Cabling and the server rack
Cabling is the only part of an IT estate that lasts twenty years, and it is the part most often decided by whoever was cheapest during the building work. Everything above it inherits those decisions.
Plan two network outlets per workplace as a minimum and four in meeting rooms, because adding an outlet later costs many times what it costs during the build.
Cat6A is the sensible default for horizontal cabling in an office today. Fibre belongs between floors, between buildings and anywhere the run exceeds ninety metres.
Label both ends of every cable and keep the patch schedule current. It is the least interesting part of the job and it saves more hours over ten years than any monitoring tool.
The decision you make once
A laptop lasts four years, a switch seven, a firewall five. Cabling stays until the building is renovated. That asymmetry is why it deserves more attention than it gets and why it is worth over-specifying slightly: the marginal cost during construction is small, and the cost of adding a run afterwards involves a ceiling, a contractor and a day when nobody can work in that area.
The rule we give clients is simple. During the build, add what you might need. After the build, you will pay five to ten times as much for the same outlet.
How many outlets, and where
| Location | Outlets | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Workplace | Two | Dock plus a spare for a phone, printer or second device |
| Meeting room | Four | Room system, display, camera and a spare that will get used |
| Ceiling, per access point | One, plus one spare per two units | Wi-Fi generations change; the cable should not |
| Reception and public areas | Two or more | Signage, a terminal, a camera |
| Printer and utility positions | Two | Multifunctionals move; the outlet should already be there |
Cat6A or fibre
For horizontal runs from the floor cabinet to the desk, Cat6A is the sensible default. It handles multi-gigabit speeds, it supports the power budget modern access points and room systems need, and it will not be the limiting factor for the life of the building.
Fibre belongs in the vertical: between floors, between buildings on a site, and on any run over ninety metres where copper simply will not do the job. It is also worth considering to a distant outbuilding, where it removes the electrical bonding problems that copper between buildings creates.
What a rack should look like
- Power at the bottom, network at the top, cable management between. Heat rises; so should nothing else.
- A UPS sized for a controlled shutdown, not for running through an outage. Fifteen minutes is usually enough; two hours is usually a waste.
- Patch panels labelled to match the wall outlets. Both ends, same scheme, printed rather than handwritten.
- Room to grow. A rack filled to capacity on day one means the next addition goes on a shelf next to it.
- Ventilation that is actually adequate. A cupboard under the stairs shortens the life of everything in it.
Schneider Electric covers most of what we install for power and rack distribution, and a controlled shutdown is part of the recovery plan rather than an accessory to it.
Labelling is the cheapest thing you will ever do
An unlabelled patch panel costs a person twenty minutes every time somebody needs to trace a port, and that happens more often than anyone estimates. Over ten years it is days of work, all of it avoidable during the two hours it would have taken to label it properly at installation.
Keep a patch schedule that says which outlet goes to which port and which port is on which VLAN, and update it when it changes rather than annually. A document that is ninety per cent accurate is worse than none, because people stop trusting it and start tracing anyway.
When to touch it and when to leave it
Cabling that works should be left alone. We replace it when the runs cannot support the power that new access points need, when the labelling is so far gone that tracing is faster than reading it, or when a renovation opens the ceiling anyway. That last one is the moment to do it, because access is most of the cost.
Design and installation sit under managed network. Where wireless coverage is part of the question, we measure first under Wi-Fi analysis, because the measurement decides where the ceiling outlets go.
Questions we get about this
What comes up during a fit-out or a renovation.
How many network outlets does a workplace need?
Two as a minimum, and four in a meeting room. Adding an outlet after the building work costs five to ten times what it costs during it, so the marginal cost of over-specifying now is small compared with the cost of being right later.
Cat6A or fibre for a new office?
Cat6A for horizontal runs from the floor cabinet to the desk, fibre for vertical runs between floors and between buildings, and fibre for anything over ninety metres. Cat6A carries multi-gigabit and the power modern access points need.
How big should the UPS be?
Large enough for a controlled shutdown, which is usually around fifteen minutes, unless you genuinely need to run through an outage. Sizing for two hours is common and rarely justified; a clean shutdown prevents the corruption that turns a power cut into a restore.
Is it worth replacing old cabling?
Only for a reason: the runs cannot carry the power new access points need, the labelling is beyond use, or a renovation is opening the ceiling anyway. That last case is the moment to do it, because access is most of the cost.
Where this lands in our work
The services around the cabinet.
Want this looked at for your own sites?
Half an hour on a call is usually enough to tell you whether we are the right party for it, and we will say so if we are not.