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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Do I really need Outside Plant (OSP) software?
By Jan Durnhofer - November 8, 2019Our OSP software module, netTerrain OSP, seems to pop-up in discussions with our current netTerrain users quite a bit lately, maybe because it is still relatively new (it is only 4 or 5 years old versus netTerrain’s network and DCIM features, which have been around for over a decade now). Because we’ve been fielding quite…
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netTerrain 8.2: Security, Search, Usability
By Jan Durnhofer - October 23, 2019Because we like to stay on the move here at Graphical Networks, we keep improving netTerrain. 8.2 is the third incarnation of the 8.x series (also called “China”, as you may have seen from the pretty guide covers featuring beautiful landscapes from the Asian country). This time around, our engineering team worked on 35 tickets:…
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Complaint of the Week: Moving catalog objects between netTerrain systems
By Jan Durnhofer - October 22, 2019Welcome back to our complaint of the week series (we had a bit of a hiatus…I guess no complaints, eh?). We received a new complaint that was interesting: “can I move a catalog object between two netTerrain systems?” By ‘catalog object’, we don’t mean the actual inventory or instances of assets you have in your…
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Don’t Make the Mistake of Buying DCIM If…
By Jason Sherman - October 21, 2019Ok…if you’re familiar with our company (we manufacture software: DCIM, OSP, and Logical network diagram/documentation software), you’re probably thinking “what???”. I admit: it’s a pretty strange title from a manufacturer of DCIM software. There is, I promise, method to my madness. Here it comes…the # 1 reason you should avoid buying DCIM software…. Let’s start…
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Why Not Just Use a Spreadsheet to Document the Network?
By Jason Sherman - October 18, 2019In 2019, it’s all too easy to start talking about network documentation, mapping, and diagramming as though it’s a new innovation that’s evolved specifically for getting, and acting upon, information about IT networks and infrastructures. Though automated network documentation, such as netTerrain Logical, is something that has evolved in the current age of information we…
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