Improving IT with real-time analysis

Medical professionals are rovers by necessity. This poses problems in hospitals, as doctors need immediate access to patients’ medical records from the nearest workstation. Lives depend on this. IT departments need reliable information about the internal workings of each workstation (desktop). Traditional monitoring software focuses on the backend and network. Nexthink flips this perspective, monitoring all endpoints and collecting all end-user data.

In the event of an IT breakdown, Nexthink acts as a magnifying glass, focusing on an individual endpoint or, using analytics, thousands of endpoints, finding patterns. This highlights problems as they emerge, before helpdesk phones ring. Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), one of five Swiss university hospitals, selected Nexthink. With 10,000 end-users (administration, researchers, medical staff, students, etc.) and 40 sites, CHUV faces the problem of maintaining complex, evolving clinical systems to serve a diverse end-user population with a limited number of IT staff. Data and records of more than 45,000 patients are accessible from any device at any time, so the number of potential failure points is extensive. Nexthink keeps a close eye on them all.

Nexthink is not only focused on healthcare, but is used in a variety of sectors, some primarily for security. The software collects the details about every endpoint and looks for patterns. It is uniquely positioned to spot malware-related anomalies early. The software does not offer an interpretation of events, but indicates problematic behavior. This lets IT staff react to threats and failures more efficiently. Nexthink does not replace the human brain. Instead, it grants the IT mind an effective “6th sense” about developing issues or trends. For example, if machines begin to transmit large and anomalous amounts of data at fixed times, it sounds an alarm or assigns them an appropriate threat level for review. This becomes more precise as data is gathered and interpreted over time.

Spotting patterns isn’t limited to security needs. If a new software patch rolls out and problems arise for end-users, Nexthink will have the data shortly, within minutes. Nexthink can see the problem emerge and point the IT staff in this direction, before the users notice. Even if a user is unsure of the source of a problem (or clicked on something they shouldn’t have), Nexthink analyzes the operation, and IT staff can take corrective steps. This is a huge boon in times of increasing complexity. In many modern IT environments, seemingly innocuous actions can cause a chain reaction. Nexthink catches those at the start, not once the cascade has run its course.