System Solutions Inc.

SSI, a top Managed IT & Cloud Provider, uses Goliath to proactively troubleshoot Chromebook and Citrix end user issues

“We use Goliath to prove that Google Chromebooks are NOT the root cause of end-user experience issues” – Scott Urofsky, CTO, System Solutions Inc.

Q: Scott, how do you monitor and troubleshoot Chromebook end user issues with Goliath?

Scott: SSI is a Platinum Level Citrix Service Provider, so we provide managed services for the entire Citrix environment – everything from building a secure, scalable Citrix deployment to app containerization and 24/7 support expertise. We have a number of customers who utilize Google Chromebooks for end users. These end users are working with the Google Workspace applications as well as other enterprise applications that they access using Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop.

We want to make sure when we are deploying, supporting, and monitoring Chromebooks that if a ticket is submitted, the end user does not automatically blame the Google Chromebook when the underlying issue might be Citrix or some other part of the infrastructure. Goliath Technologies’ software gives us the visibility we need to troubleshoot Chromebook issues and determine the cause of the performance issue quickly.

Q: Can you give us a more specific example of troubleshooting Chromebooks?

Scott: Sure. So here is an example I can remember that is unfortunately quite common until the right tools are in place. It is 9:00 am and many users are opening their Google Chromebooks for the first time to logon to their applications. This may be a published application, published desktop, VDI, or web app.  A call comes in and someone says their Google Chromebook isn’t working because the application is slow. They are having a performance problem but they are not a technical user, so they assign blame to whatever is new or visible, in this case their new Google Chromebook. We logon to Goliath’s End-User Experience Management software and we can see the Citrix session of the user reporting the issue in real time. I search for their name and in literally one click I can see anything that might be causing the performance degradation including user behavior, Citrix delivery infrastructure, server layer, end user network connection, and even peripheral devices like printers or USB drives. In this case, I look at Goliath’s summary display and see the bandwidth, network latency, and status of the application server they are connected to, then I am able to determine that there is high latency with their home internet and I can quickly determine that it is a problem with their internet service provider and home office environment. And, I can screen share the data with them so they can also see how I am coming to that determination.

So in this case, we get fingers pointing away from Google Chromebooks and towards what we call the “true root cause.”

Q: Scott that was a great example. Big picture, what is the SSI user experience philosophy?

Scott: Although I shared a troubleshooting example, our main focus when we are supporting customers is on being proactive and preventing or resolving issues before they even impact end users. That is key, proactive issue prevention.

However, when issues do occur, it is important to isolate the “true root cause” of a performance problem so it can be resolved quickly and then document why it occurred. Then, productive conversations can happen with management, vendors, and users, so the permanent resolution of the issue can be put in place.

Organizations choose SSI to manage the complexities that come with Citrix environments. Having Goliath software as part of our portfolio of tools provides our team the additional insights they need to perform. We use Goliath as one of our primary software applications to help us with the task of anticipating issues before they impact end users, finding and troubleshooting the root cause when they do, and proving the root cause with objective evidence like reports and analytics.

Together with technology, people, and process, SSI provides exceptional service levels to our customers.

You can learn more about our industry-only monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities for ChromeOS devices here.