Structured cabling comes of age

Structured cabling has emerged as a basic building utility, comparable to heating and air conditioning, electricity or plumbing. it forms the essential communications infrastructure of a business's IT system, and is every bit as important as the equipment connected to each end of a piece of cable. Cabling is often overlooked or taken for granted, but a little time and effort in the choice of cabling system will save time, money and frustration in the near term, and, in the longer term, minimise the need for disruptive upgrades. A key objective for any structured cabling system is the capacity to handle with speed and reliability the huge data streams encountered in modern Internet and e-commerce applications. The system should also be capable of fast installation and deployment, which means that cabling components need to be modular, simple to use and, ideally, supplied in pre-qualified form. The author reviews the role of structured cabling in enabling the office IT infrastructure-today and into the future.