By 2003, 4 exabytes of data had been generated worldwide. This volume of data is now generated every two days… The 2012 Winter Olympics in Sochi generated more data than all previous Olympics combined. Year on year we generate more and more data in shorter periods of time. With the rise in video this trend will only continue and IoT will add vast amounts of data to that.
The effects of these developments on the world can no longer be overlooked. Now and into the future connectivity is vital. Any IT or AV architecture that is based off-site and uses cloud computing but does not use high-quality, reliable connections is risking everything. High performance requirements in data centres demands state-of-the-art products, especially when talking about cable infrastructure. Copper-based connectivity is a flexible and economical solution that still offers a large amount of bandwidth and scalability to meet current, and future, requirements.
Patch leads deserve special attention as they represent the lifelines of modern communication infrastructure. Without high quality patch leads, reliability of transmission cannot be guaranteed. Patch leads are business critical to many company operations and can easily be integrated with new and emerging technologies, however a single unreliable patch lead can jeopardise all communication between servers with mission-critical data and functions, resulting in huge losses. These losses can be easily avoided by selecting high quality and high-performance patch leads.
It is important to match the speed of the patch lead to the speed of the cabling or go one step up – using a Cat 6 patch lead on a Cat 5e network is fine but not the other way round because a Cat 5e patch lead in a Cat 6 network will potentially limit the speed.
In a cabling channel, the accepted distance of the fixed cabling is 90 metres allowing for patch leads up to 5 metres at each end. For the sake of tidiness try to use the appropriate length patch lead – don’t use a 3 metre lead when a 1 metre will do. It makes the rack untidy and makes thing hard to trace if you are pulling metres of slack.
Patch leads can cause unpredictable faults. For instance, we have experienced several cases where a Primary Rate ISDN goes down. All appears OK, the patch lead is removed, a loopback is done both ways, the patch lead is plugged back in and the circuit comes back into service. The problem may be solved permanently or it may reoccur soon afterwards. Replacing the patch lead is usually the permanent fix.
For bulk ordering of high quality patch leads or for structured cabling installations, please contact us.
