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Ruddox

What is Ruddox?

If you work in an organisation where you need to keep track of national networks, regional networks, property networks or electricity networks, then Ruddox is the tool for you. Ruddox provides support during each of the various phases. You can use it for expansion projects, to keep track of what is in operation, as well as when planning for decommissioning. You and everyone in your organisation, along with your clients, can use Ruddox to read the documentation in whatever way suits you best.

Ruddox is a client-server programme for Windows environments, which is installed in your network on servers and clients. The client installation offers the best possible support to facilitate distribution. The system is also perfectly suited for use in a TS environment. And if you have a virtualised environment, it can cope with that too.

Easy Visual Documentation
We’re always being told about the importance of documentation, yet so often it gets neglected. Why? Because traditionally it’s long-winded, time-consuming and tedious.

Ruddox’s motto is “Easy Visual Documentation”. Documentation should be easy to create and maintain. And the result of your efforts should have maximum benefit. Ruddox will help you see documentation as something fun. You will also discover that you can keep track of your networks in a completely new way, regardless of who you are and what your role is in the organisation. Ruddox has the answers!

Technical infrastructure
Ruddox is used to document your entire technical infrastructure, whether it’s a computer, telecommunications or electricity network. Some of our clients even use Ruddox to document HVAC.

The documentation is carried out from the top down. Here are a few examples of what you can document in Ruddox:

  • Ducting (e.g. blown fibre, 110mm pipe and cable ladders)
  • Cable pits
  • Nodes, stands and racks
  • Equipment (e.g. switches, routers, cameras, servers, patch panels and sockets)
  • Cabling: wires (telecom/computer), fibre, radio relay link, coaxial cable and power
  • Connections
  • Logical networks (e.g. VLAN)
  • Logical system sketches
  • Subscribers

Support at every stage
Ruddox provides support during each of the various phases. You can use it for expansion projects, to keep track of what is in operation, as well as when planning for decommissioning.

Benefit


Where is my infrastructure?
Ruddox offers you a superb overview of your networks. The visual presentation enables you to follow your infrastructure from right out in the field, to the indoor environment in stands and sockets in rooms. You decide how far you want to go in your documentation.

So how does everything fit together?
You will have answers to how everything is linked in your networks, right down to individual wires in a cable and plugs in a port. You can monitor entire chains of connections and access a visual presentation of them. Similarly, you can gain an overview of your connections and logical networks (for example VLAN).

Troubleshooting
Ruddox provides you with a powerful troubleshooting tool. The combination of the visual documentation and smart search functions enables you to quickly find out where the current problem lies.

Capacity
How much capacity do I have in my networks? Do I have room in the stand/equipment/ducting etc. or do I need to invest in new equipment and expand? Ruddox can give you immediate answers to these kinds of questions.

What if?
If there’s an incident, or, even better, before the incident actually happens, Ruddox can list the consequences of a raft of different scenarios. Here are a few examples:

  • Which network functions will be affected should an excavator dig up ducting containing cables?
  • Which systems will be affected if an electricity distribution centre cuts out or a switch breaks?

Access levels to suit different types of user
Ruddox allows you to bring together all information and all the relevant parties under one system. But users can be assigned different access rights. Our extensive system of access levels in Ruddox enables different categories of user to read information in a way that suits each individual. This means that the data is protected and enables swift access to the information that is relevant to the user in question.

Output data
There are several different types of output data from Ruddox. You can extract reports and create work orders. You can of course print the information out, but you can also export it to a number of familiar file formats for further processing.

How-To Guide

1. Configure Ruddox
First you create the conditions for working in Ruddox. For example, you set up access groups and roles in the system and enter user details. In addition to that there’s an array of other options for configuring Ruddox to suit your particular organisation and operations.

2. Draw up templates
In order to document, you need templates. All infrastructure, whether it’s a stand, a piece of equipment, a cable, a pit or ducting, is based on a template containing all the necessary information for Ruddox. The templates help maintain consistency in your documentation and avoid any repetition for the person doing the documenting.

3. Document
Now you can start the work of documenting. Begin by creating the documentation spaces, i.e. the geographical areas in which the documentation of the infrastructure will be located. The documentation spaces might be overview drawings and construction drawings, but Ruddox is also supported to document in GIS. Using the templates, you document your infrastructure in the documentation spaces from the top down. Start with the framework (ducting and cable pits) in your network, and then get down to a more detailed level (stands, equipment and cabling). Once the physical information is in place and linked together, you can add the logical information. You define your connections and logical networks (for example VLAN).

4. Use
Now it’s just a matter of getting the maximum benefit from all the data you’ve entered. Make sure you continually maintain the documentation so you can always rely on the responses that Ruddox gives you.

Our Offer

AFRY can offer you more than just Ruddox. Naturally we can help get things off the ground with Ruddox and provide training that is customised to suit your particular organisation. We can also offer assistance with the actual documentation work, which can be a good way of getting over the first hurdle. If you have existing documentation that you want to transfer into Ruddox, we can help with that too.

 

Screenshots from Ruddox

Ruddox screenshot

GIS is used in Ruddox to create geocoded documentation over larger areas, and it is mainly used for outdoors documentation. You may use public or private map services. We can also help you set up map services. The GIS-view contains a background map on which the technical infrastructure is documented.

Ruddox screenshot

Area is used to create documentation for a limited area, and is mainly used for indoors documentation. It suits anything from a single room in a building to a geographical terrain area.

Ruddox screenshot

Cable patching is another example of visual documentation in Ruddox providing a high degree of recognition. The documentation is very clear and thanks to this, errors can often be prevented.

Ruddox screenshot

Visual System – Recognizability is a key factor in Ruddox, and the system is built on that principle. The documentation should reflect reality.

Jens Andersson - Section Manager, IT Management
Jens Andersson
Section Manager, IT Management

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