Why You May Not Need DCIM
By Jason Sherman - August 14, 2018So, you think maybe it’s time for DCIM. Costs are getting out of control, troubleshooting problems abound, capacity planning is not going well, and you have zombie servers attacking your data center. DCIM can be a sizeable investment — and before you sign on the dotted line, it’s crucial to ensure that 1. you find…
Learn More
Where Has All The Good Data Gone?
By Jason Sherman - August 13, 2018So…you’re sick of troubleshooting that takes forever, fed up with buying IT stuff just to realize 6 months later you didn’t really need it or already had it, and you’re completely exasperated by those expenditures that keep going up, up, and away? You’ve finally decided that you want – no, scratch that – need to…
Learn More
Network Documentation: Is It Really a Priority?
By Fred Koh - August 10, 2018Let’s face it: we all say “network documentation is important”… but for some reason it is never truly considered urgent or a higher priority. I hear it all the time. Yet, when the ‘you know what’ hits the fan, we all go desperately scrambling for those uninspired network documents…only to find them outdated and basically…
Learn More
Untangle Your Cable Management Mess
By Fred Koh -Hey, I know what would be really fun to try at work today: let’s all spend hours trying to find a needle in a haystack! When you can’t see where your cabling is, and what exactly you have, you end up wasting countless hours trying to find cables you didn’t even know you have (or…
Learn More
Lower Data Center Power Costs & Control Unnecessary Spending
By Fred Koh - August 9, 2018The issue of zombie servers remains a major hurdle for data centers today. According to a Stanford University study, a staggering 1 in 3 servers is – for all intents and purposes – a zombie: it’s drawing power but not performing any meaningful functions. Why do I care about this costs problem haunting modern data…
Learn More
How to Centralize Your IT Infrastructure Views
By Fred Koh - August 8, 2018Here’s a common scenario you may find yourself in or are currently in: you’ve just started working for a company with a sizeable network….and the main person (who has all the knowledge) just left the company for good. The big ticket questions are: “What do we have on our network? Are there routers that are…
Learn More
Cloud vs. On-Premise Software for Managing the Network
By Fred Koh -2018 is the year of the Cloud (okay, maybe someone said that about 2017, and maybe they’ll say that about 2019, too). Right now, there is a lot of discussion around what’s better in software today: a Cloud or on-premise solution? There’s no doubt that the Cloud is trending upward. A 2017 tech forecast survey…
Learn More
APIs for Network Mapping: Get More Accomplished
By Jason Sherman - August 7, 2018On Fridays, I kick back for a few, take a break from the daily grind of network mapping and diagrams… and hit up Blogpost Friday over on Reddit. After enough wasted time – I mean ‘invested’ time – I found a great article on automation and APIs. This blog takes a hard look at the…
Learn More
Movies that Desperately Needed Network Diagrams
By Jason Sherman - August 6, 2018Sometimes, we all want to see the kind of work we do up on the big silver screen. Although the life of a network engineer isn’t as glamorous as say, the life of an international spy….we still have those dramatic moments at work from time to time (hey: I’m sure there were some Hollywood-worthy lines…
Learn More
To Reduce Cybersecurity Risks, You Need to Know What’s In The Network
By Jason Sherman - August 2, 2018Exciting developments at foot in the world of cyber security: the National Institute of Standards and Technology has developed the Cybersecurity Framework, which is a voluntary framework with standards, guidelines, and practices for managing (and mitigating) cybersecurity risks. If you haven’t heard about it, here’s the Cliff Notes version: The Cybersecurity Framework began back in…
Learn More
How to Translate netTerrain to Klingon – DCIM, Outside Plant, Network Mapping
By Jan Durnhofer - July 20, 2018Every once in a while, we all need to translate something into Klingon. With netTerrain, you can do this. In this blog (and video – click here to watch it), you’ll learn how to localize strings in netTerrain: in other words, how you can translate netTerrain DCIM, Logical (networking mapping), and OSP (outside plant software)…
Learn More
A Crash Course in DCIM Software
By Hannah Ash - July 16, 2018DCIM: what is it, where did it come from, and what can you do with it? In this ‘crash course in DCIM’, we’ll look at the history of DCIM, what managers used before the software, if DCIM is delivering on its promises, and what, exactly, you can do with it. In the Beginning: Early Data…
Learn More