OSPInsight International Inc. is pleased to announce the release of OSPInsight Web 9—The Future of Fiber Management. For fiber network operators, OSPInsight Web 9 provides the tools and workflows necessary to know and understand a fiber network, troubleshoot fiber breaks, and analyze excess capacity to ensure a profitable outside plant.

What Is Operations Support?

Even after fiber networks have been designed and installed, they require ongoing care and management. Much like how gardens need careful attention, fiber networks need to be actively maintained in order to flourish. Without a clear understanding of the current-state of affairs, it’s difficult to manage existing operations and plan for future growth.

There are myriad of stories where fiber optic cables are broken and resources are marshalled to find the location of the break and fix the fiber.  In the United States over a 9 month period monitoring a Google Alerts feed there were over 120 reported fiber optic cable breaks. Since most breaks never get reported it can be assumed that this is only a small fraction.

I received an email with the subject line, “Quote of the Day”.  It was sent by one of our sales engineers who had been speaking with a prospective client that had just completed a rigorous examination of fiber optic network management systems, one of which was OSPInsight.  In expressing his delight with OSPInsight the client said, “It seems as though you guys built the software from the street up, not the desk down.” 

I love that quote!  It highlights the fact that OSPInsight is built for those craftsmen (male and female) who work to make the magic of fiber optic networks available to the rest of us. 

One early spring morning I was weaving through traffic, headed to a baseball game.  I was the coach of a team of talented 14 year old boys playing the first game of an early season tournament.  The day before, I had insisted that the boys and their parents be at the game early so we would have plenty of time to prepare.  But now, I was running late. 

A few weeks ago I had a chance to meet with my good friends at Lambda Test Equipment in Pretoria, South Africa.  Lambda is an award winning organization that specializes in test equipment to support fiber optic networks.  They have a solid reputation and loyal customer base that they’ve been serving for over two decades.  And, of course, they represent OSPInsight.

The other day I had some time to do a bit of family history research.  Millions of people around the world are passionately involved in finding their roots.  Although I would not categorize myself as “passionate", family history research does interest me.  That is why I found myself navigating through a fan chart of my ancestors.  The fan chart is a fantastic way to view up to four generations on one screen.  The site that I was using, FamilySearch.org, has tools that made it easy even for a novice such as I.  

I'm a believer in the concept of good, better, and best.  If you haven’t heard of that it comes from the notion that we can do something that is "good", but if we put in more effort we can make it "better".  And, if we put even more effort we can make it "best".   For example, you have one of your kids mow the lawn.  The lawn looks good, but you show them how to trim the lawn to make the job look even better.  And then, you edge the lawn to make it look best.

I spent some time last summer at the [GIS company]  user conference in San Diego.  I'm always impressed at the vast community that has embraced the [GIS company] technology.  The conference is a GIS geeks dream.  Everywhere you look there is a map.  Maps on screens and paper and even wrapped around a big ball.   Maps on the ceilings and floors and walls.  They had a cage with drones flying around a terrain model and people flying around a city using virtual reality.

I’m sure you’ve noticed the cover photo for this blog post.  It’s a photo that is about 15 years old and shows two of our field service employees splicing fibers in the back of one of our vans.  I wasn’t sure about using that photo since I felt there was a chance that people who came upon the page might see that photo and think that the website dealt with field services as opposed to software.   But, the more I see that photo, the more I feel it captures the essence of not only OSPInsight, but also the company that developed it, and the companies that use it.