The spaghetti junction

“In the case of something that has been built in the last five or six years, I am almost certain that best practices are being adhered to while being built, especially when it comes to the cable management later on,” says Kevin Lloyd-Bisley, global technical director for Molex.

“In the case of buildings that came up pre-2000, people have been building upon a system that has already been installed with quite a lot of new equipment going in continuously. They suffer badly from basically not de-commissioning old cables enough and also where the planned roots are becoming over congested. This is a big problem in old datacentres.”

While this is the case in more mature markets, especially Western and Northern Europe, many vendors believe that enterprises in the Middle East are not paying enough attention to ensuring that cables are installed and maintained well at their datacentres. Considering the boom in greenfield datacentre implementations in the region over the last two years, vendors state that a continued indifference from enterprises to proper cable management could portend doom in the future.

Where it goes wrong

“Datacentres typically grow 50% per year and a doubling of floor space is required every three to five years. So a well designed datacentre is one that can evolve properly with time. This includes floor space, pathway fill ratio, proper routing of cables to ensure continuity of service during MAC’s (moves, adds, and changes), and of course the all important management of the system,” says Gautier Humbert, technical and training manager for Ortronics Middle East.

Tarek Helmy, regional director for the Gulf and the Middle East at Nexans, agrees.

“The required infrastructure at the datacentre is quite different when compared to the standard LAN. Datacentres require high density terminations as well as high speed transmission. In addition, datacentres have a long life expectancy with up to 20 years not uncommon by today’sstandards,” he says.

“The choice of cabling infrastructure needs to take into account current and future expectations to ensure that longevity of the cabling can be sustained.”

While a lot of enterprises in the region plan well for the datacentre, a majority of them still suffer from considering cables to be a part of infrastructure that you can easily cut costs on, rather than as an integral part of a datacentre that is connected to its optimal performance.

This results in most organisations cutting corners when choosing and implementing datacentre cables. This mindset also plagues the eventual management of the installed cables, leading directly to an administrative nightmare on the floor and having an adverse effect on all the connected networking infrastructure.

“Some of the biggest mistakes that IT managers make when managing cables in the datacentre include not having the correct change order controls, procedures and systems in place. An accurate database assists in times of emergency situations and regular maintenance or change control operations. Many a datacentre lacks suitably skilled and trained maintenance staff. Most do not have sufficient cable quantities in stock and when they do, they tend to have incorrect cable lengths or incorrect cable types,” states Eugene Botes, technical director for MEA and India at Swiss cabling vendor R&M.

“I think the single biggest mistake I find is the use of cabinets (with front doors) instead of open racks for patching management. The standard is clear, in the main distribution area and horizontal distribution area, it is mandatory to use open racks with vertical cable managers in between. These areas are where all the patching is done. That’s where you’ll typically find a large density of patch panels and switches. So what are closed cabinets for? They’re basically used for the equipment distribution area where the servers will be found, and when it is mandatory to lock the front door. Many companies tend to confuse the two types and the result is always the same – a huge mess where it becomes impossible to locate, let alone move, any patch cords,”says Humbert.

He also states that he is not too keen on keeping spare cable in organisations without a trained technician to handle it.

“I usually prefer the idea of intelligently pre-cabling as much as possible,” Humbert explains.

“The reason is simple: if you need to add cables, you will risk disrupting the existing ones. Not a good thing. So plan a design that allows adding equipment with the least cabling modification. For those who plan to have frequent changes with the fibre infrastructure, there are some special products dedicated for this – MPO, also called MTP. These are pre-terminated fibres with 12-core connectors. They allow changes in the fibre without the need for any special tools. This will reduce the need for a technician as well. However, this comes at a huge price,” he adds.
Looking at the issue from a software perspective, Saket Subramaniam, regional sales director for the Middle East at iTracs says, “The single most important element is good documentation. This point cannot be stressed enough. Having the latest cabling, newest switches and servers will all mean nothing if the manager does not know how those assets are connected and, more importantly, what happens if there is an unexpected change. From where we support the datacentre space, connectivity and asset management, the two biggest mistakes are failure to plan and failure to document; and both of these can be solved with good business policies and a good CMS application like iTRACS Physical Layer Manager (PLM).”

Following the rules

The best and most expensive cabling system is worth nothing if the management has not planned properly. And in truth, cable management need not be as complicated as it can seem; all proper management needs is a set of processes and a structure that the IT team is willing and has time to carry out regularly.

“Many organisations find themselves in a “fix it now” mindset. The problem with just working to correct problems and not documenting where cables are going and who is doing what to a system is that future problems will be compounded. If IT managers take the time to document their infrastructure and plan their scheduled moves they can begin to streamline their change process. Streamlined processes mean IT managers can get servers online quicker and proper documentation means IT managers can leverage existing infrastructure more efficiently and can decrease downtime because they know how assets are connected,” says Subramaniam.

Humbert stresses the need for managers to read and adopt standards in their datacentres when managing cables.

“Reading the standards is the best way to find out what you have to keep track of, and how to do it. Following a standard is also the best way to ensure that any new employee can adapt easily to the system, and that it is designed to evolve to the best of the knowledge available. Use the colour-coding, follow the recommended labelling schemes, label everything, and most important, record and update the information in a database,” he says.

He also stresses the need for modern-day datacentres to use software to manage the physical infrastructure at every opportunity and give up on the age old spreadsheet method.

“Installing a new server in a poorly managed datacentre can require hours of on-site auditing to find the right location. With the right software in place, this can be done in less then five minutes. The system can inform you of the availability of space, cabling, switch port, and even check if cooling and electrical power will allow it! Don’t forget, the more control you have over the network, the easier it will be to manage, and the more secure it can be,” says Humbert.

However, getting and reading standards can be more hassle than many account for. Most of the standards cost a lot of money and it is doubtful whether enterprises have the budgets to spare for them. Even when the organisation is willing to invest the money, it is not unheard of for IT teams not to use the voluminous tomes and allow them to gather dust, because they can prove to be dense to plough through.

Many vendors try to address this problem by coaching their partners in the region with the necessary standards. The truth is, not all of the partners need to know everything that is in the standards book; but they certainly need to have a good grasp of the basics and understand how to apply it in the regional scenario. And this is what vendors, like Ortronics and R&M with its new training centre, try to address.

Enterprises can and should ensure that the installers and support partners they choose are certified by the vendors and have prior experience in the region or globally. This will be an immense help not only in ensuring a comprehensive and effective design for the lay of the datacentre but also in future supervision of the cables.

“The best datacentre network infrastructure is not necessarily the highest performing one; it’s the one that has the best design for proper management and good evolution,” points out Humbert.

To reiterate, the best cabling solution is a complete waste of resources if it is not managed well so as to give optimal performance and sufficient longevity. And all it needs from an enterprise is a set of processes, an effective team of people from within and from partners, an understanding of the importance of cables in the general health of a datacentre and the involvement in making it work.

Simple as it may seem though, that, combined with the sheer effort needed, might prove to be too long a list of requirements for regional enterprises for some time to come.