A structured cabling system is a way of organizing your cabling and connected hardware by joining a series of standardized elements to create a comprehensive telecommunications infrastructure. You can then use this infrastructure for your telephone services, transmitting data through your computer network, or whatever other purposes you might need cabling for.
The benefit of setting up a structured cabling system is, in a word, better organization for your business’ network and telecommunications.
When you have structural cabling in your business, you can enjoy consistent, predictable performance, optimize system availability, streamline the use of your cabling, have backups in place if anything goes wrong, and enjoy a flexible system where it is easy to make changes without having to shut down your whole cabling array while the technician figures out how to adjust the setup without interfering with other company systems.
Structured Cabling vs. Conventional Cabling
The alternative to structured cabling is something called "point-to-point cabling," which you may also call "conventional cabling." The main distinction between the two comes from the way the Main Distribution Area is used for structured cabling. In structured cabling, the Main Distribution Area, or MDA, is where all of the cables in your structural cable network come together. This makes it easy to make any changes, additions or adjustments with just short patch cords.
In conventional, or point-to-point cabling, on the other hand, each piece of hardware is separately connected to a hardware port. This requires long cords that can get tangled up and may confuse technicians who are trying to make changes.
Who Needs Structured Cabling, and When and Where Do You Need Structured Cabling?
What businesses need structured cabling? If you have a computer network and/or telecommunications systems in your business, you need structured cabling, and you should employ structured cabling across your entire network of cables. Having some cabling systems be point-to-point and making others structured completely defeats the purpose of structured cabling, unless your point-to-point cabling is in an area completely segregated and compartmentalized from the rest of your organization.
Even if you have a small business with one phone line and two computers now, if you ever intend to expand or grow your business, you should invest in structured cabling. In fact, when you are small is the perfect time to start with structured cabling, as it will be easy to set up and just as easy to add new cables and hardware to the system as you grow.
The benefits of adding structured cabling to your business’ systems are practically countless relative to the cost. Some have already been mentioned. When your cables are all organized through a single location, there are fewer long cables to deal with and less unsightly cable disorganization. If you are in a growth phase and making a lot of changes to your computer network hardware or telecommunications, structured cabling can make your life dramatically easier.
One of the most important benefits to structured cabling, however, is in the way it can reduce human error and downtime. In a structured cabling system, if there is a disconnection or a wrong connection, it will affect the whole system and you will know immediately and be able to correct it right away.
In a point-to-point system, each piece of hardware is isolated from every other one, so if one is not connected or otherwise not working correctly, the problem may be hidden by other hardware or telecommunications devices and you may not notice until it becomes a huge problem. Once you do notice, it may require a lot of untangling and reorganizing of wires to get it right. A structured cabling system can help you sidestep all of those problems.
Contact Intellicom, Inc. USA for Quality Structured Cabling Services Today
Many businesses in the North Carolina area rely on their telecommunications and computer networks, which is why many of those companies rely on Intellicom, Inc. USA for their structured cabling and other telecommunications services. We have a full team of OEM-certified engineers and can quickly and easily determine the best way to set up your structured cabling, install the system, test it, implement it and audit it to make sure it is running exactly as it is supposed to.
For structured cabling or other related services, call Intellicom, Inc. USA now.