A few years back, manufacturers began to place a heavy armored protective metal shell over their traditional fiber cable builds.  This product became known as “Armored” and is built in much the same way as “MC cable” is in the electrical industry.  By having an armored fiber optic cable, a client (and their contractor) no longer needed to pay to have innerduct installed between termination points.  Innerduct is the orange or white (Plenum) plastic tubing usually in a 1” to 2” size (O.D.) used to protect the fiber optic cable and provide a pathway for future fiber optic cables to be pulled in.  In plenum environments, the innerduct can cost the client up to $ 3.00 per foot though and in certain vertical riser rooms, these innerducts can begin to use up valuable space in the vertical sleeves/conduits/core drills/etc..  The armored fiber optic cable cuts down on space used in busy areas such as riser rooms and in the case of a plenum environment, armored costs less than the standard fiber coupled with plenum (CMP) innerduct.  ITN and AMP NETCONNECT offer Armored fiber optic cable in many different performance levels, sheathing ratings, strand counts, etc..  from indoor, outdoor, OSP, to 12 strand to 288 strand, to riser rated and plenum rated, to 62.5 multi mode to XG Laser Optimized 50 micron for 10GIG performance. 

The manufacturers and standards body have been working for several years on the 10GIG standard for copper and the associated copper product(s).  Most manufacturers have a 10Gig solution now in 2009 however the differences between the products and the construction of the cable is more evident than ever before as we test copper’s limits.  If your company is relocating and you are considering a 10Gig cabling solution for your next facility, we think there are a couple questions to ask yourself.  Is your firm running primarily Gigabit Ethernet (1000BaseT) currently?  Are your users fairly heavy bandwidth users?   Is your next lease longer than 5-7 years or will you own the facility with intention of being in place for a period of 10 years or more?  If the answer to any or all of these questions is “yes”, then ITN would recommend looking at a 10GIG cabling infrastructure like AMP NETCONNECT XG. 

Since 2003 ITN has recommended to our clients that they install, or consider installing, an “all Cat 5e” or “all Cat 6” infrastructure.  Most folks call this style of structured cabling “Universal” and it allows any and every cable in the facility to be used for voice, data, video, scanner, network printer, fax, postage, IP camera, etc.. by simply moving a patch cord!  And it doesn’t matter if you have a state of the art AVAYA VOIP Telephone system or a 15 year old key/PBX telephone system, with a couple of 25 pairs and an extra patch panel or two, your new structured cabling solution can accommodate any system.  Having a Universal cabling system also allows a very simple transition to an AVAYA VOIP phone system (AVAYA IP Office) in the future.  The alternative to this would be to continue to have your “voice cables” terminate to wall mounted 66 blocks or 110 blocks and your “data cables” terminate to patch panel.  The way to look at this is that they are only data cables because they go to the patch panel and only voice cause they go to the wall field.  If they were all AMP Netconnect Category 6 cables and they all ran to patch panel, you could utilize any cable for any type of connectivity now and in the future.   

Of course there are a lot of manufacturers of structured cabling equipment and connectivity components to choose from.  And they are all present here in the Seattle/Bellevue market  but there are some key reasons that ITN chose to work with AMP NetConnect.  After over ten years in this industry, the first reason that comes to mind is that the AMP NetConnect is an “end to end” cabling solution—always has been, always will be.  Years ago there were partnerships between Commscope/Ortronics, Panduit/Belden, Leviton and I can’t remember, Siemons and ?,  plus a new rep every six months or the same rep visiting you to sell you a different product or different product combo.  We don’t like to confuse our clients and we know that AMP’s structured cabling solution is one of the best out there and since they make most of their own gear here in the US, none of that will change.  Engineering, a US engineered solution testing their equipment end to end for proper performance versus the groups that marry up to a new partner each year.  RoHS is also important as I believe that AMP NetConnect was one of the first to utilize RoHS standards in manufacturing (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) and a Lead-Free cable manufacturing process which is important since we are surrounded by our networks, all day every day.  It doesn’t hurt that AMP NetConnect is a part of Tyco Electronics which is a global corporation traded on the NYSE (TEL). 

Around the office, we like to poke fun at the car commercial phrase that goes something like “if you don’t call me today, I can’t save you any money” but there is some truth in this statement.  Our cabling design team has been referred into lots of projects after a vast majority of the space layout/architectural decisions have been made or in some cases, the construction project is already under way and beginning our portion is only a week away.  In most cases, these late starts works out fine as the standard facility has a 100% drop tile ceiling, adequate floor access/power poles for feeding modular furniture, and server rooms/termination closets that are usually sized just large enough.  ITN wants to learn about our clients projects as early as possible though because not every project or structure is the same.  For the projects that we are brought in on late that are different than the standard office, occasionally brand new sheet rock will need to be removed, conduits re-sized, or other extensive and expensive repairs will be required.  Please involve our team early so that we can put our AMP NetConnect design training to work early for you!

Section 179 of the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act, have you heard of it? We hadn’t either which is why when we learned of it, we knew we had to work quickly to inform our existing clients and potential clients of this temporary tax break on new business equipment. It existed through 2008 and was renewed by the new administration at the beginning of 2009. Section 179 allows taxpayers to take a full deduction of up to $ 250,000 of the cost of new equipment purchased and installed during the tax year! Of course more details are available from your tax professional however technology equipment such as telephone systems and wireless networks do qualify. We’ve met with companies this year who haven’t made any changes to their telephony system or don’t even have a wireless LAN. Technology is changing rapidly and the increase in productivity, efficiency, and profitability is substantial. Take advantage of this tax break from the IRS and upgrade your phone system to an AVAYA IP Office this year! Or consider the migration to a wireless network from MERU Networks! Business applications for mobile productivity are being developed every day and the IRS is encouraging you to move forward with a setting up a wireless network in 2009!