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Our company is going to be moving into a new building in a few months and I am in the rare position of having a blank canvas of what I can do with the server room and IT setup.

We are a small company, so our budget is not huge, but since it is an empty shell to begin with, I want to make sure that I have all the IT pieces in place at the beginning so that it is not difficult(or impossible) to implement after build-out is complete. Not to mention expensive.

Here are some items that I am milling over, but I am sure there are many more details that need to be.

  • Server room necessities(Racks, cooling, electricity, security, fire suppression, etc.)
  • Network wiring(CAT5E, CAT6, Coax)
  • Building Security (ie: Video surveillance, building access, etc.)
  • WiFi
  • Power/cabling for end user offices/cubicles
  • Conference room(ie: electrical/network cabling)

Any specific suggestions for any of these items that are important to take into consideration before hand?

Any feedback is appreciated.

68 Spice ups
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Never underestimate the ability of your ISP to ruin all of your plans with their timelines.

92 Spice ups
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I was in a similar situation - a couple of things -

I ran 4 CAT5e to each users desk - kinda overkill but quite a few ended up using 3 out of 4

Wish i had run conduit/power/Cat5 under the floor in the Conf. Room to eliminate wiring across the floor at times. Yeah, the laptop ran WiFi, but still needed the Cat5 at times as well as always needs power…

21 Spice ups
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Good point on the ISP. Had issues in the past with a move years ago, but hadn’t thought of that for this. Thank you.

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For your conference rooms, look into Crestron’s AirMedia units. They connect wirelessly to pretty much anything, and to the display via HDMI. Ditch the table cables and projectors for evah.

12 Spice ups
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Good idea. It doesn’t hurt to run extra wiring to the stations at build-out. Great idea for running under-floor wiring for Cat5 and power as well. Our current conference room is a hazard of wires running across the floor. This would be a great addition.

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Stick with Cat6 or better?
We’ve recently retired/stripped out all Cat5E wiring.

Something else is to consider is the location of the Demarc/CPE, make sure it’s in a secured location.

A full test/inspection of the power distribution system for the building.
Make sure the power is clean/building has properly sized transformers/etc.

Any risks for flooding inside/around the building due to natural or unnatural causes?

Any risk for lightning strikes?

6 Spice ups
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Brian has it right. Order your Telco/CATV/Fibre lines as soon as you know the address. As a project manager I’ve had Ma Bell derail several completion dates. They have layer upon layers of department and bureaucracy paralleled only by the federal government.

Remember, cabling and chase pipes are cheap NOW. They get very expensive when the ink on contracts is dry and you need to add something or when the walls are painted and ceilings are in and you need one more camera at the far end of the parking lot. If you think you need a 2" conduit make it a pair of 2" or even 3" conduits. Especially your conduits and runs between your wiring closets and your server rooms, your telco room, and anywhere wires pass through fire walls. If you need external surveillance put the pipes in. If you think you might need a network cable to the sprinkler system in 10 years, put the conduit in now.

23 Spice ups
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Coax? Can’t see anyone needing that anymore, unless you have satellite TV! :wink:

Get a price quote between Cat5e and 6, but I would tend more towards 6 if you plan on being there awhile. What critch said about network jacks in each office. Figure how many you’ll need, then double it if you can. You can give a little on this one, but guaranteed it WILL come back to bite you later with an expensive re-wiring job. What he said about the conference room as well. I ran cables ceiling and floor. Projector first, then wall-mounted LCD later, with cables running into our conference room table. VERY slick.

May as well get your security cameras to run over their own virtual or physical network, rather than go closed security. Figure on which system you’ll get, then design around it. Also make sure your server room is a proper one, with A/C. I didn’t scream loudly enough when they did our offices, so I lost mine, and the server ended up in a crawlspace closet underneath the stairs… :frowning:

9 Spice ups
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Don’t forget about things like printers/copiers and other misc. items like time clocks. Make certain that you have plenty of random jacks scattered throughout the building for these kinds of occasions.

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Install CAT6. The cost difference between it and CAT5e is minimal at this point, and you should install the latest spec. Check with your business leadership. What’s the projected annual growth for the next, say, five years? Knowing now that the company is likely to add 16 people by 2018 is absolutely critical in planning your infrastructure.

I’d go for at least 4 jacks per faceplate. I’ve seen sudden, unprojected growth totally screw up a company’s brand-new expansion. You don’t necessarily need to buy switches for every single end port right now, but it’s a hell of a lot cheaper to run cable during the renovation than to run it once the walls are up.

Keep that same concept in mind with your WiFi cable runs. I don’t think I’d run extra cable for APs, but make sure - as much as you can - that you have the ability to run more if you need them. Having a few extra 1.5" conduits in the walls is a great idea.

And for the love of all that’s right and holy, make sure your cable contractor labels both ends of the cable, the faceplates, and the patch panels with the same scheme.

30 Spice ups
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get A UPS big enough to run everything long enough for you(or team member) to get the notice and drive/remote in and shut everything down properly, then double it.

