Working with Cables & Strands in Outside Plant Software
By Jan Durnhofer - September 20, 2018Up until now, links in netTerrain have been quite simplistic in terms of how they are modeled: just choose a look and feel for the link, assign some properties and, if needed, apply some rules (visual overrides) to some of those properties. This works well for virtually all network mapping and most Data Center Infrastructure…
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How to Calculate Data Center PUE
By Fred Koh - September 19, 2018PUE, which stands for Power Usage Effectiveness, is a ratio used to measure data center energy consumption. This ratio was first released in 2007 via The Green Grid, which is a nonprofit consortium of data center end-users, tech professionals, utility providers, and policy makers dedicated to ‘greening’ modern data centers. Data Center PUE: What’s the…
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How DCIM Software Impacts Data Centers
By Jason Sherman - September 14, 2018True DCIM (aka data center infrastructure management software) offers far more than sensor data and pretty 3D pictures. What is DCIM, anyways? It’s certainly not just any software that you can use in a data center. In a nutshell: while many data centers use spreadsheets to track assets, DCIM gives data center managers a way…
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Maximize Fiber Networks with Outside Plant Software
By Jason Sherman - September 13, 2018IT infrastructure and networks today are growing at an incredibly fast pace. Daily modern life is only becoming more dependant upon technology, not less: as a result, the need for networks is skyrocketing. What does this mean on the network level — and for those in the trenches of fiber and telecom management every single…
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How to Create a Network Diagram
By Hannah Ash - September 11, 2018Network diagrams are a visual tool that give network administrators a window into the network: they are used to visualize objects/nodes, connections, dependencies, critical paths, tasks, and more. Because networks are complex, there are different types of network diagrams to deliver various types of information. Step 1: Understand the Types of Network Diagrams basic network…
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DCIM PUE and alternative facts
By Jan Durnhofer - September 10, 2018Before we deconstruct the loaded title of this blog — ‘DCIM PUE and alternative facts’ — let’s first remove any mutual mystification around these two acronyms: PUE and DCIM. Or at least, let’s try… PUE stands for ‘Power Usage Effectiveness’. It measures the total amount of energy used by a data center to the total…
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What is a Logical Network Diagram?
By Hannah Ash - September 5, 2018Network diagrams that visualize your topology, both logical and physical, are key to effective network and IT infrastructure management. With up-to-date diagrams, network admins can troubleshoot (and minimize downtime), plan for capacity, avoid IT clutter, maintain software, and keep the network secure and compliant. There are two main types of network diagrams: physical and logical….
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The netTerrain Product Selection Pocket Guide
By Fred Koh - August 31, 2018Need to document the network — and your outside plant, as well? Or maybe you need to manage rack capacity and weight? Not sure which netTerrain product you need? Let’s figure it out! netTerrain is designed to be user-friendly, and it shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which product you need: this quick…
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Physical Network Diagrams Explained
By Hannah Ash - August 30, 2018When it comes to maintaining and managing an IT infrastructure, network diagrams are critical to compliance, security, troubleshooting, and minimizing downtime. Network diagrams, or maps, are visuals that use symbols/icons/shapes to depict the different objects and connections in a network. Depending upon what you need to document, you may will probably have different types of…
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Change Management Crucial in DCIM & Network Mapping Success
By Fred Koh - August 29, 2018Have you been using spreadsheets and Visio diagrams to document your data center and networks? Are you considering upgrading to DCIM or an automated network diagramming solution? I’ve consulted on numerous project approvals and over the years, I’ve found that two key questions pop up time and time again: How, exactly, will you maintain the…
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Stop Managing Your Outside Plant (OSP) In the Dark
By Jason Sherman - August 28, 2018Lately, I’ve been working on a great deal of OSP projects. While the scope between these different outside plant projects can vary a bit: some may be limited splicing and some may be heavy on the splices. One common thread, however, is how hard it is to track all of this information. While inside plant…
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Network Visibility for IoT Devices
By Fred Koh - August 27, 2018By now, we’ve all heard about the Internet of Things (IoT) via various news articles, social media posts, and maybe even stock analysts. How you define IoT depends upon what you’re doing: for some, it’s self-driving vehicles, sensor networks for monitoring, ‘smart cities’, or walking into an Amazon grocery store and picking up lunch without…
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