Network Rack Diagrams 101
By Fred Koh - September 14, 2020Over the years, I’ve talked with lots of IT folks who need software for network mapping and network documentation such as netTerrain. These discussions tend to focus on items such as, “can this software go out and discover my network? Can it provide monitoring, like polling services to see if a device is up or…
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Is DCIM’s ‘Single Pane of Glass’ a Myth?
By Fred Koh - September 11, 2020In IT management, there’s a lot of chatter about the idea of the ‘single pane of glass’. The concept of the single pane of glass is this: instead of IT staff being left to sort through various tools and incompatible systems across departments, an organization’s entire IT staff can trust just one platform to deliver…
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DCIM Cable Management Software: 3 Helpful Reports
By Fred Koh -If you were to make a list of mission-critical assets in a data center, cables would near the top. They provide connectivity that lays down the tracks on which the data center runs. From copper to fiber and everything in between, data centers contain a wide range of cabling. Regardless of whether the cables are…
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Haunted IT Network? When You Can’t Call Ghostbusters
By Fred Koh - September 10, 2020Does your network have servers left running, performing no functions, and just wasting space and power? You may have a zombie server problem. What about network diagrams that are so old and out-of-date they’re cobwebbed over? That’s a lot of dust. Is the network compliant and secure? If not, you’ve got a lot of “Do…
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Data Center Capacity Headaches? How DCIM Helps
By Fred Koh - August 27, 2020Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software (such as netTerrain DCIM) makes capacity planning easy: DCIM gives you the insights necessary for key infrastructure and financial decisions. WIth DCIM software, you can plan out new data center builds, expansions, consolidations, and consider different scenarios — all while armed with insights about current capacity and usage. netTerrain…
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Network Diagrams Improve Teamwork, Reduce Redundancies
By Fred Koh - August 26, 2020It’s a fact: inefficiencies, collaboration, and time-dependent tasks go hand-in-hand. Different teams and different engineers could end up working on the same issue, unaware the other side is doing the same…and wasting valuable time that could be better spent. Mean-time-to-repair (MTTR) is arrived at by how long it takes to identify a problem and then…
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IT Documentation Best Practices
By Fred Koh - August 11, 2020IT documentation (which is our business’s bread and butter) greatly benefits organizations of all sizes and across all industries. With solid IT documentation, you can: reduce the amount of time to find information decrease troubleshooting time manage capacity wrangle in the assets and inventory of your IT infrastructure Proper and up-to-date documentation gives your IT…
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Need Software for Network Diagrams and Network Mapping?
By Fred Koh - July 14, 2020Recently, I wrote an article (about the three top reasons to replace Visio for network diagrams) which dives into the importance of having an automated solution for network mapping (you can read it by clicking here). So, how do network mapping and network diagrams correlate with each other? According to Wikipedia’s entry on network diagram…
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DCIM Software with Cable Management: Do You Need It?
By Fred Koh - July 13, 2020Do you need Data Center Infrastructure Management software (DCIM)? If so, what are your requirements when looking for a DCIM software? If you’re going through your checklist of features and looking at many DCIM software vendors (you can read more about putting your list of DCIM requirements together by clicking here) —- don’t forget to…
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How to Track Changes with IT Documentation Software: Change Management
By Fred Koh - July 12, 2020So, you’ve stepped up to the IT visualization plate and started to use netTerrain — either on a trial basis or as one of our customers…and now, you’d like to avoid your time investment becoming shelfware. Take note: one of the aspects that leads software straight into the abyss of ‘shelfware’ is a lack of…
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netTerrain Logical vs. netTerrain DCIM
By Fred Koh - June 22, 2020As the executive director of sales at Graphical Networks, I’m often asked about the various differences across our product offerings. This article will highlight the key differences between our network mapping and diagram software (netTerrain Logical) and our data center infrastructure management software (netTerrain DCIM). Graphical Networks has just one IT Visualization platform: netTerrain. What…
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How to Win Friends & Influence Bosses (Using Network Diagrams)
By Fred Koh - June 15, 2020Finally…you’re about to head home. Then…the calls start. Then..the emails. The network is slow…or even worse, it’s down. Troubleshooting takes up so much time compared to actually fixing the underlying network issue. How can managers and IT directors help their staff reduce the time it takes to find and fix an issue? Network diagrams save…
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