Iron Mountain: the same cabling standard in four countries
The situation. New locations, in four different countries,
each with the same requirements. For the client the interesting part was not any single
building: it was getting the same result in all of them, so that the documentation, the
labelling and the fault-finding work identically wherever you are standing.
From bare concrete to a connected building
We took these halls from empty shell to working infrastructure. Cable trays and conduit
under the roof first, because everything else follows the route; then the cabling itself, then
the cabinets, then the power.
Working across borders adds things that have nothing to do with cable. Local rules differ,
so does what is available, and so do the people you have to arrange access with. Our engineers
travelled with the drawing and worked to the same method statement in each location, which is
why the fourth building looks like the first one inside the cabinet.
Measured the same way everywhere
Every network cable is terminated and measured the same way at each location, and every link
is certified. That produces two things the client actually uses.
First, certainty that each cable does what it is supposed to do —
length, attenuation, crosstalk, pass or fail with the margin. Second, and more valuable over
time, traceability: when something fails in three years, the fault can be
traced back to a specific outlet in a specific building, and the original measurement shows
whether that link was ever right.
Without that, a fault in a multi-site organisation becomes an argument between the local
team and head office. With it, it becomes a five-minute check.
Agreed in advance: when, what and how
On projects like this the product is not the cable. It is the certainty beforehand. What
will be installed, to which standard, on which dates, and what happens if something is not
available in one of the countries. That is written down before we start, and it is the reason
this kind of work can be run from one place.
Could this be your project?
If you are setting something up in the Netherlands from another country, the first step
costs you nothing: we come and look, and tell you what we would do and what it depends on.
Call 036 52 98 447 or send us a message in English.
