With any data center project there are going to come some inherent costs that you just cannot avoid.  One of the chief and most easily overlooked of those costs can often be the cabling costs that come stealthily along with the project as a whole.  The cost to connect everything, organized and efficient, can be overwhelmingly expensive and if your data center cabling projects are not done correctly, bring a great deal of unnecessary risks.

The good news is, there are steps that can be taken to alleviate both the costs and risks associated with a poorly planned data center cabling project.  If you’ve seen a poorly cabled data center you know how many questions pop up. Often it is difficult and time-consuming to decipher which wires go where and to what equipment making it extremely difficult to make even the most minor modifications.

Here are 6 steps you can take to avoid a data center cabling nightmare :

1. Requirements Gathering – First, a thorough assessment of the environment, “as is” needs to be done.  This includes site surveys and documentation concerning risk and your future needs as well as time and budget constraints.
2. Implementation Planning – This is the planning stage where everything from connection issues to heating and cooling systems to even how many IT staff members will need to interface with the system is planned out.
3. Determining A Project Time Schedule – Some components might require lengthy delivery times while others have critical dependencies that must be taken into account.  This step determines how long your data center cabling project will take.
4. Finalize the Budget – By understanding cost estimates from start to finish, you can avoid over-designing a plan that is too costly.  The cost estimates can include the physical devices as well as implementation costs.
5. Create the Design Plan – Once the points have been resolved, the design blueprint includes the floor plans and prints, main distribution areas, zone distribution areas and equipment distribution areas.  This plan makes sure everything meets the correct safety and code requirements for your site.
6. Installation – The final step.  All the planning is done, now it’s time to put it into practice according to your dates and budget.

As you can see, the installation is the last step after a great deal of planning, thinking and rethinking.  By  following a plan that requires so much thought and analysis you’re ensuring that your costs will stay where they need to be and all the risks associated with a poorly designed data center cabling projects are eradicated.

To learn more about data center cabling and installation as well as reasons why Datatrend can help you, please download our network services video by completing the form below.

Tags: Data Center Cabling, Design, Installation, Reduce Costs, Tips

This entry was posted on Monday, June 7th, 2010 at 6:22 pm and is filed under Datatrend. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.