It was supposed to be a fun evening. My wife and I were celebrating a friend’s birthday in San Francisco, but parking was predictably difficult. After circling a few times we finally found parking a few blocks away from the restaurant. A little walk, no big deal.
Dinner was lovely (fondue! so much cheese…), and as we were wrapping up, we offered a ride to one of the other guests. She wasn’t someone we knew before the dinner party, so I made sure to warn her that we were parked a few blocks away – up several steep hills – and she was fine with that. We all stepped out into the cool night air, chatting easily… walked a few blocks towards the car, and then my wife and I realized that neither of us knew exactly where we had parked.
So began an awkward, phone-flashlight-lit expedition through the steep hills of San Francisco. Three adults, two wearing heels (not me…), one of them essentially a stranger, wandering block after block trying to find one blue car among many. What began as a friendly gesture became a slow-motion scavenger hunt, and by the end, I’m sure she was regretting ever asking for our help.
Eventually we found the car—but not before plenty of retracing steps and second-guessing ourselves.
When I finally saw our headlights blink, after pressing the button on my key fob for the umpteenth time, I breathed a large sigh of relief, and it struck me how much this mirrors the way many telecom providers manage their networks.
Do you actually know where your “car” is?
Sometimes, we begin a new client engagement by asking what we think is a simple question:
- How are you doing STIR/SHAKEN?
- What are these trunk groups used for?
- Do all subscribers connect through the SBC?
And the answer is some variation of, “I’m not sure. The tech who set that up left the company.”
In other words: the car is out there somewhere—but no one’s quite sure where it’s parked.
This might sound like a mild inconvenience, but in telecom operations, this kind of uncertainty can create serious problems. Whether you’re troubleshooting a routing issue, migrating to a new platform, or recovering from an outage, not knowing how your network is put together slows everything down—and adds risk.
The three essentials: backups, documentation, and labels
Let’s break this down.
1. Backup your data (and test it!)
Backups aren’t just about peace of mind—they’re about survival. We once worked with a provider who lost their switch to a flood after a hurricane. The backup? Soggy pieces of paper in a waterlogged filing cabinet. It wasn’t ideal—but it was enough to get things running again. Better would be automated, offsite, and regularly tested backups. But whatever form it takes, have something.
2. Document your network
It’s not enough that everything currently works. You really want to be able to understand and explain how it works tomorrow, or next year, or when your lead engineer wins the lottery and moves to Bali. Whether it’s spreadsheets, diagrams, or (better yet) a centralized documentation system, having up-to-date records of your network architecture, routing plans, and subscriber profiles is a huge help.
3. Label everything
This sounds almost too simple, but clear, consistent naming and labeling makes a huge difference. If you label configuration objects well inside your system, then that actually reduces the need for external documentation (to an extent) because the names and labels inside the system itself explain what’s going on. This can be done in software, but is also important for physical cables and hardware devices.
Do you want to know which Ethernet port connects to your upstream router? Label it. Want to know which VLAN is used for SIP trunking? Name it clearly. When things are labeled well, your team spends less time hunting—and more time fixing, improving, or building.
A culture of knowledge-sharing
Underlying all of this is a broader operational principle: don’t let critical knowledge live in one person’s head. It’s easy to let the “go-to” person keep handling things—but when that person is on vacation (or leaves the company entirely), you’re stuck wandering the metaphorical hills in the dark.
Creating a culture where documentation and knowledge-sharing are the norm doesn’t just make life easier for new hires—it makes your organization more resilient, efficient, and scalable.
You don’t want to find yourself fumbling through the fog, trying to remember where you last saw that vital configuration file or TDM port assignment. So take the time to document, label, and back up your network today.
And if you need help untangling the mess—or building good practices from the ground up—we’d be happy to help. Just fill out our contact form and we’ll get you moving in the right direction. (Car not included.)
