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Fibre optic cable is the cream of the crop when it comes down to network cabling quality. It’s faster, and more secure than twisted paired copper, but it’s also more expensive. But for some applications, particularly those with very heavy data loads, where bandwidth is an issue and speed a premium consideration Fibre optic is also useful where outside interference is a problem, it’s hands and shoulders above anything else on the market. It can also carry the data far greater distances before the signal requires any sort of boost.

3 Main Types of Fibre Optic Cable

There are three main types of Fibre Optic cabling available today. They are:

As the New Year is upon us, we thought a little less cables and a little more fun facts were suitable to see 2014 in properly. This interesting infographic from Insight below looks at how technology has changed over the course of the last quarter century.

For many of us that have been involved in technology for quite some time, it’s odd to think that the World Wide Web was first being developed by the UK’s very own Tim Berners-Lee and team just 23 years ago. Did anyone back then in 1990 see it coming to this?

A structured cabling system (SCS) refers to a complete system of cabling, together with its associated items of connectivity hardware, that is uniquely designed and installed to carry the services of business’s IT infrastructure around any given premises.

This is as opposed to point to point cabling, which only connects specific devices to each other. A SCS is totally independent of any other devices such as servers, or PCs, or printers etc, yet it serves to provide such devices with the signals and data they need to operate.

IT audits often feel like something of a personal imposition, especially to the people who are responsible for operating the IT system. However they are a necessary evil that substantiate whether the IT system being audited conforms to any industry compliances that may apply, or industry best practice.

Industry Standards

Here in Europe ISO 9001 helps to ensure businesses adopt best practice in terms of quality of information, and procedural discipline, across both their entire administration infrastructure, and any production facilities; whilst within the IT sector, (across all industries), it is ISO 27002 which rules the roost in terms of recommending the measures that should be deployed in order to best safe-guard information security.

This week’s infographics takes an in-depth look at fibre optic cabling and how different types can affect network performance. The image itself is courtesy of US company Siemon, following benchmarking tests on different types of fibre cabling.

The testing and accompanying study included looking at generic fibre jumpers, which can be obtained through retail channels, usually online through approved resellers and big brand names from around the globe. This was intended to help infrastructure specialists help understand the variables that could be at work when it comes to the solutions that they choose.

Many businesses today use LAN (Local Area Network) technology to enable employees to share a common data source. It also provides a common point via which the devices that employees use, can communicate with one another. There is however an ongoing debate as whether businesses should deliver their LANs via a wired, or an unwired connection.

But with more and more companies now opting to deploy wireless rather than wired technology, are they perhaps not fully informed, or is it that they see are making informed decisions and are opting to avail themselves of the many advantages that working wirelessly facilitates?

As we rely more and more on technology to help us to increase business agility and profitability, downtime on the network can be costly to any business. For the data centre, it can be fatal if they have a lot of customers relying on the various services that they may offer.

As the use of cloud computing increases and more businesses turn to the technology in order to host their entire IT infrastructure, any downtime a data centre may suffer will have a ripple effect on the businesses that they serve.

All businesses, regardless of size, should have some sort of Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) in place. Even a sole trader will be in trouble if his/her computer goes down, denying all access to programs, outstanding order details, billing and shipping addresses.

Having a DRP in place is only Half the Battle

Having a good DRP in place is only half the battle. Knowing how to implement that plan, and making sure that the plan works as it is meant to, are both equally important factors too – in fact more than that – they are essential. Finding out that the plan cannot be deployed for any reason, or that it has failed to take some important aspect into consideration, may well prove to be as bad as not having a plan in situ in the first place.

Back in 2007, Gartner technology researchers found that ICT accounted for 2% of all global CO2 emissions. They also pointed out at this time that this was as much as that produced by the aviation industry.

The USA’s Initiative

The realisation that industries such as IT have a significant part to play in the CO2 emissions war, has given rise to a number of international initiatives focused on the construction of new environmentally friendly buildings. For example in North America, the USGBC (United States Green Building Council) have just had the LEED v4 rating system officially approved, and relevant trades within the industry have been advised to take note.

The IT function within any business can be considered as a tool designed to leverage the attaining of that business’s goals, the biggest of which is to make money – to turn over a profit. What no company can afford to do is to jeopardise that goal, by allowing the best tool it has for achieving it, to under-perform.

The Product Guarantee

Most of the important tools that are used in operating a business are protected with a guarantee. These guarantees are usually straightforward. If the product fails within a given time scale, (usually those time scales can be lengthened to meet circumstances), it will be repaired or replaced free of charge. If the tool in question is a Van or a Lathe, that arrangement works well, always providing the repair or exchange is done in a timely manner. But with IT it’s quite different.

When CharlesDarwin published his theory of evolution, computers only existed in the
realms of science fiction (if at all). As for the web, that would have been
considered the stuff of unimagined dreams. Darwin’s theory, posited in “The
Origin of the Species”, was of coursed aimed at the natural world.

However, it can also be applied to the world of computing
and the Internet in particular. The web as we know understand it first came
being in 1974 when Telenet
become the world’s first ISP. Telenet brought something that had previously
only been used by the US military – something referred to as ARPANET, into
the public domain.

Unified communications is essentially the strategy of treating allcommunications as data and processing them through the same network. Thus
landlines are replaced by VoIP communications, fax machines by electronic fax
gateways and answering services with a number which follows employees.

This typically generates a reduction in support costs, not only because
it means that only one set of infrastructure has to supported, but also because
it means that internal phone calls can be taken out of the public telephone
network and made for free over the corporate network. While costs benefits
always go down well, unified communications have numerous benefits which would
make the strategy valuable even if it carried a cost.

Quadratek is pleased toannounce we have become a Brand-Rex Select Partner.  Brand-Rex is a
manufacturer of high-performance copper based cabling systems, fibre
optic systems, and Intelligent Infrastructure Management Solutions.  
Quadratek is able to offer high quality, competitively priced,
installations backed by a 25 year warranty program.

Brand-Rex Partner Website.

On Friday the 3rd of May 2013 Quadratek Infrastructure Ltd successfully completed its first annual ISO surveillance visit.  Auditors from ISOQAR attended both Quadratek’s offices and customer sites where work was in progress.  The Audit was passed by ISOQAR with no findings.

Quadratek are now pleased to offer Air Blown fibre installations.  For further information please visit our Air Blown Fibre Page

Quadratek Cable and Data Cabinet Consolidation A service that offers to increase the ease of use/identification and the density of the rack … Reduce Data Centre costs by increasing cabinet density, avoid the need to increase IT estate footprint.

Inconsistent patchy Wi-Fi coverage can not only cause frustration, but can directly affect staff productivity and satisfaction. Quadratek are able to provide a Wi-Fi Test and Analysis service that will identify issues, problem and provide recommendations and solutions  Coverage Survey and report  Remediation plan  Supply of Wi-Fi Hardware  Installation and Configuration  On-going Support and Maintenance

Power over Ethernet (PoE) is an innovative technology that is increasingly being used to power IP telephones, wireless LAN access points, network cameras, and other network appliances.  Network technicians that have implemented or are considering implementing PoE and installers offering this technology as part of their service should be aware of some potential impacts on…