A – Doing it yourself (purchase hardware + maintenance headaches = $$$$)

B – Managed Hosting with Rackspace (quality servers + fully managed support services = $) starts at only $299*

ANSWER: B – Rackspace Managed Hosting from Tier 1 IP

It’s true. Outsourcing some or all of your I.T. needs to Rackspace Hosting immediately reduces your hardware expenditures and payroll expenses. You don’t have to own and maintain your hardware or even hire the experts to run it for you in-house. You spend substantially less and get considerably more from Rackspace – including thousands of employees working around the clock to help you be successful. And that, as they say, is a pretty nice return on investment.

Contact Tier 1 IP today for more details!

1. Boost employee productivity by reducing distractions and increasing acoustical comfort in call centers or shared work spaces.
2. Reduce risk of security breaches by ensuring speech privacy in public spaces.  Achieve confidential speech privacy for executives, counselors,lawyers, healthcare professionals and workers with similar privacy requirements.
3. Reduce distractions in quiet spaces such as libraries where, because of the lack of background noise, every sound draws attention.
4. Low power consumption.
5. Scalability, large area coverage options and customizable, networked configurations.
6. Improve acoustical comfort and reduce the effects of reverberation in workspaces with high ceilings, exposed beams, reflective surfaces and non-standard ceilings.
7. Emitters are driven directly from control module and require no external power.

Qt Quiet technology™ is a sound masking, paging and music system that uses cutting-edge distributed audio technology for workplace excellence. Sound masking systems are successfully deployed in millions of square feet of commercial and government offices. Installations range from small offices to enterprise campuses of unlimited size and zones where centralized software control is required.

Cambridge Sound Management, selected Tier 1 IP as your local authorized reseller of their industry leading Quiet Technology™ products.

IT equipment has continued to increase in communication speed capacity due to the quick response time by vendors/manufacturers in supplying products.  If a data center manager is faced with a poorly designed cabling infrastructure, the whole process suddenly comes to a grinding halt. To avoid such a situation it is important to obtain advice from an experienced network design engineer, preferably an RCDD (Registered Communications Distribution Designer), during the master planning stages of the construction project.

A cabling system has six subsystems in order for it to be classified as structured. First, it must contain entrance facilities which refer to the building interfaces along with the equipment rooms that store equipment (servers, routers, switches, security systems, telecom equipment, phone systems, etc.) used to serve users connecting to the cabling system. The telecommunication rooms, or closets, house mission-critical equipment and serve as a connection point to two cabling subsystems – the backbone cabling and the horizontal cabling.  These two pieces tie the system together with the horizontal cabling connecting the telecommunication equipment to the workstation outlets. The work-area components connect the end-user equipment to the outlets coming from the horizontal cabling system.  Patch cables are used to connect the users’ equipment (computers, phones, printers) to the work-area outlets.  Patch cables should be less than 16 feet in length.  Patch cables are also used to connect the network switches the the patch panels.  The patch panels are the termination point for the aforementioned horizontal cabling.  In addition to patch panels, network racks or cabinets can also contain fiber optic enclosures.  These boxes protect the sensitive fiber optic strands from getting damaged at the termination points.  The enclosures are also use to patch the fiber cables to GBICs or fiber optical media converters.  All six components can be properly constructed according to industry standards and maintained individually for better organization.

A network design engineer can recommend ways to maximize the structured cabling system’s easability to make ongoing changes to configuration planned today and respond to future equipment technologies as well. Some example recommendations that a network design engineer should make during construction planning are:

• Placing telecommunications IDFs in central locations in the office space to enable clean cable management.
• Telecommunications rooms: MDFs, IDFs and ER should be designed with a 20% to 30% expansion capacity to accommodate future equipment requirements.
 • Planning for future equipment acquisition and business growth in facilities when designing pathways during new construction phases to efficiently plan for future cable installation.
• Recommend a high-performance cabling infrastructure system capable of supporting a variety of communications needs, including voice, data, video, electronic security, and building control.  At a minimum, Category 5e cable should be installed.  Category 6a and fiber optic cables provide the best ROI because they provide the ability to meet both current and future network communication performance requirements.
• When selecting a structured cabling system it is beneficial to get a performance certification that will cover the network’s actual delivery rather than simply the installation of specific products.  Such a certification on a cabling infrastructure guarantees that a system installed today will perform at or above industry standards.  It also ensures that new applications defined for the installation will work.
• Switches should be located in the center of server rows to enable simple and cost effective cable management as well as the efficient addition of equipment. It also shortens cable runs, which translates into cost savings up front and later when MACs (Moves, Adds, Changes) are required.

An effective cable system design coupled with an industry standard installation from Tier 1 IP increases your ROI, minimizes MACs, and reduces your IT administrators’ need to spend time testing, troubleshooting, or replacing the cabling system.  During the commercial construction planning stages of a new data center, office building, or tenant improvement project, it is crucial to spend time anticipating future needs and allow for expansion and technology upgrades in a copper or fiber optic cabling infrastructure.  A qualified network design engineer will ensure that prudent planning and intelligent design are combined with cabling industry standards during installation.  This will result in a structured cabling infrastructure that has a good chance of staying productive for several years, reduces unplanned expenses over time, and provides building occupants with access to high-performance, cutting-edge telecommunications solutions.

All businesses should use structured cabling systems to ensure quick and reliable data communications that help you stay on top of the competition.

Mike Howson is a network consultant who implements structured cabling systems for US businesses and Government in office buildings, warehouses, data centers, and industrial facilities.  For information on Network Cabling, including Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, Multimode Fiber, and Singlemode Fiber, he recommends contacting Tier 1 IP, a leading structured cabling installation company.

Are cubicles (modular funiture) involved with your new office space?

Schedule meeting with architect, IT personell, and structured cabling installation company such as Tier 1 IP to make sure all questions are answered.

Decide if it is time to upgrade your phone system.  How old is your current PBX?  Does it make more sense to install a new VoIP system instead of moving your existing phone system.

Here is an example of how not to wire a data center:

In the mid-1980s, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and the Electronic Industries Association (EIA) began developing methods for wiring buildings, with the intent of developing a uniform cabling system that supports multivendor products and environments.  In 1991, the TIA and EIA released the TIA/EIA 568 Commercial Building Telecommunication Cabling standard.  Structured cabling systems are designed by a set of standards specifying hundreds of details on how to install Cat3, Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, and Fiber Optic cables.  Experienced technicians understand the benefits of performing a proper data cabling installation.  Some of these benefits include:

1. Construction costs can be reduced by up to 30 percent
2. Moves, Adds, Changes, or Upgrades can be performed more efficiently and customers could realize a savings of up to 40 percent.
3. Troubleshooting is simplified and quicker.  Issues on specific wires are easier to isolate  and fix.

Here are a few examples of data cabling done right:

Tier 1 IP ALWAYS performs voice wiring and data cable installations to comply with industry standards.

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