INVESTING in a faster wide-area network to nearly 400 locations to cater for growth in data traffic is rarely simple.

Harder still is catering for that same level of application growth without spending a cent on new infrastructure.

But this was precisely the requirement faced by Victoria-based Bendigo Bank, which operates more than 1000 wide-area links to its 380 branches around Australia.

According to the bank's IT infrastructure program manager, Malcolm Loftus, in recent years the bank has deployed many new financial services applications across its network, many of which are delivered using bandwidth-hungry web-based interfaces. In the same period the Bendigo has also deployed the Documentum workflow and document management software from the US company EMC.

"That is now live in all of our branches, and that's a web-based front end, too," Mr Loftus says. "(Network traffic is) growing very, very fast and more products are going in all the time."

Although an upgrade of the network infrastructure was physically possible, its unusual business structure made this option less desirable. About 200 of the branches are operated as community banks - their establishment is partially funded by the local community, and these branches are less willing to invest in expensive new technology.

With traffic loads on the links to those community branches ever increasing, Mr Loftus says it was important to find a way to improve service without lifting costs.

The solution was to use a software-based network monitoring tool to determine exactly how each of the links to the branches are being used, and then to take that knowledge to create quality-of-service policies that give priority to those applications that are core to the operation of the branch, above other uses such as web surfing.

After investigating options, the Bendigo settled on the NetQoS' ReporterAnalyzer network traffic analysis module. The Bendigo's systems management specialist, Claire Bajelis, says the goal was to find an analyser product that was easy to use for the bank's network management and help-desk staff.

"We wanted it to be something that wasn't going to intimidate people," Ms Bajelis says.

The implementation started last November, but it took until this year for the network analysis to take place and the links to be optimised. Mr Loftus says having a better understanding of the bank's network traffic has allowed it to create the desired quality-of-service configurations so that key applications always have the bandwidth they need.

"That way the core services are never affected, and the community banks are quite comfortable if their internet runs a little bit slowly," Mr Loftus says.

Now any time a branch calls to report a decline in wide-area network performance, help-desk staff can immediately identify the problem.

One example is bandwidth being chewed up by the constant refreshing of the advertisements at the bottom of some internet pages.

"When you got an ad stream maybe flicking a new ad through about every 10 or 15 seconds, it's amazing how much it uses," Mr Loftus says. "This is the sort of thing we are finding ReporterAnalyzer extremely useful for. It's identifying those portions of traffic that aren't essential to core banking but that can potentially impact the performance of a branch."

Hence the bank is now blocking certain feeds using the MIMEsweeper tool from software company Clearswift. The bank is also concentrating on ensuring that new web-based applications do not use any more bandwidth than they really have to, by minimising use of images and page refreshes.

Mr Loftus says the cost of the implementation of the analysis software has been negligible compared to the benefits delivered.

"The investment in working smarter is surprisingly small," Mr Loftus says.

"A typical small branch might be paying $700 a month in line fees. If you suddenly put on an application that means they have to double it, that's an extra $700 a month.

"When you multiply that out by 200 branches, it's a lot of money.

"If you are clever and you invest $50,000 up front in the design of the application, you can completely avoid that outlay and there is a cost benefit to that investment."

NEXT LESSONS

Problem: Bendigo Bank's network traffic was putting a strain on the infrastructure.

Process: Quality-of-service monitoring tools allowed essential traffic to get priority.

Possibilities: Undesirable traffic can be spotted and blocked completely.