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As discussed in Part 1, the performance issues of your company’s network may be directly related to improper cabling. Part 2 will discuss Compatibility, Patch Cords, and Poor Installation.

Compatibility

Issues occasionally arise when coupling cabling and connectivity from various manufacturers. The use of jacks from one manufacturer with cabling from another, and then patch panels from a third firm is an example. This combination may result in compatibility problems. When components that are not intended by design to function together are used, network performance issues will likely result.

Purchasing top of the line high-performance cables, while utilizing lower-quality connectivity components, will produce a weak link in the chain. Cable of the highest quality will be unable to attain its full performance potential when it is married to jacks, patch panels, and plugs that are not rated to support its capabilities.

Patch Cords

Patch cords may be the top reason why there are issues in network performance.

Your company may have installed a high performance cabling infrastructure of the highest quality, but if low-quality patch cords were purchased to economize, network speed, signal quality, and overall performance will be compromised.

Poor Installation

Vetting the cabling services team you hire is perhaps the most important factor in the prevention of network performance issues. Check that the company you are considering has technicians that are properly trained and certified to install the cabling system you have chosen.

When cable installers are not properly trained, it will greatly increase the probability that your company’s structured cabling system will not be properly installed. Incompetent installation can result in problems such as improper pulling, excessive bending, and cable being installed too near sources of signal interference like large motors and machinery.

Poorly trained technicians will leave cabling that is not properly terminated or correctly polished. Sloppy work and insufficient attention to detail during installation will usually result in poor network performance, along with costly and time-consuming efforts to address the problems the substandard work caused.

Progressive Office Cabling

Founded in 1986, Progressive Office’s success has been a direct result of years of commitment to seeking solutions on behalf of our clients in the Washington, D.C. and New York City areas. Efficiently working together, Progressive teams get cabling installed and operating as fast as possible while minimizing disruption and downtime. Call our toll free number (800) 614-4560 today.

Your employees are dissatisfied by their company’s network performance, and it is affecting their productivity. A number of factors must be taken into consideration. How many users are attempting to use resources simultaneously? Have you taken into account how much the use of devices has grown? Is your network equipment sufficient to meet demand? Answering the above questions will help, but network issues may be directly related to your company’s structured cabling.

Outdated Cabling

In many instances, the age of your structured cabling system may be responsible for poor network performance. 15-year-old cabling may have met standards when it was installed, but now it may be unable to handle the ever increasing network traffic needs of your company.

An internet service provider (ISP) provides the cable that provides the connection from your company’s network to the internet. When this backbone component fails to meet today’s bandwidth standards, bottlenecks may occur.

In situations where you are attempting to operate at speeds that are too high or carry excessive bandwidth via a cable that not rated for the capacity, it will be noticeable to users and their productivity will decline, hampering business operations.

Quality of Cabling

Cabling manufacturers rate their cables in terms of capability and performance. For example, CAT6 and CAT6a cabling have different capabilities, CAT being an abbreviation for category. A manufacturer must meet the performance standards set by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) for each category of cabling.

Cabling that exceeds minimum standards will attain higher network speeds without having to upgrade your cabling. In contrast, for cabling that only meets the minimum standards, the company network speed will be unable to expand much beyond the rating of the cable.

It is helpful to understand cable standards and ratings. Even though a cable is labeled Category 6A, it is not automatic that it meets the minimum performance standards of this category. The brand name and manufacturing quality will play a big role in the cable’s output.

Part 2 will discuss Compatibility, Patch Cords, and Poor Installation.

Progressive Office Cabling

Founded in 1986, Progressive Office’s success has been a direct result of years of commitment to seeking solutions on behalf of our clients in the Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Pittsburgh and New York City areas. Efficiently working together, Progressive teams get cabling installed and operating as fast as possible while minimizing disruption and downtime. Call our toll free number (800) 614-4560 today.

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Utilizing best practices developed over time, structured cabling determines the design and construction of an organization’s IT infrastructure. Standardized practices ease modifications and additions and promote compatibility and reliability. The following will discuss the benefits of structured cabling for your organization’s IT infrastructure.

Efficiency

There will be times when it will be necessary to move forward with changes to your IT infrastructure. When this involves dealing with improperly placed cables without a labeling system, each project will take longer than what would be necessary for a well-organized system. Structured cabling’s best practices decrease downtime and minimize mistakes.

Flexibility

Structured cabling allows flexibility, meaning repairs and changes to the infrastructure become easier and faster to perform. This means data center managers will not hesitate to implement needed changes because they don’t have to deal with disorganized cabling that make their jobs much harder.

Future Proofing

The perpetual improvements of telecommunications technology make it crucial to have an IT infrastructure that can adapt to future technical advances. Structured cabling makes this possible by ensuring upgrades are not difficult to integrate with the existing system. Structured cabling enables future proofing, and so it can be considered a sound investment for companies anticipating expansion.

