Norwegian State Railways Moves Forward with Nimsoft 

Microsoft and Big 4 unable to support stringent new service levels, new ITIL initiative

London, UK – 20th June, 2008 –Nimsoft, the “Big 4” alternative for IT performance and availability monitoring solutions, announced today that Arrive, the technology arm of Norwegian State Railways (NSB),  has concluded its rollout of Nimsoft.  It follows a systematic and controlled deployment that has embedded Nimsoft at the heart of the IT operation. Arrive monitors and manages more than 500 servers across Norway that host business critical applications essential to the smooth running of the railways across the country. 

The deployment allows Arrive to instantly assess the health of the servers and key systems and proactively manage any issues that may arise.  Arrive selected Nimsoft following an intense evaluation period of rival offerings from the Big 4 and Microsoft. 
                             
NSB carries more than 50 million passengers and freight a year across Norway. The railway infrastructure is a vital artery that connects the major cities and metropolitan areas with more rural parts of the country. Technology plays a key role in the smooth running of the rail network, ranging from ticketing services to the management of the rolling stock and the tracking of freight and cargo consignments. 

Arrive must ensure that all the key systems and applications are available and working within agreed parameters. This promoted an in-depth review of monitoring solutions that could deliver a comprehensive view of service levels. Nimsoft emerged as a clear front runner for its in-depth data collection capabilities and comprehensive reporting features.

“To say that people depend on our ability to manage the IT infrastructure is a massive understatement. The systems that we monitor are responsible for ensuring the safe transport of over 140,000 commuters a day across the Norwegian rail network. Understandably, there is an expectation amongst the railway operators that we should deliver accurate service levels reports that detail our management of the key systems."

"From our perspective, we recognized the need to be able to act quickly in the event of a systems failure or other problem. We had very specific requirements for the IT monitoring solution and Nimsoft was the only vendor that demonstrated a true understanding of what we needed today and how we might adapt the solution to future requirements,” said Bjørn Bale, CTO, Arrive AS.

“Compared with offerings from the Big 4 vendors, Nimsoft was not as costly, complex and did not require an army of consultants to deploy. We found that the platform was extremely flexible, better at monitoring LINUX and mixed server environments and offered a far more detailed view of the health of our IT infrastructure.  The result is that our decisions are based on detailed information and knowledge that was previously unavailable to us. The Nimsoft deployment has set the stage for a successful implementation of ITIL,” he added.

“Norway has one of the world's strongest economies and good transport links are essential. Given the key role that technology plays in the management of the rail network, Arrive very quickly recognized the importance of an IT monitoring solution that could demonstrate the value that IT delivers. We engineered Nimsoft so it would be easy to deploy, scalable and, importantly, offer a range of features at an affordable price. This combination clearly resonated with Arrive, who have embraced Nimsoft and are now set to enhance the service they offer Norwegian State Railways and their paying customers,” said Gary Read, president and CEO, Nimsoft.

About Nimsoft
Nimsoft provides next generation performance and availability monitoring solutions for the complete physical and virtualized IT infrastructure. The Nimsoft solutions redefine the standards for ease of use and speed of deployment - providing outstanding return on investment and unparalleled customer satisfaction. Over 600 customers in 30 countries rely on Nimsoft solutions to monitor their IT based business applications and services. These customers include mid-market and global organizations, such as Barclays Capital and Amway Corporation, Archstone Smith Communities, Bay Area Rapid Transit, Ladbrokes, MTU Aero Engines, TriNet, TRW Automotive, and hundreds of leading managed service providers such as CDW Berbee, Easynet and Rackspace Managed Hosting. For more information, visit www.nimsoft.com.

Nimsoft and the Nimsoft logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nimsoft Inc.  All other company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

© 2008 Nimsoft Inc. all rights reserved.

For more information:

United States
Jenny Coupe
Nimsoft, Inc
Phone: +1 650 517 1975