DCIM Software DCOI Compliance for U.S. Federal Data Centers
By Fred Koh - March 12, 2019netTerrain is the DCIM software of choice for numerous U.S. federal data centers and networks (check out our federal government customers here). Our users rely on netTerrain DCIM for a solution that’s both easy-to-use and affordable when they need to get their networks, and documentation, into regulatory compliance. When it comes to the Data Center…
Learn More
DCIM Software: 6 Questions Before You Start Your Quest
By Fred Koh - February 28, 2019Several months back, I wrote an article about DCIM 101 — which aims to dispel some myths and cover the basics of what DCIM software is. As that article has been popular, I want to follow up and discuss the next steps in finding the right DCIM software for your organization. You may be wondering…
Learn More
DCIM: What’s the Cost? What are the Options?
By Fred Koh - February 1, 2019Exploring DCIM software and trying to figure out the pricing from your DCIM vendors shouldn’t take a rocket scientist.In this blog, we will discuss: the specific items you should be looking for in a quote, what is included, are there any modules needed to fulfill your needs, and any hidden costs associated with your shiny…
Learn More
The Importance of DCIM Software in Avoiding Network Disasters
By Jason Sherman - January 8, 2019Not every organization needs data center infrastructure management software (DCIM). As we’ve discussed over and over again on this blog (and will continue to do so), it’s not a solve-every-problem-and-boil-the-ocean kind of software. What DCIM software is, however, is a way to manage and control key aspects of data center life that, when not controlled,…
Learn More
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,…
Learn More
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….
Learn More
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…
Learn More
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…
Learn More
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…
Learn More
Music to Listen to While Documenting Your Network (Jan’s Take)
By Jan Durnhofer - September 27, 2018I think my colleague Jason wrote something about this in his own blog….well, I am no less of a music freak. I am, after all, the proud owner of close to 15,000 vinyl records (you read that right, no extra zeros there). 10,000 of those are catalogued on Discogs, by the way (check it out)….
Learn More
Enhanced Dual Rack Views for DCIM Software
By Jan Durnhofer - September 24, 2018We have seen in previous blogs how you can model all kinds of racks in netTerrain, including racks showing front and back views. What’s new about this blog is that we’ll focus on these “dual view” racks (showing front and back), specifically racks where mounting devices on one side reserves (or blocks) usage on the…
Learn More
A Flexible DCIM Hardware Hierarchy Model
By Jan Durnhofer -In previous blogs about flexibility in a DCIM software, we discussed the importance of being able to decide how to organize your Data Center documentation project hierarchies. In this blog, we will focus mainly on the hardware piece of this. netTerrain DCIM provides a very flexible, n-layered, object-oriented hardware model, where the users have complete…
Learn More