GMHBA boosts digital reliability with Dynatrace observability
Dynatrace has been deployed at GMHBA, an Australian regionally based private health insurer, to improve the performance and reliability of the insurer's technology infrastructure.
The introduction of Dynatrace's observability platform is designed to help GMHBA, which serves almost 320,000 members, better predict and resolve IT issues, ultimately aiming to provide uninterrupted service and a smoother digital experience for its members.
Operational challenges
GMHBA, established in 1934, has grown to prioritise a personalised approach to member service and the health and wellbeing of its communities. As the organisation's operations expanded, it encountered technology challenges that began to affect IT performance. These issues included failing services and the expiration of SSL certificates, both of which contributed to system downtime.
Matt Jaques, Head of Infrastructure at GMHBA, reflected on the motivations for implementing a new observability platform. He said, "We were experiencing some disruptions, from disks filling up to SSL certificates expiring during work hours, causing downtime. It became critical to improve visibility across our infrastructure and shift from a reactive approach to proactively preventing disruptions."
Selection and implementation
After evaluating various options to address these challenges, GMHBA decided to implement Dynatrace for its capacity to provide analysis and automated intelligence on a wide scale. The platform offers end-to-end visibility across GMHBA's technology stack, including servers, applications, and cloud resources. This breadth enables IT teams to identify and resolve performance issues before they reach the end user.
"The biggest advantage delivered by Dynatrace is the ability to see our entire technology stack. We can monitor and analyse how our members interact with our website and trace those interactions all the way to our backend database. This allows us to resolve IT issues before they impact system performance," Jaques shared.
Diverging from reactive methods, GMHBA is now able to detect potential disruptions in advance, which supports ongoing service stability for members. The transition to proactive monitoring has also translated into enhanced performance and greater reliability across its digital infrastructure.
Impact on cloud migration
The benefits of Dynatrace also extended to GMHBA's migration of its Microsoft SharePoint instance to Microsoft Azure. With Dynatrace supporting the project, the migration was finalised two months ahead of the original schedule. This led to cost savings, which the insurer subsequently reinvested in its member services.
Reflecting on the broader strategic value of the partnership, Jaques added, "Dynatrace wasn't a tactical solution, it was a strategic one. We now have a reliable and resilient infrastructure that supports our current member base and positions us for future growth by being able to analyse and innovate faster."
Enhanced resource allocation and automation
Dynatrace's observability platform is also enabling GMHBA to detect performance bottlenecks and address them before they influence user experience. Additionally, automation of complex monitoring tasks has contributed to operational efficiency.
The system is designed to automatically activate instrumentation that is specific to GMHBA's application environment. By tailoring monitoring dynamically, GMHBA can ensure that resources are focused where they are most needed and that its applications and services run efficiently.
GMHBA's adoption of Dynatrace's solution is part of a broader commitment to service continuity and infrastructure reliability as digital interactions become an increasingly central part of its engagement with members across Australia.
