Originally posted by Jim Bennett:
such a system is only of any use if it is constantly updated in real time, every time something is moved, changed, or added. This is a tough order to fill
Jim - You are on the money.
I remember being tasked by my valued customer [insert flourish of trumpets here, please] The Bank of New York,[now please clash cymbals. Thank you.] to come up with a cable management software that would track every cable run in the network (voice and data) and would completely comply with the EIA/TIA 606 spec. (This was about 30,000 runs split 60/40 Data & Voice.)
I found one (this was in 1996 or so) that ran on a DEC PDP-11 and cost a gazillion or so dollars. The gazillion dollars wasn't the problem. When I asked the SVP which two or three people were going to administer it as their full time jobs, he got a sick look on his face and said he'd get back to me.
I'm still waiting.
The IT people never seem to get it. What are you going to do - follow the installers around while they pull the cable? Design a nomenclature for all your pathways and spaces? Pay extra for cable with footage markings, take down the footage and record it each time? Draw up the whole business? Redraw it whenever there's construction and renovation?
It never happens.
Even if they go into this with the best of intentions, it never lasts past the first corporate cutback.
And the big question, that no one seems to ever ask (or answer) is:
TO WHAT END? WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS FOR?
If you know where a cable starts, and which closet it terminates in and where it is in the closet, then how it gets there is really unimportant. If it passes certification at Cat-X, then does it really matter if it's 65 feet or 294 feet long?
Put together a general plan of how your cable runs and keep a nice database, or at least a spreadsheet and you're in business.
Fancy cabling systems work fine for jobs of 50 cables or less - and for jobs that size - what do you need it for?
Sam
