$60 Mil Question: Are Your Data Center Devices Properly Decommissioned?
By Fred Koh - November 13, 2020Morgan Stanley recently agreed to pay a whopping fine…to the tune of $60 million dollars. The crime? They did not properly decommission data centers connected to one of its business arms. They hired contractors, failed to keep tabs on customer data stored in obsolete devices, and, though no data breaches were found, $60 million later,…
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Considering DCIM? You May Want to Start Small
By Fred Koh - November 10, 2020As you may already know, Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software is becoming more and more critical to the modern data center. With it, you can plan and manage for capacity, power, manage cabling, and get a single-source-of-truth of your entire IT infrastructure. You can share insights across teams and provide different views to different…
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What is Data Center Network Documentation?
By Fred Koh - November 2, 2020We often discuss network documentation in this blog — it is, afterall, what our flagship product netTerrain, does (and well)! netTerrain, in a nutshell, is a complete network and data center documentation solution: it encompasses network diagrams/mapping, data center infrastructure management (DCIM), and outside/fiber plant…in one solution. In this article, we’ll discuss what data center…
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How Network Diagrams & Documentation Overhaul Your Workflow
By Fred Koh - October 28, 2020Over the years on this blog, we’ve often discussed the merits of network diagrams and documentation. We say it again and again, and use different examples to prove it: good network documentation and automated network diagrams save you time, stress, and money. Yeah, yeah…saving money, stress, and time all sounds great on paper, but what…
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No Network Diagrams? You’re Starring in a Psychological Thriller Movie
By Fred Koh - October 26, 2020Do you manage an IT network? You might just be trapped in a psychological thriller movie…. and you’re the star! What am I talking about? Ever watched “Memento”? In that movie, the star suffers from short-term memory loss. He’s on a mission, though, so he has to rely on makeshift reminders such as polaroid photos…
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DCIM Software: Marketing Fluff You Should Avoid
By Fred Koh - October 23, 2020Since Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software first hit the market over a decade ago, there has been a lot of hype and discussion around it. At first, the promise was that DCIM software was going to boil the ocean. When that didn’t happen, a slew of negative press followed suggesting that the software was…
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Where DCIM Wins, Where DCIM Fails
By Fred Koh - October 19, 2020Since it started really generating buzz about a decade ago, DCIM has developed two distinct reputations: the first is that DCIM is poised to completely revolutionize your data center and the way in which you work. The second reputation DCIM has? It’s an expensive piece of shelfware. Clearly, there’s a Grand Canyon-sized gap between the…
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Good DCIM Software is Constantly Evolving
By Fred Koh - October 16, 2020Our company, Graphical Networks, has been in the data center sphere for many years and there’s one constant: technology, and how we manage it, is constantly evolving. To keep up, IT and network engineers need to be able to get information, and visualize, the different environments they manage. Good DCIM software needs to evolve alongside…
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Need Outside Plant Software? 3 Hacks You Should Avoid
By Fred Koh - October 14, 2020Do you manage a large network of outside plant IT infrastructure? Have an effective way to keep track of what you’ve got, where it is, and what’s connected to what? Can you use it when something happens, and someone needs to go out into the field? How can you plan your fiber infrastructure capacity to…
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IT Asset Management and DCIM
By Fred Koh - October 13, 2020In my previous article, If Your Data Center Swings Between Availability & Efficiency, You May Need DCIM, I briefly discussed IT Asset Management (ITAM). I’d like to explore this feature in a DCIM solution a bit more, as this is one of the most important features in a Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM). What is…
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Data Center Swinging Between Availability & Efficiency? You May Need DCIM
By Fred Koh - October 7, 2020If traditional cars need gas and oil, millennials need avocado and toast, and Teslas need electricity and a battery, it follows that data centers need the following to run: availability and efficiency. The problem? Have too much availability and efficiency is going to suffer and visa versa. The modern data center swings on something a…
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How Does Network Discovery Help Prevent Cyberattacks?
By Fred Koh - September 30, 2020Over the years, we’ve written extensively about zombie servers, cables that aren’t fully decommissioned, and much more. If we had to sum all that up into just one sentence, it would probably be something like this: IT documentation helps you find resources that are drawing power but not performing any functions. Just as technology and…
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