For many companies, their employees are the backbone of their business. Without your employees, you won’t be successful. That said, every company depends on technology in order to perform daily operations. You could say that without technology, your employees can’t perform optimally; thus, you still won’t be successful. The thing is, many companies have a wide array of technology for their day-to-day work. Computers, laptops, modems, routers, switches, and servers; all of which they pack into a data center. One of the best moves a company can make to enhance their technology and network efficiency is re-cabling its data center. While re-cabling a data center may sound easy, it’s not a straightforward task; there’s a lot of room for error. Luckily, we’ve been in your shoes before and we’re going to teach you what to consider when re-cabling a data center. If you’d like to learn more, our experts break down everything you need to know and more in the comprehensive guide below.

Identify the Reason You’re Re-Cabling and Plan Accordingly

Chances are, you’re experiencing some issues if you’re thinking about re-cabling your data center. The reason could be common such as slow internet or frequent downtime. Alternatively, the reason you’re re-cabling may be more technical, such as increasing enterprise storage or global IP traffic; both of which are growing in popularity. If you don’t know why you’re re-cabling the data center, then your re-cabling attempt may be in vain. Planning is imperative to a successful data center build and re-build, and the first step of planning is naming the reason for the re-build.

Think about it, if you don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing, how could you possibly know what to do? To determine the reason (or reasons) why, you must recognize the problem. Is your internet slow or is your company growing and you need to support more devices? Each scenario would require a different course of action and without planning ahead of time, you just might waste your time and money.

Use Available Resources To Your Advantage

Unless you’re an IT professional, nobody expects you to know what you’re doing when re-cabling a data center. Even if you have a small data center with only a couple of equipment racks, re-cabling can get complicated quickly. Luckily, we live in the information age where you can learn almost anything for free, and there are plenty of resources to help you. When it comes time to re-cable, you should become familiar with ANSI and TIA, as they determine cabling standards in the United States. Both organizations also have a ton of information and resources available to you for free—take advantage of that. Of course, you can’t overlook YouTube when it comes to “how-to” videos, but beware. You must be cautious when following a YouTube video, as there are just as many (if not more) bad videos out there for every good one. Make sure you’re taking information from a reliable source. You can also contact CableWholesale if you encounter problems, as our team offers free technical assistance. Obviously, there’s no shortage of information and resources available—don’t make the mistake of attempting to re-cable your data center on your own.

Don’t Be Cheap With Your Cables

Your cables (amongst other hardware) can make or break your data center, network reliability and performance, and information security. Far too many people make the mistake of thinking, “an Ethernet cable is just an Ethernet cable” and purchase whatever cable is cheapest—but they couldn’t be more wrong. Not all Ethernet cables are made the same. Even more so, not all companies sell the same quality Ethernet cable. You must do your research and ensure you’re using high-quality cables for your data center. There are companies out there that have no problem using low-quality or even old and used copper wires and putting a new jacket over them. At CableWholesale, all of our cables are made with new top-quality materials. Whether you need an indoor or outdoor Cat6 cable or HDMI cables; we always guarantee the best cables available.

Take the Opportunity To Practice Cable Management

Most data centers have dozens (if not hundreds) of cables, each of which serves a specific purpose. You can imagine how easy it is to get cables mixed up or snag a cable out of its respective place. To prevent downtime, you must take cable management seriously. Cable management is obviously organized, but there are several advantages of having a solid cable management system in place. First, having your cables organized and documented makes resolving a network issue much easier and faster. Additionally, if you implement cable management, you can easily replace faulty cables in the event they fail. If all your cables are tangled, the duration of downtime will only increase and unorganized cables are a headache to sort through.

Consider Adopting a Structured Cabling Approach

Companies can benefit tremendously if they organize their data centers with structured cabling in mind. Structured cabling encourages cable management and follows several standards from the organizations mentioned earlier. Additionally, structured cabling is excellent for companies looking to grow. Between the standards and organization, you can easily add more nodes with the aid of structured cabling. After all, what company doesn’t want to grow and serve more customers?

Regardless if you’re a small business or a company with thousands of employees, you need technology and data centers to operate. Moreover, if you’re a startup company, there’s a good chance you don’t even have a data center yet—even better. Learning what to consider when re-cabling a data center early is only going to make your life easier in the future. Don’t forget to reference our guide here and the other reliable resources mentioned earlier. It’s vital that you get your data center setup properly the first time. If you fail to plan ahead of time, you’re going to have a hard time getting your data center up and running without it causing a headache. The good news is that you can do it; data centers only get complicated if you complicate them. In other words, you have the power to make your data center re-cabling or initial setup very easy.

CableWholesale is your one-stop-shop whether you need switches, Ethernet cables, or equipment racks. Our team consists of industry experts with first-hand knowledge of what you need to make your data center excellent. We refuse to settle for anything less than high-quality when developing our products. You can rest assured knowing that you’ll receive top-notch quality products and customer service when you shop with CableWholesale. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us today. We look forward to working with you.

Fiber optic cables are quite possibly one of the most reliable and fastest cables of our lifetime. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with copper wire cables, many people are understandably intrigued by the many benefits of fiber optic technology. People everywhere often have the same questions about fiber optic cables: if copper wire isn’t transmitting information, what is? How exactly do fiber optic cables work? If you’d like a general understanding of how fiber optic cables work, we encourage you to read on.