Redundancy

Structured cabling allows the creation of an IT infrastructure that features redundancy, which helps ensure reliability and accessibility, particularly during maintenance or repair. If a cable is somehow compromised, data communications can keep functioning over redundant cabling as repairs are being performed.

ROI

Business owners should consider structured cabling as an investment that will improve their IT infrastructures. As it will significantly increase the efficiency of its data operations, the ROI (return on investment) could far exceed the initial outlay for implementation over time.

Progressive Office Cabling

Founded in 1986, Progressive Office’s success has been a direct result of years of commitment to seeking solutions on behalf of our clients in the Washington, D.C. and New York City areas. Efficiently working together, Progressive teams get cabling installed and operating as fast as possible while minimizing disruption and downtime. Call our toll free number (800) 614-4560 today.

If it has been a while since your company has upgraded your network cabling, you and your team may not be achieving your potential. As you know, an organization’s IT network is the very heart of its operations. Lacking a network that is up-to-date, staff members will not be as efficient and productive as possible.

Updating from Point-to-Point Cabling

The update that yields the most benefits is having your network make the transition from an outdated point-to-point cabling system to a far more effective structured cabling system. As you may know, there are only two ways for transmitting data over network cables. Numerous companies persist on using point-to-point cabling. Unfortunately, it tends to become problematic, especially when a company needs to significantly expand the network’s size and capabilities. Let’s dig deeper to understand the reasons.

Point-to-point cabling directly connects a switch, device, network, a server, or network, to another network component via fiber optic cable. For the last few decades, this wiring method provided an innovative way to swiftly build a network. However, during that period, the majority of networks at IT departments were not large.

Nowadays, as networks expand and speedy transmissions of massive data amounts become routinely expected, the maintenance of outdated point-to-point cabling systems, along with the thousands of cables required for operations, becomes a large burden on a company’s IT resources.

As a result, organizations have transitioned to structured cabling systems. Rather than directly connecting every single network component to another, a structured cabling system directly links storage units and servers to a communication backbone.

Installed in every part of a facility, local cabling panels are linked to the communication backbone with only one cable. This enables users to easily connect their devices to the whole network by connecting a cable to the nearest cabling panel.

Part 2 will discuss the advantages of upgrading to Structured Cabling.

Progressive Office Cabling

Founded in 1986, Progressive Office’s success has been a direct result of years of commitment to seeking solutions on behalf of our clients in the Washington, D.C. and New York City areas. Efficiently working together, Progressive Office teams get cabling installed and operating as fast as possible while minimizing disruption and downtime. Call our toll free number (800) 614-4560 today.

Structured cabling that is properly installed can help your business grow by helping to improve its network performance and IT capability. The following will discuss structured cabling’s Top Ten Tips for installing cabling systems.

#1 Cable Labeling

Although cable labeling will slow installation, it will help save lots of time and effort during future repair, reconfiguration, and maintenance tasks.

#2 Cable Testing

Ensure every cable is tested and confirmed to be functioning properly during the installation process. A cable with a nominal performance should not be utilized as it may decrease overall system performance.

#3 Short Patch Cables

Do not use long patch cables when they aren’t required. They are inefficient, look disorganized, and are prone to tangling.

#4 Select Quality Terminations

Avoid purchasing cheap terminating cables because time will be unnecessarily spent on troubleshooting in the future. Select those that are of high quality and terminate properly and rapidly.

#5 Avoid Overheating

Keep in mind that maintaining proper cable temperatures to avoid overheating is crucial for stable and reliable network performance.

#6 Measure 2X, Cut 1X

Precise measurements prior to cutting will minimize damaged and wasted cables during installations.

#7 No Kinky Fiber Cables

As fiber cables have great flexibility, they can kink bend, and knot. These will result in flaws in the fiber cables, negatively affecting performance of the network.

#8 Maximum Cable Length

Do not exceed the maximum length of a cable run, which is typically 100 meters for network cabling systems.

#9 Allow for Expansion

Network cabling systems should always have room for interior expansion. As a business grows, its network should have the room to be able to upgrade or expand.

#10 Qualified Installation Company

In order to ensure that a company’s network cabling system will be properly installed, management must select a qualified installation company and request references.  Their technicians should be BICSI certified and experts in ANSI standards.

Progressive Office Cabling

Founded in 1986, Progressive Office’s success has been a direct result of years of commitment to seeking solutions on behalf of our clients in the Washington, D.C. and New York City areas. Efficiently working together, Progressive teams get cabling installed and operating as fast as possible while minimizing disruption and downtime. Call our toll free number (800) 614-4560 today.