Why You May Not Need DCIM
By Jason Sherman - August 14, 2018So, you think maybe it’s time for DCIM. Costs are getting out of control, troubleshooting problems abound, capacity planning is not going well, and you have zombie servers attacking your data center. DCIM can be a sizeable investment — and before you sign on the dotted line, it’s crucial to ensure that 1. you find…
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Where Has All The Good Data Gone?
By Jason Sherman - August 13, 2018So…you’re sick of troubleshooting that takes forever, fed up with buying IT stuff just to realize 6 months later you didn’t really need it or already had it, and you’re completely exasperated by those expenditures that keep going up, up, and away? You’ve finally decided that you want – no, scratch that – need to…
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APIs for Network Mapping: Get More Accomplished
By Jason Sherman - August 7, 2018On Fridays, I kick back for a few, take a break from the daily grind of network mapping and diagrams… and hit up Blogpost Friday over on Reddit. After enough wasted time – I mean ‘invested’ time – I found a great article on automation and APIs. This blog takes a hard look at the…
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Movies that Desperately Needed Network Diagrams
By Jason Sherman - August 6, 2018Sometimes, we all want to see the kind of work we do up on the big silver screen. Although the life of a network engineer isn’t as glamorous as say, the life of an international spy….we still have those dramatic moments at work from time to time (hey: I’m sure there were some Hollywood-worthy lines…
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To Reduce Cybersecurity Risks, You Need to Know What’s In The Network
By Jason Sherman - August 2, 2018Exciting developments at foot in the world of cyber security: the National Institute of Standards and Technology has developed the Cybersecurity Framework, which is a voluntary framework with standards, guidelines, and practices for managing (and mitigating) cybersecurity risks. If you haven’t heard about it, here’s the Cliff Notes version: The Cybersecurity Framework began back in…
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What is a Network Diagram?
By Jason Sherman - June 29, 2018As a software vendor specializing in IT documentation, we get a decent amount of website visitors who find our site while searching for specific explanations of what, exactly, network diagrams are…so we figured: why not write about them in-depth… Learn the in’s and out’s of network diagrams: what they are, how they’re used, how to…
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How To: Network Diagrams with Visio & Spreadsheets
By Jason Sherman - June 12, 2018If you’re a network engineer trying to manage the network — without automated network diagramming software — let me tip my hat to you: you’re probably better qualified than I am to write the introduction to this blog. Network engineers everywhere know, all too well, the pain of troubleshooting, fixing network outages and issues when…
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The Totally Biased Guide to Documenting Your Network: What Can Be Documented?
By Jason Sherman - June 5, 2018Now that you’ve identified what it is that you actually need to document, let’s dive into the details….aka what does that look like in your brain? Imagine you have a crystal ball and look into the future: what does your documentation look like. By ‘future’ I mean that you should set a realistic timeline —…
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How to Keep Your Network Diagram Project Right-Sized
By Jason Sherman - May 17, 2018When it comes to mapping and diagramming the network, is there such a thing as inviting ‘too many people to the party’? Of course, it’s always more fun to invite others to your (network documentation) party…and, of course, sometimes you have to. Sometimes, however, it is more effective to start small and do just what…
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The Totally Biased Guide to Documenting Your Network: Want & Need
By Jason Sherman - May 11, 2018In the first installment in this series, we discussed whether or not you have pain. If you’re still reading, you probably determined that you do, indeed, have some very real pain points that you want to solve with automated network mapping and documentation. Your next step, then, is to define what you want to do…vs….
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Totally Biased Guide to Documenting Your Network
By Jason Sherman - April 27, 2018Here at Graphical Networks, we see it every day: automatic network documentation and diagramming makes life easier for our customers. With automation, users can fix network outages faster, troubleshoot issues quickly, reduce expenditure on unnecessary IT stuff, and save time and resources managing changes to the network. If you’re considering making the jump from no…
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The Art of Data Center Migrations
By Jason Sherman - April 20, 2018I know what I want to do next week: move some servers….what fun! I might as well move some mountains while I’m at it. So, how the heck do you plan out a data center migration? With a notebook and piece of paper (of course): 1. Draw a picture of the servers switches and routers….
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