When Heraclitus wrote in the 6th Century that the only constant is change, he had no way of knowing just how apt his words would prove for contemporary enterprises.
Consider, for instance, the effect that the Great Resignation has had on enterprises. In 2021 alone, almost 4 million workers quit their jobs per month – the highest yearly average record of all time for employee turnover. Meanwhile, the number of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the United States alone totaled more than $2.6 trillion – again, the largest year for M&A activity on record.
Without question, these global events have significantly impacted enterprise IT teams. Companies that have undergone mergers, hired new IT staff, or otherwise made adjustments that impact the enterprise network face a common challenge: understanding what's on the network, why it's there, whether it's needed, and what can be changed to drive savings.
Several such companies have used the dynamic inventory capability of Network Query Engine (NQE) to answer those questions.
Traditionally, enterprise IT teams have relied upon spreadsheets to track information about the different hardware and software on the network. However, that manual system has always been problematic because it depends upon people updating those spreadsheets with accurate information.
But as enterprise IT teams have undergone massive upheaval since the beginning of the pandemic, those manual processes have proven completely ineffective – especially for companies that have undergone mergers or had significant turnover in IT staff.
NQE's dynamic inventory overcomes those challenges by enabling IT teams to immediately see everything that's on the network from a single dashboard. NQE's dynamic inventory enables users to see granular details (e.g., configurations, state, interfaces, counters, power supply serial number, module firmware rev, etc.) for the network.
For instance, users can quickly identify devices on the network that need software updates. Likewise, if you're replacing certain pieces of network equipment, dynamic inventory enables you to find that equipment in a matter of seconds. Dynamic inventory also enables IT teams to better secure the network by quickly identifying end-of-life devices and ensuring that code is updated and less vulnerable to attacks. Network planners can also quickly produce a report of network inventory with serial numbers and use it for support contract negotiations.
Forward Networks has worked with several companies that have used dynamic inventory in NQE with great success. In one case, two companies that merged used it to visualize the combined network and make the transition faster and smoother than it would have been otherwise.
We recently published a blog that describes how one company used rapid insights on NQE to achieve $6 million in savings. Let us show you how to use NQE for dynamic inventory with a free demo today.