Fluke Networks- Cable Certification
"Six Reasons
It Is More Important Than Ever"
Economic turmoil is shining a bright light on the value of
services used by IT departments. Among them are the services used to deploy and
maintain enterprise network infrastructure. Infrastructure includes copper and
fiber cabling, and it is the foundation of the network. This paper identifies
the specific benefits afforded by cable certification and how much it pays back
to the network owner.
A souring economy is causing retooling of IT budgets. Cash
conservation is an “A” priority for everyone, including managers who must make
tough decisions to reduce operating expense and capital outlays. Yet in this
process, IT managers should not forget that a healthy network infrastructure is
inextricably linked to productivity, service efficiency and expanded services.
A tempting option to reduce IT out-of-pocket expense may be
to defer maintenance. While no company defers truly critical maintenance, there
are tasks that might be postponed because they exist in a gray area that may be
seen as “optional.” Navigating these decisions is not easy but it would be a
grave mistake to suspend testing of the foundation of every network: its copper
and fiber cabling.
1. Certifying is Less
Expensive than Repair
Certifying copper and fiber cabling prevents problems.
Certification is insurance against future problems. Without it repairs must be
made on a live network or worse, on a network suffering an outage.
Network downtime extracts a painful price in lost revenue,
lost productivity, diminished customer service and competitive disadvantage.
The Contingency Planning Group performed a study that estimated the cost of an
hour of enterprise network downtime between $14,500 and $6,500,000, depending
on the industry. The Gartner Group estimated that an hour of downtime costs a
less bone-chilling $42,000 per hour, on average.
If an enterprise is challenged to improve its annual uptime
from 99.9% to 99.99%, it needs to reduce downtime by eight hours. Using the
Gartner Group’s conservative estimate of downtime cost, this saves an
enterprise $336,000 annually. How do you get there?
There are many causes of downtime. A Gartner/Dataquest study
pointed the finger at human error and application failure 80% of the time. But
if the network represents just 20% of the cause, it accounts for $67,000 of the
exposure.
Contrast this to the cost of certification. A network with
600 Cat 6 copper lines undergoes certification testing. A realistic assumption
is that 5% of the links fail the initial test and must be repaired and
retested. Using a modern cable certifier the entire process will take
approximately 11 man-hours. At a commercial rate of $65 per hour, the expense is
less than $750.
$750 for insurance to achieve $67,000 in savings: even more
if the network supports a high-value business operation such as credit card,
retail or brokerage transactions. The case is certification is self-evident.
2. Product Warranties
Are Limited
A network owner may be tempted to roll the dice in tough
times and use a manufacturer’s warranty as a security blanket. This is
understandable because most cable and connector manufacturers offer good
warranties and they stand behind their products. These manufacturers cannot,
though, warranty final installation.
The quality of a cable installation lies largely in the hands
of the installers. If installation craftsmanship is poor, even excellent
products fail. The failures and the attendant hardships are outside the scope
of a hardware warranty, so the network owner and the installer must negotiate
remediation.
The only way to assure that installer workmanship meets
standards is by certification testing. The only way to assure that best
practices are followed is by certification testing. Certification gives the
network owner protection against unanticipated costs. When the economics winds
blow ill, protection is welcome.
3. Certification and Recertification Will Futureproof the
Infrastructure
You might believe that a cable build-out “does what it does”
when installed, and never does more. This could be short-sighted. A recertified
cabling plant may proved to support higher-speed traffic that is deployed years
after the cable is first installed. How important is support for higher speeds?
According to a survey of datacenters by the research firm BSRIA, multigigabit
technology is now commonplace:
What are the implications of this? Category 6 copper cable
was designed to support 1-Gigabit per second data rate. Recent field
certification tests indicate that a good deal of the Cat 6 cable used in
datacenters complies with the 10GBASE-T standard and can support 10-Gigabit
service over short to moderate distances. If you recertify the Cat 6 cable in
your datacenter you may find an efficient path to a 10X throughput, avoiding
some or all of the cost of replacing cable. Moreover, when demand for IT
services rebounds the recertified cable plant is poised to support new
equipment and expanded services.
4. Uncertified Cabling
= Stranded Capital
It is a fact: recessions churn building tenancy. When a new
occupant enters a building the state of its cabling presents a series of
questions. How old is it? Does it work? What was it used for? When? A new
tenant may view the mass of copper and/or fiber as a mystery, not an asset.
Certifying 200 lines of cabling will cost less than $500 at
most commercial rates. Installing 200 new lines of new Cat 6 cable will cost
$5,000-$10,000. The choice for the landlord is easy.
Certification is life extension for a cable plant. It is
capital saved for building owners and tenants. Lack of certification turns
legacy cabling into stranded capital: money spent that cannot be recovered.
5. Reducing Waste is
Good Policy
The economic case for extending the life of cables is made in
Section 4, but it may not be the worst case. The widely adopted National
Electrical Code (NEC 2002) requires the removal of abandoned cable that is not
identified for future use. Without certification the cost legacy cable may well
include the cost of cable removal, the cost of cable recycling and/or the
environmental impact of disposal.
It is sound business policy to maximize use of existing
copper and fiber cable. When properly maintained it has a long lifespan. With
limited budgets demanding greater efficiency it makes sense to use
certification to implement the three canons of environmental management:
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
6. Buyer Beware
An unsettling trend in the cable industry relates to
“no-name” Cat 5, 6, and 6A product. This cable is often made outside the United
States and is less expensive than comparable product from major manufactures.
Unfortunately, much of this inexpensive cable is made from inferior materials
using questionable manufacturing processes.
In 2008 the Communications Cable & Connectivity
Association tested nine brands of no-name cables, all of which were rated for
use in risers or plenum spaces. Not one met the physical requirements defined
in TIA 568-B.2. Only five meet the electrical test requirements defined in TIA
568-B.2 and one met the safety requirements defined by UL 1666 and NFPA 262.
How is such poor cable reaching the market? It can because safety agencies
perform random tests at the point of manufacture, not in the field. The chasm
in the quality process leaves end users exposed to safety and performance risks
that are entirely avoidable.
To ensure that there are no costs or risks hidden in
inexpensive Cat 5, 6, and 6A cable, enterprises and cable installers should
certify cable in accordance with industry standards.
Conclusion
Cabling that is certified has far more value than cabling
that is uncertified. The amount of the additional value depends on application
and the enterprise. Consider the pitfalls of uncertified cabling. Consider the
trade-off between testing and “hoping for the best”. Hope is rarely a good
strategy, and in a challenging economy, it is a dangerous one.
To learn more, please contact JKS at:
www-jks-systems.com
