How to Protect Your Data Cables and Data Centre from Damage

14 September 2016
 Categories: , Blog

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Data cables play a vital role in the success of any modern business, providing communication within the organisation and with the rest of the globe. If your company is considering installing data cabling or a new data centre, you may be wondering about how to best care for the cables. To ensure that both the data cables and your data centre are operating in peak condition, it is important that you take steps to reduce the wear and tear on the data system. Below is a brief guide to some steps you can take to protect your data systems. 

Correctly Store Cables in Your Data Centre

The storage of cables within your company's data centre is key to ensuring a high level of reliability. If cables are stored on or close to the ground, they may be affected by moisture. Over time, excessive moisture can degrade and damage data cables. Cables kept on the floor can also be easily damaged if they are stepped on by a member of your staff. In an effort to keep cables off the floor, some companies hang them from the ceiling or along the walls. However, this can also cause damage to the cables, as gravity will pull on the cables causing them to stretch. Because the fibre optic cable or copper wiring within the cable cannot stretch to the same degree as the outer case, this can lead to broken cables. You should ideally store your data cables on shelves which run along a wall within your data centre.

Use Cable Trays

Cable trays are a great way of keeping cables gathered in one place. Using a cable tray is also a better choice than bundling different sets of cables together. Bundling cables together can cause them to rub against each other causing the outer casing to wear down. You should ensure that your cable trays are properly organised, with the heaviest cables on the bottom of the tray and the lightest at the top. This will prevent the weight of the heavy cables from damaging any lighter cables underneath them.

Separate Different Types of Cables

You should separate data cables from electrical cables within the data centre. If you fail to do this, the electrical charge generated by the electrical cables can interfere with phone and data cabling, causing them to malfunction. To prevent this, you should store electrical and data cables using different shelves and cable trays.

If you require further information, contact a data cabling company today.