Why Cable Management Should Be Done By IT Pros

By Ryan Klund - Business Development Associate

Its already difficult to keep our cords and cables for our devices clean and organized at our desk. So you can imagine how its exponentially more difficult to keep cables managed and organized in a server room or a data center and across an organization’s building(s).

Proper Cable Management is more than keeping cords and cables organized. Congested and disorganized cabling can be a safety hazard and could cause network outages and downtime for your organization.

Four Reasons Why Cable Management is Important

1. Safety
   If you have a server room with a spaghetti mess of cables all over the place, you have a tripping hazard at best. An out of place cable could cause electrical shock and mismanaged cables can prevent airflow – which could lead to overheating and a fire hazard. 
2. Performance
   We mentioned airflow already and it is an important consideration for more than safety reasons. Proper airflow through professional cable management will ensure cabling is operating unimpeded and efficiently. Good cable management will also allow for optimal circuit and signal performance of your cabling, avoiding issues like interference, crosstalk, and a slower network.
3. Perception
   Imagine if you brought a client or customer into your server room. What would they think? What would be their perception of your business? Whether we like it or not, the way the physical infrastructure looks will have an impact on the way customers and your own employees look at the organization and reliability of your company. Perception matters!
4. Cost Savings
   The biggest impact good cable management has is the money it’ll save your business over time. With proper cable management you’ll spend less on the physical cables, since they won’t be bent or broken. If there’s any troubleshooting that needs to happen to your servers, properly labeled and managed cables will save your IT team time finding and replacing cables. Lastly, the biggest cost incurred from improper cable management is the cost of an outage or downtime. You can’t afford to have your business down with a problem that could be avoided if cable management was done the right way.

IT Pros will have the right strategy

Cable management is more than neat-looking cables. There are certain cable management strategies that should be employed, depending on your hardware and situation. An IT Professional can determine if you need a Horizontal or Vertical Cable Management strategy or perhaps both options might be necessary for your environment.

SWICKtech manages server and network infrastructure for hundreds of businesses in Waukesha, Milwaukee and the greater Midwest. If you have any questions about cable management, feel free to reach out for a no-strings-attached consultation.