802.11 N and modern security advances from MERU have eliminated the top two reasons for hesitation to migrate to wireless, speed and security.  A third reason can now be considered, especially in the Seattle/Bellevue area where so many are concerned about the environment.  Picture a typical facility with 250 workstations, each with their own phone and computer.  Historically each workstation would be supplied with a voice cable and a data cable totaling 500 Category 5e cables (or 750 in the case of 3 cables per location) running through the ceiling back to the server room.  This cabling represents hundreds of pounds of mined copper, cable sheathing produced from petroleum products, plastic and metal patch panels, and the energy consumed in mining and manufacturing all this equipment.  Every time the company moves to a new space, they have to re-cable the new facility at a significant cost to their budget and environment since they can’t take the cabling with them.  For nearly the same price as a cabling infrastructure, the same staff could be served 802.11 N data speeds and QOS rated voice via MERU wireless without all the copper, steel, petroleum, mining energies, installed each time in the ceiling AND after the initial MERU investment, the company would save significant money on each facility move by relocating their MERU WLAN with the rest of their stuff.  Although AMP NetConnect cabling products satisfy RoHS standards and have one of the only lead free cable plants, there is nothing more environmentally friendly than no cable at all.   Check this out

We’ve seen it in the last recession and we’ve seen it in this one—“I’ve leased a new office space and we are moving in a few months, can I re-use the existing cabling that was left behind by the previous tenant?”  Of course the short answer is “sure” however our team always wants to help you evaluate this structured cabling before making that decision on your own.  Unlike many of our competitors, we’ll take a look at it to see if it can be re-used.  Of course we’d like the “new wiring project” normally guaranteed by a tenant moving into a new space and yes, WA State law prohibits the previous tenant from leaving their cabling behind, but we’d be happy to take a look at the pre-existing cabling.  Questions we ask you or ask ourselves are;  What are your needs for performance?  Are you moving into the exact same offices/cubicles or are you changing the floor plan significantly?  How much moving of cables will be necessary and will they reach these new locations?  How old is the cabling infrastructure and will it satisfy your needs?  Is it well labeled?  Will it pass inspection?  If your firm is going to run a Gigabit Ethernet network or VOIP, and the existing cabling is poorly ran Category 5 cable, ITN would likely suggest replacement.  If your firm is tearing down many of the walls and re-designing much of the office space, it is likely that “re-using existing cabling” will begin to cost as much or more than installing a new AMP NetConnect structured cabling system. 

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!