The network cabling you provide your business will play a major part in your team’s ability to access the information they need. But what is it exactly that they need to access? How fast do they need it? What kind of data cabling will that require? Cat 5e? Cat 6? Cat 6a? Fiber optics? There are many different options available when it comes to structured cabling.
The deciding factor on how to implement any IT infrastructure should be determined by finding a balance between present and future needs. You may not need Cat 6 network cabling today, but it may be worth spending the extra capital so you don’t have to go through the installation process again after two years of growth.
The structured cabling environment is extremely delicate, yet it is often disregarded as being the same as any other cable. This is a mistake. Electrical cable for the most part is pretty durable. You can step on it, twist it, bend it, and be fairly rough with it. The only thing you really have to worry about is not cooking yourself with it. Abusing your network cabling won’t cook you, but it can definitely cook your business by bringing your network down to a grinding halt at the most inconvenient times.
Over the past fifteen years, network cabling has undergone huge advances in engineering in order to squeeze as much bandwidth as possible through what is essentially the same size cable. This has been accomplished through understanding the perfect architecture and physics required to allow this data to flow seamlessly from one end of a cable to the other. The result is a cable which is able to transfer massive amounts of data, as long as its structural integrity is maintained. Any change in this integrity can instantly affect the cable’s ability to transfer data, and in some cases will cause it to stop working all together.
There are many rules and standards that must be followed when installing structured cabling, and over the years we’ve witnessed almost all of them being broken. Furniture handlers walking on data cables and stepping on jacks. Electricians running the network cabling along side power cables, or making random splices in the ceiling with electrical tape. Cables being bent, cut, squished, nailed, screwed through, stepped on, and the list goes on and on.
Technology is advancing exponentially, but at the end of the day it will only be as strong as the weakest link in the chain. At Datamax, we want to make sure your IT infrastructure isn’t that link. Your network relies on structured cabling to get it’s job done. The reality is that these cables are fragile, and in order to guarantee their integrity is maintained they must be handled by specialists who understand them.
We are those specialists.