12 Spice ups
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Maybe.

Depends on your runtime requirements. If uptime is that critical, consider some sort of generator. We tossed in-rack UPS unit in favor of a datacenter UPS several years ago, and have a propane generator that can keep the systems running for, I think, 3 days.

4 Spice ups
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Not miscellaneous jacks. Carefully planned jacks.

Also, work with your architect about making your cable runs accessible after install - at least in major access areas. If you’re using drop ceilings, consider installing cable trays above the ceiling tiles.

4 Spice ups
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Thank you EVERYONE for the great feedback(and quick responses). This is VERY helpful and already quite a few things I hadn’t thought of that are very important. Appreciate all the Spiceworks IT Pros.

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Plan out where you want your cabling in the offices in relation to where the furniture is going so they don’t get blocked. Nothing like spending 30 minutes partly taking apart a modular office desk just so you can swap out a cable that has gone bad.

Also, think about how your users are currently doing work, or at least would like to be able to do work, in relation to your infrastructure (what type of “wouldn’t it be nice if we could…” comments have you gotten while you’ve been there) and plan accordingly, if you can.

Don’t skimp on outlets in conference and other non-office rooms as you never know when how it is used might get changed due to growth or changing circumstances. I once had a conference room with 4 CAT5e ports and 4 power outlets converted into a “design studio” with 4 CAD workstations, 2 plotters, and 2 phones.

5 Spice ups
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I am not familiar with your company or whats happening, so just some general suggestions.

Server room necessities(Racks, cooling, electricity, security, fire suppression, etc.)
→ Make sure you have enough room around the rack to limbo around and for future growth (evtl. 2nd rack?)
→ Get a KVM for physical access
→ Be super anal and label the $h!t out of it when you set it up from scratch & get good cable management
→ Get a lockable rack if possible
→ Get an electrician and have 2 different circuits in the server room
→ Have the electrician put in a 240V outlet as well (some UPS need that, again I don’t know your setup)
→ Have redundant cooling, or at least a portable unit as backup
→ Have a good form of access control to the server room, so only who is supposed to have access, can get in
→ Make sure you don’t have many racks etc. in there, otherwise it might end up as storage…

Network wiring(CAT5E, CAT6, Coax)

→ I’d go with CAT6 and make sure to get good GB switches (HP Procurve?)
→ Have plenty of spare length in case you need to move things around
→ Get the RIGHT LENGTH of cable for patch panels (had someone use 6ft cables for 5 inch connections…aghr…)
→ Run at least 2 cables per user (and maybe have a 3rd, or 4th in the conduit)
→ Consider POE vs PowerAdapter

Building Security (ie: Video surveillance, building access, etc.)
-> Depends on your companies needs.
→ I like a fingerprint time-clock
→ IP camera system
→ Security system with motion detectors

WiFi
→ Take a site survey with inSSIDer and check how much other wifis are around
→ Map it out where you need APs and how many
→ Make sure choose if possible a free channel
→ Find out where the area is where most people connect, might need multiple APs in that area to cover all connections

Power/cabling for end user offices/cubicles
→ I’d say as well at least 2 outlets per cube
→ enough space for a good power-strip with surge protectors + cable management
(Maybe one WITHOUT a power-switch… for users sake…)
→ enough space between the cube wall and the to fit cable (+ lplug!) through comfortably

Conference room(ie: electrical/network cabling)
→ Same as cubes
→ Maybe opt for a projector rather than a TV (idk why the trend goes to big TV rather…)
→ no matter if TV or projector, an easy way to connect devices to it
→ Maybe set there a dedicated AP, as that is usually a BYOD dense area
→ Have enough powerstrips so each seat could get an outlet in case of multiple laptop etc.

16 Spice ups
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Just to re-enforce what everyone else has said about network drops…

If you need 4 drops at a location pull a minimum of 5 and think about pulling 6. Pulling cable across a new building versus pulling cable around an already established infrastructure is a HUGE difference.

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Pretty much everything I was going to say has been said. Over do the network/power drops if you have the budget. Go with PoE switches so you don’t have to use adapters (frees up outlets at the desk). If you still use fax or may need to in the future don’t forget to pull a copper line to the print room/location. And misc carefully planned drops. Guest/floater desks, lobby/waiting area, break room (for phone, media display, etc…)

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Definitely go CAT6 if possible. When I was doing offices in a new building we ran 2 drops per office and 2 cables per drop. We had each drop on opposite sides of their office in case someone wanted to re-arrange their office it was easy on our end and there wouldn’t be cables wrapped around the outside of an office, and trust me there will be people re-arranging their office within 6 months. We didn’t allow personal network printers, etc. in an office so the 2 cables were just for phone/PC, but that all depends on what your requirements are. Some of the larger offices we allowed for 4 drops per office (VPs and whatnot). As everyone else is saying make sure there are enough drops in all areas. For your office I’d almost have at least 1 drop per VLAN if possible.

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