Network documentation, as we’ve blogged about before, has been something of a myth. It exists somewhere…so-and-so has seen it before…maybe that’s it? For many organizations, it’s relegated to the ranks of being some kind of mythical sea monster…you’re fairly certain it’s out there somewhere….somewhere… For other organizations, the idea of network documentation is less myth and more punishment. Maybe this sounds familiar: there was an audit or a major outage, the IT **IT hit the fan, and the fallout was not pleasant. Now, there’s been a series of meetings and brainstorming sessions and the conclusion is: we’ve got to document the network….
You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Know
An undocumented network is a network that’s positioned for problems; a well-documented network, however, is poised for success. Think about it this way: you make money, you spend money. To control all of this, you have a bank account and/or basic bookkeeping that keeps a record of what’s going out and what’s coming in. You know about any transfers, you know what your capacity is for future expenses. You can see if you made a big purchase last year and plan for similar large expenses in the future. Your bank account and bookkeeping is the glue that keeps your financial health chugging along. What would happen if you just made money and spent it and never stopped to write any of it down or use the information to decide what you can afford, can’t afford, where you can save, and so on? Yikes, right?
Documentation Gives You the Visibility You Need
When you have a well-documented network, with actionable real-time network diagrams, you can reduce mean-time-to-repair (MTTR), get compliant and mitigate risks, save money by identifying what you have and aren’t using, plan for capacity efficiently, ensure patches and licenses stay up-to-date, share vital information with various stakeholders in a format and with permissions that are most appropriate based on the type of stakeholder, and better understand and integrate the various tools you use for network management (such as ServiceNow or AWS, for example).
Don’t Waste Time on Manual Documentation
Network documentation has, often, been achieved through manual data entry that already-overworked network engineers have to somehow figure out a way to take on. The tools they’re given? Spreadsheets, maybe Visio. Documenting the network like this, is, quite frankly cumbersome work that doesn’t last. Your network is constantly changing and a static list can’t keep up. Ultimately, it’s not worth the time or manpower investment. You end up with static lists of your network assets and maybe some config notes. This kind of network documentation may have worked in the distant past, but in the modern era, in which networks are constantly relied upon for core business functions, dynamic network documentation is a must.
Network documentation software such as netTerrain allows you to automatically discover the network. No missing documentation…no manual data entry…and no outdated lists. You can easily visualize your network, as it is, in real-time. With a few clicks, you can drill down and see, for example, if there is an outage — what’s connected to what and trace everything that’s been impacted. You can see what’s worked to fix an issue before. You can grab the exact vendor contact information you need. If you’re ready to fix problems quickly (or prevent them in the first place), get compliant, save money, and visualize all of your tools from one platform, click here to schedule a 15-minute no-sales-tactics discovery call. We can answer your questions, schedule a demo, and/or set you up with a free trial.