When servicing and replacing equipment, organizing your cables will save you time and money. There are many ways to keep your wires neat, from storage type to labels.
Several solutions include temporary bundling. These can be used to group cords and help maintain proper bend radius.
Size
Long cables droop from racks or lay in bundles on the floor, creating a dangerous work environment. Fortunately, a rack cable management system can make it easy to keep these cables organized. Several cable management products allow you to color code your cables and label both ends. This lets you quickly identify which cable you’re working with and prevents mistakes.
Some rack cable management systems also provide a smoother path for cables and reduce maintenance time. For example, cable lacer bars route cables through the rack side. This helps you avoid kinking cables, which can cause electromagnetic interference. They also make it easier to dress large bundles.
Weight
Considering the weight of the rack system you choose is essential because it affects how much stuff you can add without compromising performance. A heavy cable rack could cause additional wear and tear on equipment or make it difficult for your team to move the rack in place when necessary.
The best racks for telecommunications and data center applications come with a cable crossover attachment built into the power rack or attached to it, depending on the manufacturer. This feature in your power racks makes accommodating cables for new installations, upgrades, moves, and relocations easier.
Rack accessories can improve the efficiency of your IT infrastructure by separating and directing hot air from IT equipment to cooling vents. This helps keep the IT equipment cooler and lowers energy costs.
Flexibility
How rack systems Nashville is designed will affect how easily it can be serviced. This is important because any downtime will cost your business. A sound cable management system will ensure that the cables are routed correctly and that there is space to reach behind the equipment. This helps to reduce the amount of time that it takes to resolve problems and install upgrades.
Some rack cable managers have an open back that can route cables to a power panel without recessing the front mounting channels in your rack frame. This saves on installation costs and keeps your rack’s airflow in check. It’s also important to remember that it’s essential to segregate power cables from data cables inside your rack to avoid EMI interference.
Port Density
Ports, also known as sockets, are physical connectors on network devices that connect lines and allow signals to enter and leave the device. The number of ports a device has determines how many devices or lines it can support. Devices with higher port density allow more ports per their front-of-rack face surface area.
Connectivity demands are increasing in data centers, especially hyperscale facilities that use 3456- or 1728-fiber cables. Linking these high-fiber-count cables to switches and servers requires limited rack space, so increasing port density in fiber patch panels is critical. Some vendors offer flat panels that use adapters to squeeze more ports but need more modularity and flexibility. Others offer movable panels that minimize back-side cable management but still need to catch up on the patching side of the platform.
Security
No one wants to walk into a data center and see a tangled mess of multi-colored wires. Not only is this a tremendous eyesore, but it can also hinder work efficiency by preventing technicians from troubleshooting issues quickly.
Proper cable management can prevent this. Organizing cables and keeping them adequately labeled helps ensure they are connected to the correct ports on equipment. This can help avoid signal interference and crosstalk and make it easier to trace cables when necessary.
When installing new hardware, adequate site planning can help to prevent misrouted cables. This includes ensuring that cable runs are planned out, understanding the appropriate mounting locations for various hardware, and knowing the proper handling, storage, and care for fiber cables.
