What is netTerrain?
By Fred Koh - February 10, 2020How did you reach our website? Hear about us from a coworker? Maybe Google or other search engine? Perhaps one of your staff recommended us. However you landed here, you may be wondering: “what exactly is netTerrain?” If you’ve checked out a page or two on our website, read a blog, or maybe watched a…
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Not All Network Documentation is the Same
By Fred Koh - February 7, 2020When I’m talking to network engineers about documenting the network, I always ask the following question, “what does network documentation mean to you?” The responses I get range from: “I just want to document my routers and switches and be able to show this to management” ”I need to document everything — from office workstations,…
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What is Network Diagram Software?
By Fred Koh - January 24, 2020Our IT visualization software netTerrain allows our users to create a wide variety of network diagrams — because of this we get a fair amount of search traffic to our website who want to know what is network diagram software, anyways? Before we launch into a long-winded and incredibly exciting (yes, I’m being sarcastic) explanation…
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Network Monitoring Tools: The Devil is in the Details
By Fred Koh - January 23, 2020Early this year, the team here at Graphical Networks plans to release the latest version of our IT visualization software: netTerrain 8.5. In the past, I’ve discussed the differences between network monitoring and network documentation…ad nauseum. To review my previous articles, click here. Some network monitoring systems (NMS) are better than others…for example, can your…
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How is DCIM Software Priced?
By Fred Koh - January 17, 2020Your boss has tasked you to research procuring a DCIM software for your organization… after a series of exhaustive and endless meetings with different stakeholders to determine your set of requirements what you need from a DCIM solution should include from your department and colleagues, its time to finally start the search for DCIM vendors…
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Cable and Circuit Management: You Need Software & Strategy
By Fred Koh - January 16, 2020I’ve often talked about how you can use netTerrain DCIM software to manage your data center’s capacity — such as being able to manage rack capacity and control space, power, and weight availability. With netTerrain’s Environmental Monitoring Module, which is included with netTerrain DCIM, you can also track, and view, power in real-time to increase…
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Peace on Earth, Network Diagrams, & Network Documentation
By Fred Koh - December 20, 2019‘Tis the season…for snowmen, ugly holiday sweater parties, eggnog, and…network headaches. Aside from genuinely wishing everyone this season “happy holidays” — Happy Holidays to you, and yours! — the team at my company also wants to wish everyone this season the following: ‘Happy Documenting’. Why? Because good IT documentation leads to a happier holiday season:…
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netTerrain Environmental Monitoring: Stop Data Center Waste
By Fred Koh - December 16, 2019In my most recent article, I mentioned how you can use netTerrain Environmental Monitoring (EM), which is now a standard feature included with netTerrain DCIM software in 2020 (it was previously priced as a separate module), to help manage rack density (from a capacity planning perspective). To learn more about how netTerrain’s Environmental Monitoring feature…
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Stop Racking Up Costs: How to Increase Rack Density
By Fred Koh - December 13, 2019In my last article in this series on rack management using DCIM (data center infrastructure management), we talked about managing rack capacity, based on space, nameplate power, and weight availability — and how software such as netTerrain can help with the process of capacity. To review that article, click here. In this article, let’s discuss…
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Go Home Early: How Network Diagrams Help You Work
By Fred Koh - December 11, 2019Ah, the work day is almost over (finally) and time to go home and let the dog out and maybe even cook dinner when, all of a sudden, the calls start…..cue the horror movie music: your network is having issues. No! There goes your quiet afternoon and evening…oof. What is the first thing you try…
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Stop Racking Up Headaches: How DCIM Helps Manage Racks
By Fred Koh - December 9, 2019DCIM…what does Data Center Infrastructure Management software mean to you and your organization? If you ask 100 people what DCIM means, you will get 100 different responses (trust me, I’ve talked to hundreds of folks about DCIM over the years). Truthfully, ‘DCIM’ can be defined as anything, from managing the temperature of data center devices,…
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Sorry, Reddit: Visio is NOT the Gold Standard for Network Diagram Software
By Fred Koh - September 13, 2019Recently, I read on Reddit something alarming: someone called Visio ‘the gold standard’ for network diagram software…what? Visio, really? While Visio may be an excellent diagramming software — made for diagramming the network it is not — #sorrynotsorry as the kids say. I got out the popcorn and I kept reading the comments on this…
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