The Benefits of Structured Cabling Systems for Your Business
Whether or not you are aware of the importance of cabling systems for your business, it is probable that you have relied on a cabling system of some kind in the past.
You may even be relying on one now.
Almost every modern building or facility—including data centers, office spaces, and apartment buildings—will depend on a network of cables that operate behind the scenes to facilitate digital communications.
Structured cabling systems, also known as modern or organised cabling systems, support a location’s telecommunications. They are responsible for transferring data between your computer systems, connecting offices to fibre-optic broadband networks, and facilitating any audiovisual methods of communication.
In comparison to ad hoc networks, structured cabling systems support telecommunications and phone lines with far fewer disruptions and minimal downtime.
Because of this, structured cabling systems are an increasingly crucial contributor to any working environment.
As business is more global than ever before, the performance and reliability of IT infrastructure has become more important.
When you consider the business world’s growing dependence on telecommunications, very few businesses can afford to risk their continuity, agility, and scalability by failing to invest in modern cabling systems.
The following list of benefits demonstrates the importance of structured cabling systems for modern businesses. As IT support specialists in Surrey, London, Kent, Glasgow, and beyond, we have over a decade of experience helping businesses realise the benefits of structured cabling systems.
We have experienced the impact of structured cabling systems first-hand, having helped businesses across the globe increase efficiency, reliability, scalability, and make major cost-savings.
This guide also provides a brief overview of the history of networks and addresses predictions for the future, both of which will contribute to your understanding of the importance of organised cabling systems.
A Quick History Lesson: The Past and Future of Networks & Cabling Systems
You may be wondering why the history of telecommunications networks is relevant to modern cabling systems.
At Micro Pro, we believe that the history of IT technology can inform our understanding of what comes next, allowing us to prepare the businesses we work with for future challenges we’ve already anticipated and assessed.
The history of networks and cabling systems shines a light on the upwards trajectory of our telecommunications technology—demonstrating not only how this technology has evolved but emphasising the likelihood that it will continue to do so, at increasingly overwhelming speed.
Put simply, the history of networks and cabling systems provides us with invaluable insight into the future, so that we can better prepare ourselves for it now.
Let’s Begin With the Earliest Telecommunications Networks
When the internet first gained mainstream popularity, it quickly became clear that telephone lines could not sufficiently support the demands of telecommunication activities.
Cabled networks, such as ethernet, provided a solution to this issue.
The early cabled networks were wired to an individual building site or campus. As such, they provided internet connectivity in commercial environments and facilitated faster communication.
According to Our World In Data, the number of internet users across the globe increased from 413 million in 2000 to over 3.4 billion in 2016!
Due to businesses becoming more dependent on the internet, wiring and cabling had to advance rapidly to accommodate uploading, downloading, file transfers, video communications, hosting, and other forms of high-speed communication.
Moreover, the growing popularity of the internet allowed even small organisations to grow and conduct business on a global scale, with offices and operations scattered across multiple continents.
This led to a sudden need for advanced networks capable of supporting the demands of modern enterprises.
Cabling for Growth
During this period of rapid development, older networks, much like unstructured cabling networks today, became progressively insufficient.
Without an industry-wide protocol, these older networks were difficult to scale and lacked the agility necessary to support a growing business.
Bandwidth and speed requirements began to expand. As a result, infrastructure was founded on a point-to-point connections system. Which led to inflexible layouts, tangled and disorganised cable connections, and overburdened servers and devices.
What Does This Mean For the Future?
As the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart devices become the norm, implementing modern cabling systems moved from recommended to essential.
With fibre optic internet on the rise, people and businesses alike expect excellent internet connection, no matter where they are. To meet demand, governments are pushing mass rollouts of superfast internet for the benefit of businesses and consumers.
Structured cabling systems are serving as the foundation for businesses preparing for the inevitable move towards smarter home and business environments.
As IT support and consultancy specialists, we consider predicting the future to be an integral part of our role. Experience has shown us that to stay agile and scalable in the face of rapidly evolving network technologies, businesses must take proactive steps to position themselves on the front foot and optimise their infrastructure to withstand these upcoming changes.
Structured cabling systems play a fundamental role in achieving this.
Key Benefits of Structured Cabling Systems
In addition to playing an important role in future-proofing your business, structured cabling systems also provide a range of other benefits.
1. Manageable & Less Error-Prone
Structured cabling systems organise networks into subsystems, which provides a logical structure that improves manageability.
Structured cabling systems are orderly and their design is meticulous to reflect the needs of each individual working environment. Which means that they are much easier to manage.
With its consistent design, structured cabling systems offer very few opportunities for errors to occur—particularly when professionally designed and installed by IT infrastructure experts.
2. Structured Cabling Systems Require Less Oversight
Another benefit of the design consistency of structured cabling is that it reduces the need for management oversight. This is because structured cabling allows any certified installer to make network adjustments. Without any prior knowledge of your infrastructure.
The configuration of professionally installed structured cabling is apparent and accompanied by clear documentation, enabling modifications to be made with ease.
