Do you manage an IT network? You might just be trapped in a psychological thriller movie…. and you’re the star! What am I talking about? Ever watched “Memento”? In that movie, the star suffers from short-term memory loss. He’s on a mission, though, so he has to rely on makeshift reminders such as polaroid photos and tattoos to get his mission accomplished. Sound familiar, yet? What about “The Happening”…the M. Knight Shyamalan thriller in which noone knows anything and there’s a sense of impending doom that permeates everything?

Without proper network documentation and network diagrams, you’re probably relying on everything from improvised tools from spreadsheets to Visio to post-it notes to Bob’s brain, the guy who knows everything about the network and who’s probably going to retire soon. Maybe you eventually get the job done, but boy…what a ride.

While an adventure and lots of challenges and improvisation makes for a good film in Hollywood, it’s not exactly how you want your work life to play out. Networks are not flat, static collections of rows and columns, so using flat and static means of documenting it — or Bob’s brain — puts you into a bad spot when something goes wrong (and something always goes wrong — in Hollywood and in real life).

What happens when Bob, who knows everything, leaves the company? Now you’re really in a nightmare:

What am I supposed to do? How can I find what’s on my network, can I trust these spreadsheets? Visio diagrams? How old are they? Are they current? How can I get a handle on what’s on my network? Help!

Network diagram software can give the scary movie you’re starring in the happy Hollywood ending you always wanted. Stop the guessing game and get real-time updates to your network! With network mapping and diagram software such as netTerrain, you can start by discovering your network and/or import data from an existing data source your organization may have, like ServiceNow, Solarwinds, AWS, Azure, and Spectrum.

Ensure your network maps stay up-to-date, and reliable, with minimal work on your end! Need to know what’s on your network and how they are all connected to each other? With Layer 2 network discovery, using SNMP, CDP, and LLDP such as in our network diagram software netTerrain Logical, finding these connections is as easy as pie. Want to drill down to the port level to see the connections and run trace paths to see the entire path of a cable or circuit? It just takes a couple of clicks.

To beat our own chests for a minute, our software netTerrain Logical takes it up a notch. You can drill into any number of hierarchies, down to the port, including connectivity, systems and applications and easily search for any information about the network in a secured, multi-user and web-based platform. As Chef Emeril Lagasse would say, “Bam! Bam!” netTerrain provides a low-cost entry solution that is used by organizations big and small, from a small 100 network devices to more than 40,000 network devices. netTerrain can be used on the Cloud (with discovery too), or on-premise. How is that for flexibility?

Regardless of which network mapping software you choose, doesn’t it sound a whole lot better than trapped in a psychological thriller movie?

About Fred Koh

As a seasoned sales executive, Fred Koh serves as Director of Sales and is responsible for Graphical Networks sales and channel partner program, marketing strategy, and operations.