The demarc (demarcation point) marks the point where communications facilities owned by one organization interface with that of another organization. It is the dividing line where your service provider’s equipment connects with your own.
For most companies in the 21st century, regardless of their size, their demarc/server room is the heart of their business. It’s the place where they store the data that is essential to their business. Information on clients, projects, sales opportunities, financial transactions, important contracts, employee information, compliance with government regulations, statistical reports, sales reports and more.
Why Data Room Cleaning Is Important
Most businesses spent a lot of time and money on security to protect access to this information, making sure that all their virus protection software is up-to-date and that hackers trying to penetrate their systems are rebuffed. But these possible dangers are much more obvious than the one that can cause the greatest damage.
Imagine if something happened that destroyed this important data. Think of what it would do to your business. If you suffer an equipment malfunction, think of the financial losses you sustain. And while there may be causes of equipment malfunction over which you have limited control, the main culprit is one that is easy to correct — contaminants introduced into the environment of your server room.
What are the benefits of organizing your cable network?
It’s easy for computer cabling to get out of control – even at your office desk, disorganized cables can be a problem! So, when it comes to the many tens or even hundreds of servers in a data center, cable management is clearly an important element to get right.
Congested and disorganized cabling can quickly lead to a “spaghetti mess.” Not only is this ugly, but it can be the cause of some serious problems. Here are five reasons you should avoid cabling congestion, and how effective cable management can minimize risk and benefit your data center.
1. Safety
When you own or operate a business, it’s up to you to keep the space up to code and safe for your employees and customers. Effective cable management and organization is essential to managing your physical network structure’s airflow, which helps prevent overheating, fire hazards and even cable breakage that can cause serious issues – or at worst, an outage.
Cables on the ground should be concealed with cord covers, which not only prevent tripping accidents around the workplace, but they also keep valuable cables from being crushed underfoot by pedestrian traffic.
2. Expansion
With the ever-expanding use of real-time events in the digital environment, speed has become ever more critical, and will continue to be so over time. That means you need to have the ability to add to your server stacks quickly and easily in order to keep up with the most up-to-date network infrastructure.
But congested and tangled cabling can make this problematic. A simplified, organized and effective cable management system is an important element of IT infrastructure scalability, and will make future expansion that much easier.
3. Aesthetics
Always remember that first impressions count extra in business! Even if you’re great at what you do, a cluttered and disorganized workspace can give potential business partners the wrong idea. Let’s face it: an office full of messy cables just makes you look bad, so if you’re likely to receive drop-in visits from customers or prospective clients, invest in a cable management solution like surface raceway and put your best foot forward.
Getting cables organized into a proper cable management configuration looks neater and more professional. Additionally, cable management facilitates cleaning. It’s easier to wipe dust off cables you can see from all angles.
4. Reduce The Risk Of Downtime
Effective cable management allows technicians to simply unplug and plug in cables that are necessary to the action they are taking. Disorganized cables may involve “troubleshooting” steps that really involve determining what is plugged into what before work can begin.
Since you’re often paying by the hour, and all that plugging and unplugging can cause costly downtime and outages, organized cables are really a necessity in any data center environment.
5. Save Money
TIme is money, and spending time to reorganize and reroute your cable network structure comes at a price. If you’re spending hours untangling a nest of cables and cords each time you expand your data center, those extra expenses will ultimately pile up and hurt your bottom line.
A structured and standardized physical cable network will make expansion and upgrade projects get completed quicker and more efficiently, cutting down on your expenses and potentially saving your business thousands of dollars in the long run.
Click here to Check out this demarc cleanup time lapse completed by our technicians.