WHY INVEST IN STRUCTURED CABLING?

WHY INVEST IN STRUCTURED CABLING? As the need for more wireless connectivity grows, the more necessary it becomes to evaluate the use of a structured cabling system. With structured cabling projects, you receive a comprehensive telecommunications solution capable of transmitting data, voice, video and more over the network. Structured cabling offers a more secure and robust network compared to those based solely on wireless technology.

As IT consultants, we work with organizations every day to improve their cabling structure and get the most benefit.

With a view to sharing what we’ve learned and providing insights into why structured cabling can be of substantial benefit to your business, we’ve prepared a complete material for you.

Come on!

Structured Cabling: Discover its benefits

Before we delve into the benefits of structured cabling for your business, let’s start with the basics.

What is structured cabling?

It is the creation of a telecommunications cabling infrastructure, consisting of several standardized smaller elements, often called subsystems.

Structured cabling is governed by standards, providing guidelines on how to properly connect a data centre for voice and data communications, using CAT 5E or CAT 6E cabling and modular sockets.

The standards set the rules for laying the cabling in a star formation, allowing all outputs to terminate in a central patch panel. In this panel, the determination of how these outlets will be used is made. Each outlet can be connected to a data network switch or a telecommunications patch panel.

Data port lines require straight-through connection cables to connect a computer to a network. Cabling standards also require all eight connectors on the Cat5/5E/6 cable to be connected. This framework allows full support of Power over the Ethernet.

One of the most useful upgrades you can make to your network is to switch from the old point-to-point cabling system to a high-performance structured cabling system.

Is your cabling out of date?

One of the best things you can do to modernize your IT infrastructure is to switch from point-to-point cabling to structured cabling.

Point-to-point cabling is an older method and often causes problems for networks and their users. These issues occur because of the way point-to-point cabling is configured.

With it, a component of a network, server, computer or device is joined to another using fibre optic cable.

Decades ago this made sense for quick and easy chaining. But as networks grew, the problems associated with this cabling began to grow as well.

Today’s networks are much more robust and need to transfer large amounts of data. Maintaining a point-to-point cabling system and all its thousands of cables has become complicated.

This can significantly strain IT resources and lead to unnecessary problems and downtime.

That’s why more companies are adopting structured cabling systems, which connect servers directly to the communication hub. Then, the local cabling panels are installed in a space, connecting to the communication hub with a cable.

Your users connect their devices to the network simply using the cable on their desk.

There are no more complex configurations that can frustrate staff and reduce productivity whether you use an in-house team for IT support or involve an IT managed service provider.

Key benefits of structured cabling

Now that you know what structured cabling is, let’s see all the benefits it can bring to your company.

Reduced downtime

As a company, your team is using multiple devices and equipment at the same time. If you use an unconsolidated wiring infrastructure, you will spend a lot more time trying to find and resolve problems.

When this occurs, you face the real cost of downtime. Productivity declines as problems continue, and this can dramatically affect your company’s revenue.

In addition to the money you could lose, other consequences include damaged reputation and lost productivity.

With a single system, you reduce the complexity of these concurrent activities. If a connectivity issue arises, it’s much easier to identify and resolve when everything is connected via structured cabling.

The ability to quickly identify these issues will help reduce costly downtime.

Adaptability and growth

Structured cabling is a great way to future-proof your infrastructure so IT doesn’t impede your ability to grow.

In an ever-changing world, your business needs to adapt quickly. With structured cabling, you have a high level of flexibility as you can easily accommodate changes and additions.

why? _ When using structured cabling, you can enjoy very high bandwidth. With significant bandwidth, the system can support new technologies and applications that you want to launch, such as video conferencing or other activities that are more demanding without interrupting your current system.

When your network starts to expand, you will experience improved performance. With a flexible and consistent cabling structure, you won’t need to upgrade your systems to maintain the same performance levels. This could also allow for better adoption by your team of new technologies because they will be stable.

In this way, IT becomes a catalyst for your growth; it is not an obstacle.

An investment with true ROI

If you are moving from a point-to-point cabling system to structured cabling, you will need to make a substantial upfront investment.

The exact costs will vary depending on the complexity and size of your network. However, after that original investment, you will no longer need constant contact with your network team to keep cabling under control.

Structured cabling is neat and easy to see which cable is connected to which location. If a problem pops up, it’s easy to find. The time during installation is also shorter, so you can easily make infrastructure changes.

Once structured cabling is installed, you can significantly reduce the resources needed to maintain it.

Ultimately, by reducing your IT costs, you increase team member productivity and generate additional revenue.

Is structured cabling right for your business?

The value of fewer IT problems and less time spent managing them is clear. Structured cabling helps organizations do just that so they can focus on their core business objectives.