ICT Infrstructure Management | Modules

Inventory Management is a key component in the full lifecycle management of IT assets. It offers a complete toolset for managing a wide spectrum of IT resources, including equipment, software and applications, all according to preset business rules (see CMDB platform rules and workflows). This module displays customers’ inventories in schematic and spatial views, so they can quickly locate resources on maps and floor plans; it also provides a containership perspective to evaluate the physical placement of resources.

• Allows the creation and management of IT assets, such as equipment, software and applications
• Assigns locations and positions of resources on views or maps
• Generates reports such as bill of materials, lists of equipment, lists of software, etc.

The Cost & Contract Management provides complete control over cost and software compliancy. Users can budget while planning new infrastructures, establish any resource's total cost of ownership. It offers tools to manage leases, software licenses, warranties, and maintenance contracts. It tracks the status, conditions, and other vital contractual information regarding IT assets and sends alerts when important contract dates are coming up.

• Track hardware and software costs, link to cost centers and generate charge-back reports
• Track asset compliancy based on contracts
• Forecast contract upgrades or downgrades

The Financial Management module enables users to log and document financial information. With the ability to associate any type of cost with Infrastructure, including physical resources, application and software, users can budget while planning design scenarios, establish resources' total cost of ownership, and associate charges to established cost centers.

• Track hardware and software costs, link to cost centers and generate charge-back reports

The Planning and Auditing module enables the staging of large scale projects in a temporary work environment. These projects may be data import activities that could affect the integrity of the CMDB, or large scale projects that require impact analysis. This module allows the creation of various scenarios and imports of new data for thorough evaluation and impact assessment of changes. Such scenarios are built using copies of real CI's from the CMDB then used by functions from the other modules within this environment without affecting data from the CMDB.

• Design alternate scenarios built on available inventory
• Analyze performance associated to each scenarios
• Automatically generate workforce plans and bill of materials

The Network Design supports the design network layer 3 through engineering rules. Powered by the N(i)² CMDB, this module supplies a single database of record for all network asset information, including telecommunications equipment, circuits, and IP addresses, as well as facilitates tracking of all physical resources. The Network Design tracks any logical network resource and the services they support.

• Model the IP Network (layer 3) based on IP subnets, DHCP ranges and IP addresses reconciled from imported Excel sheets or designed with the module functions
• Generate IP Addresses
• Associate networks to site, and hosts to networks
• Generate schematic reports describing WAN and LAN connectivity
• Generate lists of networks, sites served by a network, etc.

The Connectivity Design module includes features to support the design and management of both network layers 1 and 2. It allows IT organizations to easily model nodes, ports, paths, circuits, network facilities, as well as channels and connections. The Connectivity Design features also provide for in-depth analysis of the network, such as the assessment of how resources connected to the network can be affected by problems and changes.

• Defines conductors in a cable, as well as nodes and their associations
• Deploys network facilities and define channels within network facilities
• Queries the connectivity and report on specific aspects, such as circuits, nodes at a site, connections, etc.
• Analyzes network linked items and evaluate impact of elements on other items

The Infrastructure Design module provides powerful tools to accurately and efficiently design new network supporting infrastructures, offering the capability to design optimal boundary of serving areas. In addition, it includes advanced impact analysis tools to optimize each design according to technology and financial parameters. The Infrastructure Design allows to design and analyze the performance of each scenario, enabling users to deliver optimal service quality to a maximum number of clients.

• Sets the elements of the supporting structure (sites)
• Deploys cables between sites
• Generates reports of sites served by a primary site, about coverage analysis, etc