Peace on Earth, Network Diagrams, & Network Documentation
By Fred Koh - December 20, 2019‘Tis the season…for snowmen, ugly holiday sweater parties, eggnog, and…network headaches. Aside from genuinely wishing everyone this season “happy holidays” — Happy Holidays to you, and yours! — the team at my company also wants to wish everyone this season the following: ‘Happy Documenting’. Why? Because good IT documentation leads to a happier holiday season:…
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netTerrain Environmental Monitoring: Stop Data Center Waste
By Fred Koh - December 16, 2019In my most recent article, I mentioned how you can use netTerrain Environmental Monitoring (EM), which is now a standard feature included with netTerrain DCIM software in 2020 (it was previously priced as a separate module), to help manage rack density (from a capacity planning perspective). To learn more about how netTerrain’s Environmental Monitoring feature…
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Stop Racking Up Costs: How to Increase Rack Density
By Fred Koh - December 13, 2019In my last article in this series on rack management using DCIM (data center infrastructure management), we talked about managing rack capacity, based on space, nameplate power, and weight availability — and how software such as netTerrain can help with the process of capacity. To review that article, click here. In this article, let’s discuss…
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Go Home Early: How Network Diagrams Help You Work
By Fred Koh - December 11, 2019Ah, the work day is almost over (finally) and time to go home and let the dog out and maybe even cook dinner when, all of a sudden, the calls start…..cue the horror movie music: your network is having issues. No! There goes your quiet afternoon and evening…oof. What is the first thing you try…
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Stop Racking Up Headaches: How DCIM Helps Manage Racks
By Fred Koh - December 9, 2019DCIM…what does Data Center Infrastructure Management software mean to you and your organization? If you ask 100 people what DCIM means, you will get 100 different responses (trust me, I’ve talked to hundreds of folks about DCIM over the years). Truthfully, ‘DCIM’ can be defined as anything, from managing the temperature of data center devices,…
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5 Awesome Things You Can Do with Automated Network Mapping Software
By Jason Sherman - December 5, 2019It’s 2019, almost 2020, and what a time to be alive: we are on the cusp of robotic take over! Our robot overlords are coming but fear not. Before robots really take over we can at least use them to make our lives a little more simple. Put some automation in your life: it can…
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How Collaborative Network Diagrams Facilitate Teamwork
By Jason Sherman - December 2, 2019Who in the world wants to work as part of a collaboration? Boo! It’s all about me and that’s all there is to it! Well, ok now: that’s how I like to work (no wonder no one likes me in the office). OK…so maybe you prefer to be one of those radical people who want…
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5 Warning Signs You Need Outside Plant Software (OSP)
By Jason Sherman - November 29, 2019Ok, here we go with the lists again…(if you hate our lists, blame David Letterman and not me). At Graphical Networks, we make netTerrain OSP (outside plant software). Therefore, we get our fair share of folks who think they may need OSP/fiber plant software…but aren’t confident (we also get our fair share of folks who…
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Fiber & Outside Plant Software 101: What Is It & How Does It Work?
By Jason Sherman - November 22, 2019What exactly is fiber plant or outside plant software? As makers of the netTerrain IT visualization suite, which includes DCIM (data center infrastructure management), Logical (network diagrams and mapping), and OSP (outside plant software), we get our fair share of website visitors who want to know what outside (aka fiber plant) software is. In this…
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SNMP discovery vs. Network connectors – which is better?
By Jan Durnhofer - November 18, 2019As netTerrain (for DCIM, Network Mapping, OSP software) offers both options, I get asked this question often: “what should I use? netTerrain’s native SNMP discovery or some connector to an existing system?” And the answer, as you may expect, is “…it depends.” SNMP discovery: “the magic button” netTerrain’s SNMP discovery is a nice feature. You…
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GDPR Compliance? How netTerrain Helps
By Jan Durnhofer - November 15, 2019Recently, a customer asked us about the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the context of his netTerrain documentation. Is netTerrain compliant, and can netTerrain help European Union (EU) organizations get/stay compliant? GDPR and Compliance GDPR is a new regulation that, among other things, expects an organization to meet certain standards for your network…
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DCIM software selection: the don’t’s and don’t’s
By Jan Durnhofer - November 12, 2019I must say that we are quite proud of our customers as they really are a smart bunch. Now, I’m not just saying this just because they happened to choose netTerrain for their Data Center Infrastructure monitoring. That is far too easy for me to say being a (biased)vendor. I truly think our customers are…
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