Computer Network Diagrams 101
By Fred Koh - September 28, 2021Sick of troubleshooting headaches and trying to fix issues when you just don’t have the information you need? Computer network diagrams can be a big help: they keep mission critical business operations up and running. When something goes wrong in the network, computer network diagrams are the key to solving the problem and minimizing downtime….
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Finding the Right Network Diagram Software: Features vs. Usability
By Fred Koh - September 24, 2021In the last two blogs in this series on finding the right network diagram software, we discussed identifying your pain and basic vendor research. After you’ve identified your pain and narrowed your vendor search down, what’s next? You’ve got to look at how the features that a vendor offers will solve your pain and evaluate…
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Network Documentation Explained
By Fred Koh - September 22, 2021Network documentation: what is it? Who uses network documentation? Do you need it? Network documentation isn’t exactly a topic that’s going to trend on any social media platform soon (unless, of course, there’s a security breach, ahem), but still: it’s an important consideration for most businesses that rely on the network to help a business…
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Finding the Right Network Diagram Software: What’s Your Pain?
By Fred Koh - September 14, 2021This blog series on finding the right network diagram software will explore some of the important considerations and research to undertake to ensure you find a solution you, your team, and your company is happy with not just today, or next week, but for the long haul. In this, the first blog in this series,…
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Need Layer 2 Network Diagrams?
By Fred Koh - September 1, 2021I just wrote an article that gives you a checklist to run down before you purchase automated network mapping software (you can read it here). One of the items mentioned in this checklist is the need for Layer 2(L2) discovery. By Layer 2 discovery, I mean: how are network devices connected to each other? A…
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Outdated Hardware/Software Headaches? Network Diagrams/DCIM Can Help
By Fred Koh - July 9, 2021In 2016, Dimension Data released their then-annual Network Barometer Report which showed that 42% of network devices were either outdated or aging. While this statistic is a few years old, I doubt the numbers have radically changed since then. It’s all too easy for software and hardware to become outdated…but the price you pay for…
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Secure your OSP, DCIM & Network Documentation with Granular Permissions
By Jan Durnhofer - June 28, 2021Security is top of mind within IT departments…especially lately. We’ve seen many headlines about breaches happening across corporate America and we just heard about the Solarwinds breach — one of the most sophisticated hacks in the history of IT hacks. Despite IT security making the headlines again and again, one often overlooked aspect of security…
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Network Documentation: Do You Really Need the Bells & Whistles?
By Fred Koh - June 24, 2021One of my employees recently forwarded me a Reddit comment thread about network documentation. The original poster asked: what’s good for documentation software? A Redditor name-dropped a big name company in network documentation software and said “don’t buy it.” They went on to describe having been promised many great things to come out of the…
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Telehealth: What’s the Toll on Healthcare IT Networks?
By Fred Koh - June 10, 2021The past year or so of the pandemic have been a dizzying blur: it has meant great hardship and change for many of us. Now that the pandemic is finally, and thankfully, lessening, everyone’s starting to take stock of the permanent changes that have come out of this time. One major change is, inarguably, telehealth….
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Buying Network Documentation Software? Why a Demo is NOT Enough
By Fred Koh - June 3, 2021Do you need network documentation? Maybe you’ve done your homework and found software vendors that offer network documentation? Maybe you’ve contacted their Sales Dept. to schedule a demo. Almost at the finish line, right? Well…not quite. Sometimes, demos are not enough. Hey, you wouldn’t buy a car without giving it a test drive first, right?…
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Use Network Diagram Software? Integrating Network Tools Should Be Easy
By Fred Koh - May 26, 2021Network diagrams, as we’ve often discussed in this blog, are just visual depictions of the network. They can be as simple (think: post-it notes) or as detailed as you need (think: automatically generated logical diagrams that show the network in real-time). They map out what you have in the network, where it all is, and…
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So, What is an Automated Network Diagram, Anyways?
By Fred Koh - May 18, 2021A network diagram can be anything that visually depicts the network. A basic diagram could show a router or switch, and its connections to other networking equipment. Diagrams can be as simple or complex as you need them to be, and they come in many different shapes, sizes, and flavors. Some network diagrams may be…
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