Why You Need Cloud-Friendly DCIM Software
By Fred Koh - December 23, 2018In a previous article here, we discussed the importance of viewing your entire Cloud and Infrastructure. In this blog, we will pick up where that article left off and discuss why exactly this is important when it comes asset management. To illustrate, we will use our own Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software, netTerrain DCIM,…
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5 Reasons You Need DCIM Software
By Fred Koh - December 17, 2018Is your organization considering the need for Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software — and trying to determine if it is something that will truly impact your functionality and bottomline? It’s all too easy to get distracted by all the features and bells and whistles you see in a demo or even in a proposal….
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Why You Need Practical Views for DCIM Software (Not 3D Views)
By Fred Koh - December 16, 2018In a previous blog article, we looked at the question of 3D views when it comes to DCIM software. At first glance, this may seem like a fair assumption: if vendors don’t offer 3D views of their data center room and racks, does that mean their software is old or behind the times? In that…
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Network Documentation vs. Network Management Systems
By Fred Koh - December 9, 2018A few weeks back, I wrote about automated network documentation as a solution for sharing and collaborating vital network information between colleagues. In that blog, I mentioned that I’ve run into many organizations sharing spreadsheets and Visio diagrams using shared folders or SharePoint. For these organizations, the need for an automated network mapping solution such…
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OSP Software: 3 Steps to Find the Right Solution
By Fred Koh - December 4, 2018Tasked with finding OSP software? If you need to find an outside plant (OSP) tool to help document and manage your fiber plant, you may be wondering how you can get the project started and find the right OSP solution for your team’s unique needs? First off, find out what your budget is (the cost…
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Automated Network Documentation for Sharing & Collaboration
By Fred Koh - November 12, 2018These days, Visio and spreadsheets shared via a shared folder or via SharePoint seems to be what many of the people with whom I speak are using to document the network. Are you using Visio and/or spreadsheets to document the network? If so, how is this working out for your company? Being able to access…
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Graphical Networks at Orlando’s BICSI Winter 2019 Conference
By Fred Koh - October 29, 2018Graphical Networks has announced it will showcase netTerrain 8.0, its flagship IT documentation software, at BICSI Winter Conference in January of 2019. Attendees will be able to get a demo of netTerrain and see how they can manage the entire plant, inside and out, with end-to-end connectivity views, GIS-enabled diagrams, and in three flavors: DCIM, network…
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October is National Cyber Security Month: Why Network Diagrams Matter
By Fred Koh - October 15, 2018Ah, October. Falling leaves, changing colors, a chill in the air (all dependant upon where you live, of course), and of course, the ubiquitous pumpkin spice in everything. Less well known, but not any less important, is that October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) dates back to 2004, an…
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Easy Cable Management Using the New Cable Mapper
By Jan Durnhofer - October 2, 2018Cable management can be a daunting task, especially if you need to create many cables between different ports in your inventory. You can use shortcuts and other methods to create single cables between different ports. You can also create multiple cables between sequences of ports using shortcuts, however, this only works when there is some…
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Buh-bye DCIM Magic Quadrant!
By Jan Durnhofer - October 1, 2018This is old news already, but you may have read that the Gartner DCIM magic quadrant is “retired”. It’s easy to bash Gartner for this on as it was such a mediocre effort one wouldn’t know where to begin. Let me try with the obvious one: they put CA on the “best quadrant” — in…
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Tips for Pretty Network Diagrams: Links that Sing
By Jan Durnhofer -In this final blog for our ‘Pretty Network Diagram’ series, we’ll focus on links. In netTerrain, links are not just black lines connecting two nodes: they can have styles, colors, thicknesses, can include bend points, and can also be arranged nicely when you have several links connecting the same endpoints. Link styles Links can include…
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Tips for Pretty Network Diagrams: Resizing and Decorating
By Jan Durnhofer -In our previous blog on ‘pretty network diagrams’, we discussed alignment and arrangement of objects on your diagrams. Here, we will expand the concept a little further so you can take advantage of some cool features in netTerrain to make your IT documentation sing. Resizing objects in bulk The last thing you want to end…
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