Unintended consquences can be positive
Wednesday, June 9, 2010 at 10:55PM 
An unexpected bennie of putting in our district's VOIP phone system this summer may well be that our whole IP network is getting an upgrade. At least our wiring closets certainly are.
Like a lot of places, our networks "grew" without much of a master plan. We added drops, patch panels and switches as our needs grew. We replaced classroom hubs with multiple direct runs as budgets and remodeling projects allowed. As a cost savings measure, we made a lot of our own patch cords - with 2, 4, or 6 wires according to mood. Cable management was, well, nice when there was time. Our closets looked "organic" to put it kindly.
Like most schools, we are understaffed with technicians and sometimes chewing gum and baling twine would get a problem solved quickly. (We do draw the line at using duct tape to splice fiber.)
At the urging of our very smart network sys admin, we are replacing not just most of our old switches with new POE (Power Over Ethernet) switches, but all of our closet patch panel cables and adding cable management systems as well. (Along with doing some major network reconfigurations.)
Perhaps I am a natural pessimist at heart, but I'd never before thought that the law of unintended consequences could mean positive consquences, but it looks like the new phone system will result in better overall network functionality. Cool.
Oh, if you hear of one of our techs are coming out of the closet this summer, it's literal - not metaphorical.
Reader Comments (2)
Coming out of the closet = classic! As we work on opening our new high school (now over 1 month behind schedule...), we are trying to prevent some of the organic growth of switches, hubs, and various cabling nightmares that can come from gradual growth. Right now our closets look nice and neat; we'll see how well they work (and how pretty they'll stay) when we occupy the building next month...
Hi Len,
Good luck. Our "new" and remodeled buildings seemed to need as much work after 10 years as the old ones! I suppose like any closet, a wiring closet needs the occasional cleaning and straightening out!
Doug