FNT Command 13.6 – An overview of the new release

Beginning March 2023, FNT Command will be available in version 13.6. What’s new? That is what we asked Bernd Pratschke, Product Manager at FNT. In this interview, he answers questions about the new features and functionalities in FNT Command 13.6. 

In your opinion, what are the most important new features in FNT Command 13.6? 

We were able to implement many enhancements and optimizations. The most important ones for me are: FNT Analytics, our business intelligence application, is now directly integrated into FNT Command. Cable Management has expanded options for documenting cabling. Data Center Management now provides users with a visual overview of the temperature. And, in Navigator, we have introduced the flexible Entity Tree.  

I would also like to highlight the Telco Connected Services Report. It can now be used to determine service failures in tray sections, signal paths, fibers, and zones.  

In addition to the Connected Services Report, there have been a few other improvements in the Telco Networks area. What are these exactly? 

FNT customers benefit from better visibility of technology sites in Site Management. We were able to reduce the effort required to connect circuit switched point-to-point services by extending and improving telco structures. In this context, flexible structure tables are now also supported. Speaking of flexibility, improvements in the use of aggregations and subdivisions on logical ports provide even more flexibility, allowing, for example, the aggregation of logical ports on different chassis within a network element. 

Bernd Pratschke

Which optimizations could be implemented in Cable Management? 

The new version provides even more options for flexible documentation and transparent representation of ducts. Two-color ducts and strip patterns are now supported, as is the representation of ducts at cable level and in the switch cabinet. The new entity “coupler”, which can be used to assign individual ducts to a longer route, also makes working with FNT Command more convenient. 

Based on the 3D footprint for Data Center Management, there is now a Heatmap available. You already mentioned the feature earlier. What is it exactly? 

With the new Heatmap, the temperature distribution in the data center can be visualized based on existing measurement data. This allows data center managers to easily identify hot and cold spots or even problems with the cooling system. The sensor data can be transferred to FNT Command via API using FNT Monitoring, FNT StagingArea or third-party tools. 

The documentation functionality has also been extended to hybrid IT infrastructures… 

That is right! Hybrid infrastructures with cloud services distributed across multiple providers in public and private clouds are a growing concern for more and more companies. Therefore, with version 13.6, cloud infrastructure elements can now also be documented in FNT Command. This includes, for example, cloud providers as well as virtual servers that are purchased as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) from these cloud providers. 

The new Entity Tree functionality is also helpful in this context. Can you briefly introduce it?  

Using the Entity Tree, any entity in FNT Command can now be represented in the Navigator, including its relationships. This is helpful for many use cases. In terms of hybrid IT infrastructures, for example, it can be used to clearly display virtual machines purchased from a cloud provider in the Navigator. In addition, an individual icon can be defined for each object, which is used to display the CI in the Entity Tree.