Need to document the network — and your outside plant, as well? Or maybe you need to manage rack capacity and weight? Not sure which netTerrain product you need? Let’s figure it out!

netTerrain is designed to be user-friendly, and it shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which product you need: this quick guide will walk you through the different options we offer.

What is the netTerrain Platform?

netTerrain is the platform that powers all of our products. We offer two main solutions which both run on the netTerrain platform: DCIM and Logical. Once you’ve selected DCIM or Logical, you have the option to add on one or both of our two modules: OSP or environmental monitoring.

What’s Included in all netTerrain Products?

Similar to purchasing a car with different feature options, the netTerrain platform is first, and foremost, what you are buying. Regardless of whether you need the Logical or DCIM model, the netTerrain platform includes the following for everyone:

The power to document and stay on top of your IT infrastructure, in real-time.

Any level of detail you need: map the network from the macro-level (building view) down to the port level — and everything in between, including all connections and cabling.

Easy discovery: netTerrain’s Integration Toolkit (ITK) is included and makes network discovery and integrations to any 3rd Party data or homegrown database simple. For more information on the integration toolkit (ITK), click here.

Dashboard reporting, access to the entire netTerrain catalog, the device modeler, and much more.

How is DCIM Different from Logical?

netTerrain Logical is everything above. netTerrain DCIM is everything above and comes with a specific set of data center infrastructure management functions we call ‘DCIM Racks’.

With DCIM Racks, you can snap equipment into the rack, consume the space, track the rack’s space capacity, power (nameplate), and weight availability. So, when you’re in a top level data center view, you can view the rack’s space, power, and weight availability with color coded racks. Data center capacity dashboard reports are included with netTerrain DCIM.

In a nutshell: with netTerrain DCIM, you get all of the features of netTerrain Logical as well as DCIM Racks and data center capacity reports.

Can I Start with Logical and Upgrade to DCIM?

Yes! Some customers know they need DCIM Racks and choose netTerrain DCIM; some choose to start off with netTerrain Logical and upgrade to netTerrain DCIM. As netTerrain is one platform, the upgrade process is simple. Purchasing the DCIM upgrade key will unlock the DCIM features in your existing netTerrain instance.

What if I Need Outside Plant and/or Environmental Monitoring?

netTerrain offers two add-on modules that you can add on to either netTerrain DCIM and netTerrain Logical:

netTerrain Outside Plant (OSP). With the netTerrain OSP module, you will have access to our web-based, GIS Maps, based on Openstreetmap.org, to place your OSP objects (manholes, handholes, fiber enclosures, fiber patch panels, conduits). For more information about this module, please visit our OSP webpage.

With the netTerrain OSP module, you will have access to our web-based, GIS Maps, based on Openstreetmap.org, to place your OSP objects (manholes, handholes, fiber enclosures, fiber patch panels, conduits). For more information about this module, please visit our OSP webpage. netTerrain Environmental Monitoring Module (EM). If you need real-time monitoring of your equipment’s temperature, creating power policies, trend analysis, finding underutilized servers, oversubscribing rack’s power with real-time monitoring, this is the module you will need. For more information about this module, please visit our EM webpage.

How is netTerrain Priced?

Both netTerrain Logical and netTerrain DCIM are offered as an on-premise license, with either a yearly license or perpetual license — with unlimited users.

netTerrain is simply priced by the number of objects. An ‘object’ is any combination of nodes and devices:

Nodes are items such as floors, rooms, and buildings.

Devices are vendor specific equipment (racks, server, router, switch, patch panel, PDU). We don’t count the cards and ports associated with the device. For example:a Cisco router that has 6 cards and 1,000 ports, is still considered one device.

For more information on netTerrain pricing, click here.

Next Steps

Now that you’ve got the lay of the land, you can probably figure out which netTerrain product you need. If you need Logical and DCIM functions, you need netTerrain DCIM, as it includes both. If you don’t need DCIM functions, then you need netTerrain Logical.

Once you’ve determined if you need DCIM or Logical, you can identify if you need to add on the Outside Plant or Environmental Monitoring modules.

Finally: do you need an on-premise solution or a cloud solution?