In short, structured cabling minimises the pressure on business management to understand and oversee an otherwise complex and disordered cabling system.
3. Easier to Troubleshoot
Diagnosing and troubleshooting a system that has been structured purposefully and considerately is significantly easier and faster.
The logical structure of modern cabling systems enables you to interrogate individual components in a methodical manner. As a result, simplifying the process of locating the root cause of errors.
This has a knock-on effect, reducing downtime, minimising support costs, increasing business availability, and driving business productivity.
4. Productivity & Reduced Downtime
The uniform configuration of modern cabling systems also has a positive impact on productivity and downtime, which are key to ensuring business continuity.
Poor connectivity and faulty cabling are the most common causes of network downtime in commercial environments.
According to Accounts and Legal, IT downtime costs businesses an average of £3.6 million every year, with research finding that technical errors cost companies an average of between £4,300 and £258,000 per hour.
To make matters worse, the average amount of staff time lost due to IT outages per year equates to 545 hours. At a standard hourly wage of £13.75, this amounts to £7,235 per year, per employee.
These figures demonstrate that, although implementing structured cabling may require an initial investment, this cost is significantly outweighed by the cost-saving potential. With well-planned infrastructure and professionally installed structured cabling, your business will benefit from a productive and happy workforce, as well as a reliable and resilient network.
5. Adaptable & Scalable
As we have already touched on, one of the most notable advantages of structured cabling systems is that they are adaptable and scalable.
In our rapidly evolving business world, your businesses must be agile enough to face sudden changes to avoid falling behind your competition.
Structured cabling systems are easy to update, scale, and flexible. As they can be modified to accommodate changing requirements.
They support the quick and easy deployment of new services, providing the essential infrastructure needed to adopt and implement new and emerging technologies—giving businesses an edge over their competitors.
With the adaptability of structured cabling systems, you can ensure that your infrastructure isn’t held back by outdated cabling. In addition, ensure that it is ready to face whatever the future might hold.
6. Higher Bandwidth
Structured cabling systems supply more bandwidth than older cables, allowing for better network performance, faster data transfers, more reliable connections, and quicker loading times.
This is key to ensuring that businesses have perfect wifi at all times.
This is because most modern cabling systems utilise rapid fiber optic cables with high capacity and a surplus of bandwidth availability.
Implementing structured cabling that runs to the Wireless Access Point ensures that any device in the area will have access to the full bandwidth of the complete system, without interference or loss of performance.
Given how dependent we have all become on the internet—in both domestic and commercial settings—it is safe to say that high internet speed plays an important role in keeping your workforce happy. Speed and happiness translate into productivity, providing another notable advantage, and this is exactly what we were told when we asked some clients currently using our IT Services in Surrey.
Facilitating higher bandwidth by implementing structured cabling also helps businesses prepare for the future by providing additional capacity.
As your business grows, you will need to accommodate more connections and have access to higher bandwidth, and it is far more cost-effective to address these needs now than to retrofit at a later date.
7. Structured Cabling is Future-Proof
As with many industries, it is time to get on board or fall behind as the future of both domestic and commercial settings becomes more digital and automated.
From smart homes and virtual assistant AI technologies to smart cities and IoT, it is clear that the coming years will redefine our understanding of technology and the part it plays in business environments.
In an article by Forbes titled, “What Does The Future Hold For Business?”, Serenity Gibbons predicts that we can expect increased automation, greater specialisation, and more digital disruption in the next few years—and while the digital future will look different for every business, Gibbons emphasises that all businesses must adapt to survive.
If these predictions prove true, the future will create opportunities for massive improvements in efficiency, connectivity, and productivity.
To stay competitive within this context, businesses will require high-speed, scalable, and agile networks capable of overcoming the challenges of the next digital revolution.
This revolution is imminent, and some might argue that it has already begun.
As claimed in an article by Inc. the future belongs to “those who don’t wait to create it”. In line with this thinking, many businesses we provide IT Support to in Surrey, London and beyond, have already started getting themselves “AI-ready” and optimising their operations to withstand radical change.
Structured cabling systems are a critical part of these preparations. Because they deliver a high-performance infrastructure that is built for continuity, is adaptable, and, scalable.
The structured cabling systems industry is expected to grow worldwide by 43% in the next five years alone, which suggests that many businesses are already ahead of the competition in optimising their infrastructure to meet the demands of the future.
Implementing a Structured Cabling System For Your Business
Every structured cabling system design is entirely unique because every building and facility is different and each business will have varying requirements. To ensure that your structured cabling system is tailored to your business and optimised to reap the benefits listed in this guide, it is important that your modern cabling system is professionally installed.
As London IT Support specialists in IT infrastructure implementation and management, Micro Pro can help you establish and maintain a structured cabling system that delivers cost-savings, future-proofs your business, reduces downtime, and improves productivity.
If you’re interested in how we can create a scalable cabling system for your company that is primed for expansion, we would love to hear from you, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.