CyrusOne Enhances User Experience with Real‑Time Application Monitoring

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• IT ROLE: Steve Aichelmann, Senior Director of IT Infrastructure
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• NEEDS: Elevate internal end‑user experience, with a focus on VoIP quality
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• RESULTS: Proactive issue resolution and real‑time performance visibility across 31 global sites
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CyrusOne, a leading data‑center provider serving nearly 1,000 customers worldwide—including 175 Fortune 1000 firms—has earned a reputation for exceptional customer service, lasting partnerships, and high satisfaction scores. The company operates facilities across the United States, Europe, and Asia.

When Steve Aichelmann joined CyrusOne, he inherited a lean IT team of three who supported 500 internal users, contractors, and visitors on public Wi‑Fi. As cloud applications such as Office 365 and Salesforce.com grew in use, the team struggled to monitor performance at the application level. Traditional network metrics offered only a high‑level view, leaving root causes hidden and troubleshooting time‑consuming.

Compounding the challenge, the 2014 switch to a new Voice‑over‑Internet‑Protocol (VoIP) provider sparked user complaints about call quality. Network diagnostics appeared normal, but the lack of granular visibility meant the team could not pinpoint the problem swiftly.

Choosing AppNeta for End‑to‑End Visibility

After evaluating several solutions, CyrusOne deployed AppNeta Performance Manager across its 31 global locations. AppNeta delivers a real‑time snapshot of cloud‑based application performance at each user’s exact endpoint, accounting for WAN links, content‑delivery networks, and load balancers. Instead of relying on server‑side metrics such as CPU or memory, the platform translates data into a user‑centric performance index, enabling precise root‑cause analysis.

The solution aggregates usage data from multiple monitors, revealing trends across sites. IT staff can run identical tests on different locations simultaneously, dramatically shortening the time needed to isolate issues and decide on remediation. Customizable performance index scores, milestone thresholds, HTTP throughput metrics, and network data together provide a comprehensive view of application health.

Concrete Improvements with AppNeta

Using AppNeta, Aichelmann’s team dissected VoIP performance problems by simulating test calls directly from user endpoints. The data exposed specific latency and jitter sources that were invisible through conventional network tools.

In another scenario, Office 365 users reported inconsistent performance. AppNeta’s SaaS endpoint analysis identified that only one of the multiple Office 365 servers was delivering slower responses to a subset of users. Armed with that evidence, the team requested the provider to reboot and shift traffic to a healthier server, resolving the issue promptly.

\"We can now see exactly where the problem lies, rather than using a broad brush,\" Aichelmann says. \"The speed of our response has improved dramatically.\"

Measuring Success and Driving Proactive Support

With AppNeta, Aichelmann has increased user satisfaction, shifted the IT team toward strategic initiatives, and positioned IT as an innovation partner for the business. The team prioritizes monitoring for applications that most frequently affect users, mining the data for trends and efficiency gains.

Proactive analytics now enable the discovery of slow‑response patterns that users have grown accustomed to, as well as intermittent performance dips that occur only in the evenings—issues that could have gone unnoticed during peak hours. By addressing these before they impact business, CyrusOne maintains a high level of reliability.

Aichelmann is also exploring ways to present real‑time network health to end users and executives through the company’s business‑intelligence dashboard, leveraging automated data feeds from AppNeta.

\"We’re only scratching the surface,\" he adds. \"The platform’s capabilities are truly powerful.\"