Structured cabling certification: why testing is not enough

Because no equipment can exceed the medium that connects it. A switch lasts five or six years, a server four or five, a laptop even less. The cabling stays. A latest-generation access point connected to an old, badly crimped or overlong cable is limited by that cable.

And cabling rarely fails obviously. It degrades. Slowdowns appear that come and go, illogical drop-outs, workstations always slower than their neighbours. The blame falls on the computer, the server or the carrier. Almost never on the cable.

The sum for the board: cabling weighs little in the total investment, but it is the component that lasts longest and is the most expensive to redo.

Rule of thumb: always demand certification with a report. An installation without certification is an installation without proof.

Do not ask what you need today. Ask what will run over that cable ten years from now. Three factors decide:

• Future traffic Video, backups and cloud keep growing.
• Lengths Beyond certain distances, fewer options remain.
• PoE Access points, cameras and phones draw power over the cable itself, which calls for conductors that are up to the job.

Between categories, the price changes almost only in materials. Labour, which is the largest share, stays practically the same. Choosing a lower category saves little and limits a lot.

1. Floor plan: where each outlet is and where each cable tray runs.
2. A tidy rack: patch panels, cable management and spare space. You notice it as soon as you open the door.
3. Labels: every outlet and every cable identified at both ends.
4. Certification: a report per link.
5. Dossier handed over: floor plan, outlet map and reports stay with the company, not the installer.
6. Room to grow: as a rule 20 to 30% more outlets than needed today. During the works it costs little; afterwards it costs a lot.

If you recognise three or more of these signs, certify before buying new equipment:

• Some workstations are always slower, and the computer is not the cause.
• The connection drops and comes back with no pattern.
• Nobody can trace a cable in the rack, because nothing is labelled.
• There are improvised plugs or visible splices.
• The cabling is more than fifteen years old and has never been certified.
• New equipment does not deliver what it promised.

During an office move or a new office fit-out. It is the only occasion when everything can be redone from scratch without extra works and without stopping operations. Design, install and certify with the next fifteen years in mind.

DataRoad - IT Services and Consulting designs, installs and certifies structured cabling and network infrastructure, with a report per outlet and a dossier handed to the client. It then maintains the network under an IT Unlimited contract. Request a no-commitment proposal.

More than 10 workstations · support contract · remote, on-site and telephone support. +351 211 459 950 * · sales@dataroad.pt

*Call to a Portuguese landline.