Structured cabling is not a subject that comes up in most business planning meetings. This is an oversight because structured cabling is actually an industry standard that, if implemented correctly, could potentially yield cost savings and efficiency gains across your company. This will be the first in a multi-part series examining structured cabling, what it means, and how it applies to you and your business. We begin, as they say, at the beginning: your company’s entrance facility.
The entrance facility, in the language of structured cabling, is the point where your internet provider’s domain ends and your company’s network infrastructure begins. Commonly known as the demarcation point, it is the point from which any cabling problems now belong to your business, rather than your telco or cable company. It also tends to be an enclosed and usually secured area containing cabling (obviously), connecting hardware like patch bays, and any other equipment you might use to attach your cabling system to the outside world.
This brings us to the “equipment room.” Depending on the size of your enterprise you may have multiple equipment rooms that contain cabling equipment like switches and patch panels, but what we are referring to here is “the” equipment room. By definition, this is the area that houses the heavy parts of your network infrastructure, like telco equipment, routers and switches, and primary hubs for your cabling. Cable tracing for line breaks and interruptions will generally start from this point.
Your equipment room may also act as your server room, again depending on the size of your enterprise. Given the preferably centralized location of your equipment room, it should probably at least be adjacent to your main server room, if not sharing the same physical space. However, under the design of structured cabling, your server room is really just another “node” filled with wiring, as you will see in the next part of our series.
NSC Information Technology Group can help you bring order out of the chaos of your current wiring system by implementing a structured cabling system for your business. Let their pros assist you with bringing your communications up to spec, ensuring smooth operations and easy troubleshooting in the future. Contact them today for more information.