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It pays to know that what works at the time of installation may not stand up to the rigors of use.
Joel K. Matthews / ADC Telecommunications
Reliable network operation has never been more important than it is today. If anything, it will become still more critical as services converge and organizations become more dispersed and global. With millions of dollars at stake, real-time communication can make the difference between success and failure. And in today's fiber-optic networks, that communication can be halted by a speck of dust.
Generally, the slower the signal, the less critical the transmission medium. For example, in the early days of rural telephony, there were cases in which farmers, eager for telephone service, ran their own "last mile" using barbed wire. The service may not have been perfect, but it was adequate.
Today, fiber is more exacting. Not only must the fiber itself meet critical specifications, but it is also far more vulnerable to breaks and bends. It is, after all, glass. Joints, whether spliced or connectorized, provide another opportunity for breakdown. And with each fiber carrying more bandwidth than ever before, management becomes increasingly important.
None of us can see the future, but that doesn't mean we can ignore it. Business is, in fact, the art of making educated guesses about the future. No one is always right, but the one who makes the best estimates usually wins.
The following are some guidelines you can use in making networking decisions:
Joel K. Matthews is product manager, fiber-optic products, at ADC Telecommunications (Minneapolis, MN). For more information, see www.adc.com.