Today, with the rapid advancement of information technologies, we are presented with news such as the development of fiber optic systems with 64-fiber connectors, reaching data speeds of 1.6 Terabits per second (http://www.datacenterdynamics.es/focus/archive/2013/09/corning-desarrolla-tecnolog%C3%ADa-de-fibra-para-intel ) , it is striking how even in our “developing” countries there are obtuse minds that question compliance with minimum standards or norms that guarantee the operability of communication systems in organizations.
In my more than 15 years of teaching experience in this area of knowledge, I have been able to collect numerous comments that to this day are like walls that are built up, hindering the work of those responsible for information systems, in many cases, and in others it even becomes an endemic problem in companies by accepting sub-standard practices as their own, just because others do it.
While it is true that we could cover several aspects, including those related to workplace safety (OSHA recommendations and others), in this article I only want to mention some barriers that some participants in the courses have expressed to me, which limit the development of improvement projects and even put the functionality of their networks at risk (In an Information Society, which seeks to expand spaces for citizen participation, optimize costs and the value chain, this turns out to be at least questionable from the point of view of someone who is immersed in the technological world).
It is still common to hear the following comments today:
I don't need such a large telecommunications room, a shelf is enough…
The cables can be laid on the floor…
Why horizontal computers…
Let's make the direct connections with patch cords….
Category 5 is sufficient…
The equipment rests on a wall shelf…
Let's put all the electrical and communications equipment in the same room…
I want glass walls so I can see the teams….
The most important thing is the aesthetics in telecommunications rooms…
It doesn't matter that the cables are tight, they're not visible…
Use junction boxes as curves…
Make the gutter fittings yourself…
Connect the electrical cables with the communication cables…
I don't need a cable, just wireless…
My network will never grow…
etc, etc, etc.
To learn about industry best practices and standards, I recommend reviewing the various documents published on the websites of prestigious organizations that issue these documents, as well as articles from leading manufacturers.
Below are some photos of companies that follow the saying: “Misery loves company…”
Engineer Yuri: Your grades in your classes are very good, you have to keep fighting.
In our early days of structured cabling, I remember that time and again, year after year, we tirelessly had to remind the architect not to forget to include the area for the telecommunications room in their plans for office and/or building projects.
Check out this anecdote.
In the projects we reviewed, there was always an area for the cleaning sink, but there was always a missing telecommunications room; it was a hard struggle and in the end we managed to standardize the Telecommunications Room area in the Plans.
This process lasted approximately the entire decade of the 1990s.