Cable management is used by network engineers and installers to organize and manage your business’s cabling to enable ease of identification, troubleshooting, and conveniently facilitate upgrades. It involves how your network cabling is organized and connected to your server room, cabinet, racks, and other important equipment.
We cannot overstate the importance of cable management because it is crucial for the proper functioning of your business’s network operations.
If you want the best cabling solutions for your business in or around Jacksonville, Florida, always consult the professional experts at Communications Solutions Inc.
Let’s discuss the various factors that highlight the importance of cable management to give you a better idea of just how essential it is to your business.
The Importance of Cable Management
Here are the various factors of cable management that make it so important for any modern business.
· Safety Issues
The most obvious and simple benefit of cable management is safety. A mess of tangled cables on your office floor is a recipe for slip and fall accidents that lead to injury lawsuits. They are a trip hazard making the work environment unsafe for employees on the floor, especially for someone handling your network’s physical connections.
Moreover, tangled cables may overheat or spark to start a fire, and this is more common than you think, especially in cables without fire-resistant coating. Cable management can mitigate these safety issues by reducing the risk of fire damage and slip and fall injuries.
Using cable loom tubing, wire guides, floor cord covers, and other cable management products, you can easily cover cables on your office floor, under desks, and separate them for easy identification.
· Professionalism
Whether you run a startup in a small office or work in the offices of a major corporation, tidiness and order matter. Investors and prospects never like to see unorganized rigs, components, and equipment connected with a mess of tangled, dusty cables.
They will not appreciate that every desk has cables spilling out from all sides and running in different directions across the entire floor. Cable management helps you organize your cables in a proper, efficient manner, making your business space look neat and professional.
Moreover, good cable management allows easy cleaning of your space and cables as well. You can easily wipe down the dust off your cables and make them look fresh and clean.
· Enhanced Efficiency
Proper cable management requires organizing and labeling all the cables running to and from your network equipment. Using ties, hooks, tubing, and cable and rack management, you can prevent various cables from tangling and knotting with each other.
They ensure that individual cables run straight through their correct paths to fulfill their purpose. Professional installers like Communications Solutions Inc. use these cable management accessories to prevent unnecessary bending, twisting, or tangling of cables, ensure that they run in the right direction, and are easily identifiable when needed.
Keeping cables separated and sorted this way ensures efficiency because it makes identifying the cable causing connection problems, slow performance, or failure easier. Troubleshooting becomes a breeze for technicians because they can identify all your cables easily.
They no longer have to spend hours tracing cables along with your network infrastructure and can spend that time fixing problems instead. As a result, there is less downtime and more efficiency and productivity for your business.
Proper cable management provides sorted, neat, efficient, and labeled cables that are far more accessible for technicians to troubleshoot, upgrade, replace, or repair when needed.
· Power Cable Separation
Often, unprofessional structured cabling and network cable installation can lead to the mixing of power cables with network cables. It is also possible that your network cables are run closely with your power cables, and this can be problematic as well.
When technicians repair cables, they may accidentally work on the wrong cable because it was not labeled or organized properly. This can easily lead to a spark, fire, or electrocution. Cable management allows proper labeling and separation of your power cables from your network cables, which can potentially save lives.
It makes tracing easier for both types of cables and technicians can get their work done quickly, efficiently, and without the risk of hazards.
· Improved Airflow
Network equipment is organized in racks and enclosures that are typically inside a network closet or server room. These racks and enclosures can run hot because of all the heat produced by the components of the network equipment. If the heat is excessive, the equipment can fail or get permanently damaged.
Hence, airflow and cooling systems are provided to cool down the racks, enclosures, and the closet or room itself. However, any airflow or cooling system becomes pointless if the cables inside the rack or enclosure are blocking the airflow passageways.
Tangled, twisted, coiled, or piled up cables around the network equipment can result in “air damming,” or the stagnation of hot air around the network components, creating many problems for your network.
Cable management can help organize these cables with ties and guides to create proper airspace around your network equipment. This allows proper airflow for your cooling systems and mitigates the potential overheating of components.
· Extended Product Life
Cables last longer when they are installed properly and left alone to do their job. Sagging, bending, and tensing are all enemies of efficient, functioning cables. Repetitive movement, tangling, pulling, or tugging can also reduce the life of the toughest of cables.
Using mounts, hangers, ties, covers, and guides for proper cable management can improve the longevity of any cable. Proper installation will also help maintain cable straightness and minimal bending where needed.
This is especially useful for typical twisted-pair cables because it minimizes overheating and internal damage.
· Adaptable and Upgradable
Proper structured cabling takes future upgrades, expansion, and adaptability into account, and so does cable management. Proper cable management facilitates expansion and upgrades to your network infrastructure.
It ensures quick, convenient, and efficient installation of patch cables to connect new hardware to your existing network. Organized, labeled, color-coded, and accessible cables make adding new connections a breeze, and technicians will not have to spend hours to do it.
Conclusion
Whether you are creating a new network for your business, upgrading your existing one, or simply planning for future expansion, cable management can help improve your plans. They make things simpler and efficient, including equipment ventilation, power management, and accessibility for tracing, testing, troubleshooting, and repairing.
They prevent excessive downtime, injuries, and potential life-threatening fires. Moreover, they extend the efficacy and lifespan of your network cables and equipment. Every business should consider proper cable management to improve their network infrastructure.
We highly recommend Communications Solutions Inc. in Jacksonville, for the best structured cabling and cable management solutions in Florida. If you want to learn more about the importance of cable management, or if you want the best cable management for your business, Contact Us Today.