced cross-departmental communication
- Reduction in IT infrastructure complexity
- Scalable solution for growth
Core Laboratories’ journey with LogicMonitor exemplifies how the right technology can transform an organization’s operational efficiency. By switching to LogicMonitor, Core Laboratories not only overcame the challenges of monitoring a vast, global IT infrastructure but has also laid a foundation for future innovation and growth. The case of Core Laboratories stands as a testament to the transformative power of effective IT infrastructure monitoring and its pivotal role in supporting and enhancing business operations in the dynamic oil and gas industry.