Project Leadership Guru/Construction Business Gateway, a blog site managed by "construction, infrastructure and real estate professionals [with] extensive project/program management experience...including the design, procurement, development and construction of real estate, construction, infrastructure and technology projects" recently posted a blog by Patrick Smith, president of SK Cabling Inc., entitled "Less is More in Structured Cabling."
"In today’s IT business environment, whether it's virtualization or cloud servers, less is more. Less space, less power, less management, less expense and more horse power, giving the business user more to work with --- the same principles should apply to network infrastructure in the office," opines Smith. "There is absolutely no need to over-cable or over-wire workstations with more cable than one or two drops."
See: The case for Cat 6A over Cat 5e in PoE applications
More: U.S. adopting Cat 6A at less than half the worldwide rate
He continues, "Similarly, it is NOT better to install the most expensive Category 6A cable you can get. That’s a misnomer that most people don’t understand. The more wire you install, and the more expensive it is, does not mean anything except for more money out of your pocket!"
The blog post goes on to touch upon the time-honored copper vs. fiber debate in structured cabling.
"Note that mid- range grades of Category 6 cable installed to the work station provide more than enough bandwidth to take you to the moon or even Mars," contends Smith. He adds, "And when it comes to big data users like TV broadcasters or developers, just add in a good piece of OM3 or OM4 fiber-optic wire to the workstation at a fraction of the price of copper cable and fire away! Don’t let anybody fool you about the cost of fiber switches either; they have come way down in the last few years."
Read the full blog post here.
