White-box Profiling for Optimizing WAN Performance of IBM Case Manager 5.2

Content

IBM® Case Manager (ICM) Version 5.2 unites information, processes, and people to provide a flexible framework, cohesive approach, and integrated tools for managing cases. IBM Case Manager provides tools to quickly design and create solutions, which case workers can use to process cases and work items associated with the cases.

In a Wide Area Network (WAN) where end users are geographically distant from the ICM server, network latency and bandwidth limitations can degrade end user response times. When an ICM solution is being designed and implemented, the solution designer should understand the various factors that can impact ICM performance across a WAN, and how to design and test solutions to provide their end users with the best possible performance.

This white paper provides a methodology for measuring, analyzing, and maximizing IBM Case Manager performance in a WAN environment, and is intended for use by ICM solution designers and administrators. The terminology and principles of WAN performance testing are introduced, including “Cold”, “Warm”, and “Hot” testing conditions, as well as the use of pre-production testing with a WAN emulator to model and project end user performance before deployment in a real Wide Area Network. In addition, this white paper describes the terminology and principles of white-box profiling, which is the detailed analysis of network call patterns to drive optimization of the solution design for best performance in a WAN. The data collection and analysis of white-box profiling can be done even in a LAN environment used by the solution designer, and does not require a production level environment with an actual WAN or even a WAN emulator. This white paper also includes performance test results for a sample Credit Card Dispute Management solution in a WAN emulator test environment with IBM Case Manager 5.2, to illustrate the WAN testing and white-box profiling principles and practices.