DC-Den

Microsoft Excel is a fantastic and useful tool for a range of purposes. You can use it as a spreadsheet, for project tracking,  data graphing,  or as a visualisation tool. You can pull data from files, websites, or databases. Data can be sliced, spliced and analysed. You can build static and  dynamic  dashboards with graphs, and publish them to the Internet. You can automate repeated tasks and write scripts for custom tasks. Recently I had the time and the opportunity to learn Excel's statistical sample testing functions. I will blog and share with you on using Excel for simple statistical analysis. With Microsoft 365, Excel introduced the LAMBDA function with which you can create custom formula. But you may ask, why Excel? Isn't other statistical software out there much better? Case for Excel Readily Available Due to Microsoft Office dominance in the corporate world, Excel is available in most organisations. I have not been in any company that did not have Excel in their deskt

When we first started out, we were given an Excel document tabling the Structured Cabling design.  It was hard to follow as it had many rows and columns. We assumed it was accurate but we had a hard time imagining the layout. We had to draw on paper to grasp how the cables were to be connected. Fortunately we had a vendor. They converted the table into a fancy Visio document.  Fancy because it puts management at ease when they see a diagram. For management, a diagram implies you have a clear idea on how it should be implemented. For the engineers, while visually accurate, the document but still difficult to read. Improvement to the table Recently, I was reviewing another data centre's structured cabling design. They grouped the ports by slots; example Ports 1-12 = Slot 1, Ports 13-24 = Slot 2, etc. So when it came to my design, I used the same idea. Removing clutter in your table makes it easier to read. This wasn't a major improvement, but the slots gave me the next idea. Visu

Our Data Centre is expanding. Follow DC Raccoon as he journeys into the DC-Den.