As more and more internet cabling turns to wireless and fiberoptic technologies many are concerned that traditional structured cabling is heading the way of the dinosaur. However, there is one very real reason that hardwire network cabling will never go entirely extinct: security. As technology companies build growth around wireless technologies, such as Apple’s ICloud, there are still many questions as to how secure those systems are. Even though the companies designing these programs vouch for their security, those claims are rarely solidly proven. For this reason, many companies and organizations continue to depend on hard cabling to run sensitive information. Financial and government institutions in particular need a secure system based on ethernet cabling. Especially with a closed network system, hard ethernet cabling provides a level of information safety that is unparalleled in the data technologies field.

For example, the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) deals exclusively with the financial information of private and public citizens and businesses. The codes written inside a closed system are sent through hard wires and are easier to monitor, especially at the local, manual level. Because wireless systems are remotely monitored from extended locations, the system is vulnerable to access and hacking from remote locations as well. When systems are hard wired, intruders must find their way into a physical device hooked to the network. However, even when networks are hardwired, there is a risk of frequency interference or access if the signal is degraded by outside energy. Therefore it is important no matter what to seek a skilled structured cabling professional to run and install the cabling line. A structured cabling professional will also be able to secure the connections to the actual computers and devices making the network safer.

The software and hardware involved in the operating systems of the network also have security programs that are designed to secure the loss and/or interruption of information. Networks that support large operations and organization particularly need to employ the expertize of network cabling professionals. When big-task and high-security companies have their networks interrupted it can take a great deal of time and work to recover the damaged information and get the network back into full operation. This can mean a loss of time, work, data, and ultimately money, which no business wants to lose. If security is breeched by a maliceful party, some information may be irretrievable entirely and the culprit untraceable. In these cases the agents of the business themselves may be legally responsible for any sensitive information that is leaked and even any possible money lost. Beyond the security standpoint hardwired info systems are also somewhat less likely to be weak or interrupted as a point of the system is removed. Without the opportunity for a wireless signal to be weak or interrupted as it moves through space, there is one less point for weakness in the speed and efficiency of the network. Until wireless information storage and transmission grows more secure technology, hard wired structured cabling systems will still be employed at high-risk agencies.

In the United States, Equal Opportunity employment has become accepted practice, and is in fact federal law. Many companies express that they are an ‘Equal Opportunity Employer’ right on the application. In basic terms equal opportunity means that applicants for hire are considered regardless of race, color, religion, gender, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation. This came hand in hand with the civil rights movement and since has opened up many types of work to folks who were once considered socially unsuitable. While many jobs still appear to be skewed towards one gender or even one race, the composition is generally much more diverse than it was sixty years ago. Construction fields are a particularly good example of this shift.

Especially in the case of gender, construction used to be a fairly closed profession. Before equal opportunity developed, many construction jobs were once held exclusively by men, many of them caucasian. Today, many people still consider construction to be a man’s job. While statistics do reflect that a great percentage of construction workers are male, many capable workers are indeed women. This new representation of women in the work force, as well as other less traditionally considered laborers was not easily won. Many years of perseverance and integrity had to be applied to create this change. Cheryl Waiters informs the reading public of this struggle in her memoir Blood, Sweat and High Heels. Working particularly as an electrician, Waiters is and African American construction worker who writes of great adversity on the path to become successful in her field. For Waiters, as for many woman entering construction work, much of the difficulties are rooted in inaccurate stereotypes. To say that women are as smart, efficient and physically capable as men seems obvious, though many women who work construction still feel they have to prove their worth to their male counterparts. In heavily male careers, women must also come up against a ‘boys-only-club’ mentality in which it is more difficult to make the personal relationships necessary to further growth and promotion.

Protected by Equal Opportunity legislation, some women in the construction workforce are criticized as being a quota that must be filled to meet diversity standards. While it is true that many companies and educational organizations are bound to represent certain statistics as far as gender and race are concerned, the standards set forth for those women are no less demanding or rigorous than those of the men they work alongside. Construction staffing agencies do a great deal to continue the promotion of equal opportunity employment, connecting qualified people of all genders and races with the employers who need their services. As more work is sourced out to independent contractors and construction staffing agencies, more capable parties of all sorts of backgrounds find themselves employed. It is, in fact, frequently the least likely party who is willing to work the hardest and put forth the most revolutionary ideas. As far as women in construction are concerned, while the situation has improved, some still experience the same shocking difficulties that Waiters did. Most women, however, in recent years find both the work and their fellow workers to be welcoming to their positive presence.

While structured cabling contractors are very familiar with plenum cable, most business owners don’t learn about this type of cable until they are having a new facility constructed or are in the process of updating the voice and data network cabling in an existing structure.  Here is what you need to know about plenum cable and how it is used in the design of your cabling network.

The name of plenum cable refers to the space found between the actual ceiling of a structure and the dropped ceiling that the building occupants actually see.  That space is known as the plenum and is often used for running air conditioning and heating duct work.  The plenum is also ideal for running cabling from one office to another with relative ease.  In some cases, the cable installers will suspend the cable above the duct work. Other designs call for running the cabling adjacent to the ducts as they branch off into different rooms in the building.

What makes plenum cable so special is the casing. The jacket of this type of cable is specially formulated to be fire retardant.  This is because the cable is typically not surrounded with much in the way of exterior insulation.  The plastic casing or jacket must comply with governmental standards that ensure the wiring is self contained and not likely to create a fire hazard.  In the United States, those standards are set by Article 800 of the National Electrical Code.  This means that the cable must have a smoke density and a level of flammability that is in line with the provisions set forth by Underwriters Laboratories and the National Fire Protection Association.

Using plenum cable can help to reduce network cabling costs by making it easier to run cable safely through the open space above dropped ceilings.  You save time and money in comparison to attempting to tear into walls and run the cable through small crawl spaces. In addition, cable installers can position the cable so that fire marshals and others can easily inspect it when and as necessary.  As a bonus, the cable is sturdy and likely to hold up to the constant streaming of inbound and outbound data. Thanks to the nature of the cabling, your network is less likely to experience some sort of mechanical failure.