Imagine this: You’re a guest at a luxury hotel, enjoying the epitome of comfort and service. Behind the scenes, a team of IT professionals tirelessly works to keep the hotel’s technology running smoothly. But what happens when the system throws a wrench in the works?
The Ritz London, a renowned luxury hotel, faced this challenge. Their in-house IT team, consisting of six people, was tasked with maintaining 24/7 visibility of the hotel’s crucial network, IT systems, building, and cameras. But they struggled with their existing monitoring solutions.
“We were not getting useful reporting from our previous monitoring systems because they were either hard to configure, difficult to maintain or lacked the features to configure the more complex or unusual systems for monitoring,” explained Richard Isted, IT Manager at The Ritz London.
Finding a Solution: PRTG Network Monitor to the Rescue
The Ritz London IT team sought a user-friendly and powerful monitoring solution. Their search led them to PRTG Network Monitor, a feature-rich solution that quickly impressed them.
“There are numerous extensive blog articles on the Paessler website that help you to configure common devices for monitoring. We haven’t had to log a single support case because everything is so self-explanatory,” said Isted. “As we operate on a ‘Windows Server’ based system, it is easy for my team members to help manage, as opposed to Linux-based monitoring systems which have a much steeper learning curve.”
Isted and his team were thrilled with the ease of setting up sensors and connecting them to PRTG. “PRTG made configuring custom SNMP sensors much easier than other systems I’ve worked with,” Isted added.
Beyond Monitoring: PRTG Helps The Ritz London Prevent Downtime and Save Money
The Ritz London’s IT team discovered that PRTG offered much more than just monitoring. The in-depth insights provided by PRTG helped them proactively address potential issues before they escalated.
For example, they realized that their air conditioning system had a higher failure rate than they initially thought. “Before we installed PRTG, one of our servers was damaged due to overheating,” explained Isted. “Now, temperature alerts are instantly escalated to a 24-hour on-site team who take corrective action.”
PRTG’s instant alerts were a game-changer for the hotel’s maintenance team, enabling them to respond quickly to issues around the clock. “We’re a 24-hour operation, but the IT team is not necessarily always on site,” said Isted. “That’s why we have plugged PRTG into our email system and linked escalation alerts to the Telegram messenger service as well.” The alerts provided the maintenance team with the exact location of the problem, ensuring swift resolution and preventing costly downtime.
“PRTG’s alerts are extremely useful and give us a heads up on potential issues before they escalate,” said Isted. “This has allowed us to be more proactive, as opposed to being reactive. We have also used them to look at traffic patterns when our network is busy, allowing us to adjust our backup jobs to work around any peaks. Overall, PRTG has helped us improve service uptime by highlighting important alerts that would result in a system failure or downtime if action was not taken.”
The Ritz London’s Future with PRTG: Expanding to Enhance Security
The Ritz London’s IT team is eager to utilize the full potential of PRTG to further enhance the hotel’s security and technology.
“Thanks to PRTG we have been able to analyse our need for further IT equipment. The data that we have collected gives us figures on resource utilisation which in turn helps back the business case for further investment in IT infrastructure,” explained Isted. “In the future, we’re planning on investing in more IP cameras and physical security, access control devices as well as switches and servers.”
The team has ambitious plans to integrate PRTG with their physical security devices, including door locks and electronic door controllers, using the PRTG Maps feature to create a personalized dashboard for their security team. This will allow them to gain greater insights into their security equipment and respond quickly to any issues.
“We’d also like to have better integration with our cameras so we can track their health and utilisation,” said Isted. “So far, we’ve probably covered 33% of what PRTG can do as it’s such an extensive system. We have lots of ideas that we haven’t had a chance to implement yet.”
The Takeaway: PRTG Enables The Ritz London to Deliver World-Class Service
The Ritz London’s experience highlights how intuitive IT monitoring can significantly enhance the operations of a luxury hotel. By adopting PRTG, The Ritz London’s IT team gained greater visibility, control, and proactive problem-solving capabilities.
The user-friendly interface, comprehensive features, and robust alerting system of PRTG allowed The Ritz London to ensure reliable uptime, prevent downtime, and make data-driven decisions for future investments.
If you’re looking for a way to improve your IT monitoring and achieve exceptional service uptime, consider PRTG Network Monitor.