The General Construction of a Fiber Optic Cable

From the outside, a fiber optic cable may appear similar or identical to a standard Cat5e copper Ethernet cable. The difference, however, is found within. Although there are several different types of fiber optic cables, they all have a similar assembly. Instead of a copper wire, you’ll find optical fibers which are approximately the same diameter as a human hair. The optical fibers are made of glass or plastic and are then surrounded by cladding (which we promise will make more sense shortly).

How Fiber Optic Cables Work

Rather than relying on electrical currents running up and down a copper wire, fiber optic cables use photons or light particles. The data transmits through the speed of light by bouncing off the walls of the optical fibers. The core of the optical fiber acts like a mirror that reflects the light. The cladding we mentioned earlier has a minor refractive index, and thus, keeps the light within the fibers.

The two primary types of fiber-optics are single-mode and multi-mode. A single-mode fiber cable only transmits data straight down a single core without bouncing off the edges. Single-mode cables are most common for large-scale projects where you need to transmit signals over a long distance. A multi-mode cable, however, bounces light off the edges and is better for short-distance applications such as linking LANs.

In general, understanding how fiber optic cables work is relatively simple. There’s a beam of light in the core of the cable, and that light travels through the distance of the cable and several layers keep the light contained.

If you’re in the market for fiber optic cables for your business or an HDMI cable with Ethernet for your home, CableWholesale is your one-stop-shop. We use only the highest-quality materials for our cables, and we offer a lifetime warranty on most of our products. Check out our inventory today!

Most homeowners will unfortunately experience a power surge at one point or another; if you haven’t, consider yourself lucky. While some surges are worse than others, we can’t deny the possible outcomes of power surges. Your electronics might get destroyed, you could blow a circuit, and power surges can even start a fire; but what triggers these surges? If you’d like to know the answer, we’re going to break down the top causes of power surges in our guide below, so be sure to read on.

Lightning Strikes

The vast majority of power surges stem from storms, specifically lightning. When a storm rolls through your area, there’s a good chance that you might have a power surge. The problem is, you can’t control the weather—but you can protect your electronics. Every home should have their valuable electronics and appliances plugged into a surge protector. Don’t assume your power strip has a surge protector built-in. You also need to ensure you’re not overloading the surge protector. Most surge protectors have a number of joules that indicate the amount of protection they provide. In general, you should look for a surge protector with at least 400 joules. The more joules, the more protection.

Overloaded Outlets

A lot of homeowners and businesses make the mistake of overloading their outlets, or worse—their circuits. Now, we’re not saying you can’t plug more than one item into an outlet, because you can; that’s what power strips are for. You shouldn’t, however, have a power strip plugged into another power strip—that’s practically asking for a power surge. Alternatively, if you overload and trip circuit breakers frequently, you may need to call an electrician to prevent power surges.

Exposed Wires

It should be obvious that nothing good ever comes out of exposed wires—but exposed wires aren’t typically your fault. If you have wires exposed around an outlet in your home, you should call an electrician to ensure the repair is done properly. Alternatively, there could be exposed wires in your city that need to be repaired. The problem is that you may experience power surges until your local electric company replaces and covers those wires.

Many of the top causes of power surges are out of your control, which is why you must take preventative measures with surge protectors. Don’t forget that a power surge can affect more than a cord; they can also affect your HDMI cables if they’re connected to, say, your television.

If you’re in need of a surge protector or a new high-speed HDMI cable with Ethernet, CableWholesale has you covered. All our products are made with only the highest quality materials. We also offer a lifetime warranty on most of our products. Check out our inventory today and don’t forget to take advantage of our free technical assistance.

If you need a reliable connection to transmit audio and visual data such as video, you’ve probably encountered two primary options: HDMI and DisplayPort. Despite the similarities between the two cables, there are some distinct differences as well. Continue reading to learn the difference between HDMI and DisplayPort cables.

The Connector

The first difference you might notice between HDMI and DisplayPort cables is their connector. Most HDMI cables have 19 pins and they’re available in a few different shapes. The common types are the standard HDMI, mini HDMI, and micro HDMI. Alternatively, the connectors on DisplayPort cables have 20 pins and come in two sizes: the standard and Mini DisplayPort (which is the same as Thunderbolt).

Resolution and Bandwidth

Arguably the most common HDMI cable today is the high-speed HDMI with Ethernet which supports 4K visual quality at 30 or 60Hz. On the other hand, DisplayPort cables also come in a variety of versions. DisplayPort 1.2 is comparable to high-speed HDMI with Ethernet in that it supports 4K quality at 75Hz. Additionally, you could get a DisplayPort 1.4 which supports 4K quality at 120Hz or 8K quality at 60Hz.

Audio

One of the defining factors between HDMI and DisplayPort cables is the audio features. HDMI has a feature known as an audio return channel (ARC), which simply means the audio signal can travel in both directions. With the exception of an ARC, the latest versions of HDMI and DisplayPort cables are comparable in terms of audio channels, quality, and capabilities.

As you can see, both cables are very similar, but the difference between HDMI and DisplayPort cables is found in their applications. In general, HDMI cables are common in entertainment centers while DisplayPort cables are common in workstations where you use high-end displays. Some avid gamers also prefer DisplayPort cables because of their graphic cards.

Whether you need a 100-foot HDMI cable or DisplayPort cable, look no further than CableWholesale. Our team consists of industry experts, and that’s why we only supply the highest-quality cables at a fair price. Check out our inventory today or give us a call if you have any questions.