Recently, I wrote a blog entitled ‘Network Documentation: Is It Really a Priority?’: in this blog, I discussed the importance of network diagrams and documentation in capacity planning, reducing mean-time-to-repair, lowering expenditures, cutting down on IT clutter, and more. One significant issue I didn’t discuss in that blog is this: regulatory compliance.
Graphical Networks, my company, makes netTerrain: IT documentation software that can help with regulatory compliance, such as:
- the Clinger Cohen Act,
- Federal Data Center Consolidation Act of 2013,
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS),
- and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
Many of the new technologies within IT actually stem from many of these acts, such as: Cloud, shared services, and data center consolidation. In fact, I hear from many government agencies and contractors that in order to purchase any new IT item, a business case needs to be written to justify the purchase: these all came these regulatory compliance acts!
Let’s look at an example in this regulatory compliance act, PCI DSS:
Requirement 1.1.2 in the PCI DSS requires that a current network diagram, with all connections to cardholder data ( including any wireless networks), be available. It also requires that there is a process is in place to keep this diagram current.
This is important because, with network documentation, you can discover:
- What devices exist on your network
- How are those devices connected
- Where are those devices physically located
“OK great, I see the importance of these compliance and my organization needs to comply…. How can netTerrain help me and my organization?”
netTerrain, simply put, assists in the visualization of the IT impact through network documentation. With netTerrain, you can access a single, centralized visual view of your network. You can bring in any data you’d like: import the data manually, import spreadsheets, or automate the data collection with its Integration toolkit and network discovery to automate the process (for more information about how netTerrain can bring in data, please see my other article: How to Centralize Your IT Infrastructure Views.
Through netTerrain’s visual hierarchical network diagrams, you can embed as much data as you need to help view and analyze your network. By embedding objects with user-defined data, netTerrain arms you with real information about your systems. It’s easy to manage, troubleshoot, answer questions, plan, and help make informed decisions.
netTerrain network and data center diagrams allow you to identify assets and isolate these assets that may be the root cause of performance problems. netTerrain contains dashboard and asset reports, and an Audit trail, where you will gain greater control and governance to better manage assets and assure compliance. For federal data centers, netTerrain also offers power monitoring with DCIM so that data centers can comply with the federal mandate and lower PUE.
In conclusion, network diagrams and IT documentation can not only help you solve daily headaches but they can also help you get your infrastructure in compliance. Afterall, you can’t manage what you don’t know…and you can’t comply when you can’t manage.