Dimension Data recently came out with their 2014 Network Barometer Report. The report has business and technology insights based on data gathered from 74,000 network devices in 32 countries. Some of the findings are counter-intuitive, like failure rates and mean-time-repair (MTTR) are lower for obsolete equipment. See press releasehere, and download the full reporthere(requires registration). Also, check out their Google+ hangout on Wednesday July 9^th.

Based on this exhaustive report, Dimension Data's top recommendation is:

"Have an accurate inventory of your network estate."

The very fact that this is a top recommendation shows that creating accurate network inventory is hard. Otherwise, customers would already be doing this, and Dimension Data wouldn't need to make it their top recommendation.

We are doing our part to make it easy for customers to create an accurate inventory of their network devices.Cisco Active Advisor is a free cloud-based service that can scan your network for Cisco enterprise and small business products such as Catalyst switches, routers, wireless access points, wireless controllers, and more. It provides valuable information on these products such as security vulnerabilities (PSIRTs), product lifecycle (End of Sale, End of Support), service contract status, warranty status, and more. You can view the report in an elegant web-based interface, and setup alerts. Cisco Active Advisor is ideal for small and mid-size networks.Cisco Active Advisor already supports more than 500 part numbers across Cisco Catalyst switches, routers, wireless controllers, wireless access points, SMB products, with more coming soon. It supports the following Java-enabled web browsers: Internet Explorer and Firefox on Windows, and Safari on Apple OSX.

For more information, please visit the Cisco Active Advisor or check out this how-to video:

You can also review a list of parts support by Cisco Active Advisor (Downloadable Excel spreadsheet): https://ciscoactiveadvisor.com/ux/app/resources/images/CAA_Supported%20Device%20list.xlsx