Are there Benefits to Using Structured Cabling in Your Data Centre?

In larger networks, especially those involving not only more network equipment but also a more diverse set of equipment (such as separate, per-service sets of servers and SAN arrays), it may become necessary to introduce a separate layer of hierarchy. In this case, equipment from a service area is connected to patch panels in a zone patching area, and connections between zone patching areas are routed upstream, in a central patching area.

Note that the change is only in terms of where and how the wiring is done. The topology of the network is not affected. The network can retain its three-tier or spine-leaf structure if desired, but point-to-point connections no longer constrain the location of the equipment.

This is the essence of data centre cabling. Implementation details vary from one network to another. For example, there are users who prefer to segregate equipment into zones based not only on equipment type, but also on cabling type (copper cable or fibre optic cables), length and speed (e.g. separate zones for 1 Gbps copper, 40 Gbps copper, and 100 Gbps fibre, respectively).

The exact installation options are based less on the regulatory framework (which is intentionally flexible) and more on the logistics, maintenance and scaling requirements.

Cable lifetime and maintenance cost vs. upgrade cycles and upfront cost is another aspect that you should consider when it comes to using structured cabling in your London data centre.

The bulk of the cabling deployed in a structured cabling scenario is fixed cabling. This makes for easy installation, but high cable volumes that are straightforward but costly to upgrade frequently.

However, if you can invest in high-speed, future-proof cabling, structured cabling can offer the best ROI. Its straightforward maintenance reduced potential for human error (and mostly constrained to the patching areas) and — as we will discuss below — the excellent cooling and routing potential allow you to significantly extend the lifetime of your cabling infrastructure.

Structured cabling in the data centre is no free lunch, though. Structured cabling brings its own set of challenges to the table.

First of all, the price of the cabling infrastructure itself is almost always going to be higher for a structured cabling installation than for a ToR installation. We can debate choices based on ROI figures, but upfront costs are important, too.

Second, structured cabling is a radically different approach to infrastructure. Migration paths for existing ToR designs do exist, but they can be costly and downtime is difficult to avoid.

Many of the benefits of structured cabling are primarily relevant for networks with fast growth, where equipment is frequently moved, added or changed. The investment in a structured cabling deployment can be difficult to justify for networks where little growth is planned; more often than not, for largely static networks, careful maintenance and keeping cables tidy is all you need.

Finally, the rack-oriented structure of ToR deployments is not without its administration advantages. ToR deployments, for example, make it very easy to physically segregate network services.

In terms of logistics, we also tend to plan service expansion and deployment in terms of racks and units, too. The advent of technologies like Software-Defined Networking (SDN) may change that for some aspects of network development planning, but only slowly, and mostly for large deployments.

In other words, there are plenty of scenarios where traditional ToR deployments are a compelling option. Plenty of new ToR deployments are being made, and existing deployments are not going away anytime soon.

Related topics: Choosing cabling installers Commercial data cabling