On July 19th, one of the largest global IT blackouts occurred, affecting millions of devices worldwide. Various companies reported IT failures, including the dreaded “blue screen of death” error on Windows computers, caused by a faulty update from the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. No sector was spared from this issue, as the blackout impacted airlines, banks, businesses, schools, governments, and even some healthcare facilities worldwide.
IT organizations worldwide are still in the process of recovery, and it is estimated that it could take weeks for them to fully restore operations. This incident highlights the crucial importance of Digital Experience Management (DEM) solutions in today’s interconnected environment. DEM solutions can provide immense value during global IT disruptions, such as the recent CrowdStrike incident.
Key benefits of DEM solutions during global IT disruptions
During an outage, clear communication with users is crucial. Organizations need to quickly detect and respond to issues to resolve downtime and disruption. DEM solutions capture user interactions and performance metrics to enable organizations to keep users informed about service status and expected resolution times.
Riverbed Aternity: a vital tool for managing global disruptions
Riverbed Aternity is an excellent example of a DEM solution that can be invaluable during global IT disruptions. In recent days, many customers have been using Aternity to gain visibility into the impact of the CrowdStrike incident, allowing organizations to take prescriptive actions to address issues more quickly and mitigate this situation.
Aternity is quickly helping customers identify which enterprise applications and servers are affected and determine if issues are escalating or resolving.
This visibility has allowed IT teams to quickly confirm which systems had returned to normal, ensuring an efficient and seamless recovery process. Here are some ways Aternity can help in these types of incidents:
Real-time monitoring: Aternity provides real-time monitoring of user experiences and application performance. This can help organizations identify and diagnose issues affecting their systems and devices quickly.
Incident management: With its detailed analytics and insights, Aternity can help IT teams identify the root causes of disruptions and performance degradation, enabling faster resolution.
User experience insights: By understanding how disruptions affect end users, organizations can prioritize critical issues and ensure essential services are restored first.
Proactive alerts: Aternity’s proactive alert system can notify IT teams of potential issues before they escalate, helping to mitigate the impact of the disruption.
Comprehensive reporting: Detailed reports and dashboards provide visibility into application and service performance and availability, aiding in post-incident analysis and future prevention strategies.
Aternity ensures continuous performance, availability, and operation, even during large-scale disruptions. These capabilities make Riverbed Aternity a powerful ally for managing and mitigating the effects of a widespread IT disruption.
Aternity’s ability to track and monitor critical errors
By tracking and monitoring instances of the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) on Windows devices, Aternity helps IT teams identify and address the root causes of these critical system errors, ensuring better stability and performance for end users.
Aternity tracks BSOD events by monitoring the health and performance of Windows devices in real-time through the following process:
Agent installation: A small agent is installed on each monitored device, collecting data on system performance, application usage, and errors, including BSOD events.
Event logging: When a BSOD occurs, the agent logs event details such as error codes, timestamps, and relevant system information.
Data transmission: Collected data is sent to Aternity’s central server, where it is aggregated and analyzed.
Dashboard and alerts: IT teams can view BSOD events on Aternity’s dashboard, which provides detailed visualizations and reports. Alerts can also be configured to immediately notify IT staff when a BSOD occurs.
Root cause analysis: Aternity helps identify patterns and possible root causes of BSOD events by correlating them with other system and application performance data.
This comprehensive approach allows IT teams to quickly identify and address underlying issues causing BSOD events, improving overall system stability and user experience.
In conclusion, the recent global disruption from CrowdStrike has underscored the critical importance of digital experience management solutions. Solutions like Riverbed Aternity provide real-time insights, proactive alerts, and comprehensive reporting necessary to effectively manage and mitigate the effects of widespread IT disruptions. As organizations continue to recover, investing in robust DEM solutions will be key to building more resilient IT infrastructures and maintaining service continuity in the face of future challenges.