IT Network Infrastructure

[JeremyLee]

First off, let me preface this by saying I know nothing about GIS or ESRI products. I am a systems admin with an idea to help develop a tool that would help our whole department. We have a GIS analyst on our staff that would be able to help me with some of this, but I'd like to be able to get a good head start before involving him as he's very busy. I would like to overlay our IT network infrastructure on top of a map of our city. I would like to show the physical location of our equipment, be able to select the equipment to learn more about it, color code or use different icons for different types. What are some of the tools or products that would be useful for this type of product? I read on the ESRI website that this is something they're promoting now (https://www.esri.com/en-us/industries/technology/focus-areas/it-network-mapping-and-visualization#de...). This would be a great tool for me and my coworkers, but I need a good push in the right direction to get started! Is this similar to how utility networks are created? I am going to the UC in July, what would be some good topics for sessions I should sit in on? Thank you for the help!

[MelindaMorang]

The Network Analyst extension deals exclusively with transportation networks, so I'm going to move your question to somewhere that the right people are more likely to see it.  I hope you find the answers you're looking for.

[StaciaCanaday · Accepted solution]

Hi Jeremy - welcome to the Esri telecom community! We're glad you're here.

If I understand your ask correctly, you're looking for a way to draw a map of your IT network infrastructure on top of a base map showing your city. It's important to show the physical locations of the network assets and maybe you'd capture a few key pieces of information about each asset, which you could use in a pop-up or to color-code the different pieces of equipment on the map. Is that right?

If so, I think Esri's Communications Data Management offering might do the trick. Here is a link with more info and a short video for you to check out.
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/solutions/index.html?gallery=true&industry=Telecommunications&solution=j...

I'll be at UC this summer along with my super smart telecom teammates. We'd love to meet you in person!

[JeremyLee]

Hi Stacia! Thank you for the info! You described pretty much exactly what I would like to do. I will look into this Communications Data Management for sure, as it sounds like it might be exactly what I'm looking for. I would love to meet up with you and your team at the UC! Will there be a time and place for this?

[StaciaCanaday]

You're welcome! During UC, we'll be at or near the Telecommunications kiosk in the Infrastructure area of the Expo Hall on Tuesday-Thursday. I hope you'll come find us at least to say hi. 

Here's a flyer showing all the telecom-related activities at this year's User Conference.
https://community.esri.com/t5/user-conference-documents/telecom-sessions-and-activities-uc24-flier/t... 

[EdwardGause]

If all you want is to see your network on a map this is core foundation to just about every product of ESRI. I am going to make an assumption that your data is in a Geodatabase. ArcGIS Pro and the older ArcMap can pull this data in from the Geodatabase simply by connecting to the database and you dragging the map layers into the map, and choosing a Basemap from several options that ESRI has. Basemaps include Aerial Imagery (photo from overhead) or a terrain map or OpenStreets map. You can also do this in ArcGIS Online but you would need to get your datasource over to ArcGIS Online either posting the layer as a hosted feature on ArcGIS Online or you will need help getting the data to feed live to ArcGIS Online. We use ArcGIS Enterprise which is the local copy of ArcGIS Online, and we have added our Geodatabase tables\layers to the ArcGIS Severs used by the ArcGIS Enterprise. We haven't did this with editable data, but you can sync that ArcGIS Enterprise dataset with ArcGIS Online for you company, and then that opens up to do what you would want to do in ArcGIS Online. ArcGIS Online is simpler for you to use once the infrastructure is in place, and opens up ESRI Field Apps, Experience Builder and Operational Dashboard to be able to use your data. Again the hard part is getting the infrastructure setup for ArcGIS Online to give you access to the underlying datasources.
Recap:
ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap would be quicker to get working for you if you don't have expertise in your company to get the infrastructure in place.
ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise would be easier for you to use, but you need someone to get the infrastructure setup for these and these open up all the newer mobile applications like Field Maps, Operational Dashboard, Story Maps, Survey123, Experience Builder, etc...

[JeremyLee]

Thanks for the info, Edward! I showed this to our in-house GIS analyst, and he says he has done the data importing into ArcGIS Online for me. He showed me a few basics to get me started with building some basic lines and shapes. My coworker and I need to gather all the data and locations of our equipment before I can really dig into this, but this was a great push in the right direction for me. Thanks again!