Server racks and patch panels, built to be found in
In short. A cabinet is not storage, it is a map. Built properly, anyone
can trace a connection in ten seconds. Built badly, every fault becomes an afternoon of pulling
cables to see which one moves.
What is a MER, and what is a SER?
A MER is the Main Equipment Room, the central technical space where the building’s network begins. A SER is a Satellite Equipment Room: a smaller distributor serving one floor or one wing. If your head office calls them the MDF and the IDF, those are the same two rooms under American names.
You need a SER for one reason more often than any other: distance. A permanent link, from patch panel to wall outlet, may be 90 metres. The full channel including the patch cords at both ends may be 100. Run further than that and the connection no longer meets the standard. It usually works at first, then starts failing once real traffic goes over it.
In practice that means a second room somewhere in the middle of a large floor plate, or one per floor in a tall building. What goes in it is a rack, the switches for that zone, and a fibre link back to the MER. We build both, and we document them the same way: every outlet numbered, that number on the patch panel and on the floor plan.
How big does the cabinet need to be
Count what goes in it: patch panels for the outlets, the switches, the gateway, and whatever
else lives there such as a recorder or a small server. Then add roughly a third for growth,
because it always comes. Height is measured in rack units of 44.45 millimetres, usually written
as U. Depth matters more than people expect — a switch that fits the width may still not
fit the depth once the cables are attached at the back.
Leave gaps. A cabinet packed solid runs hot, and heat is the main reason network equipment
fails early.
Power over the data cable
If cameras, access points, phones or door controllers hang off this cabinet, the switch has
to supply their power as well as their data. The number that matters is the total budget of the
switch, not how many ports can deliver power. Twelve cameras with infrared illumination draw
considerably more than twelve desk phones. Add it all up, and keep a quarter free for the
moment when everything peaks at once.
Labelling is the whole point
Every outlet gets a number, that number appears on the patch panel, and it appears on the
floor plan. This costs almost nothing during installation and it is the difference between a
five-minute fault and a three-hour one. It also survives staff changes, which a colleague’s
memory does not.
Restructuring a cabinet that grew
Most of the cabinets we are called to were fine when they were built and then had eight
years of additions. Nothing is wrong with any single change; together they become impossible.
Restructuring means mapping what is actually connected, agreeing what can go, and rebuilding
it in a planned window — usually an evening, so that nobody loses a working day.
We do not simply tidy the visible cables. A cabinet that looks neat but is still undocumented
has not been improved, it has been disguised.
Ventilation, power and access
Three practical things that get forgotten. The cabinet needs airflow, which means it cannot
be in a sealed cupboard. It needs enough power circuits, and preferably more than one so a
single breaker does not take the whole network down. And it needs to be reachable — a
cabinet behind a locked door that only one person has the key to is a problem waiting for the
day that person is on holiday.
You can work out your own cabinet size and power budget with our
patch cabinet planner and the
network drawing tool.
Working with us as an international client
We work for companies that have their Dutch operation here but their head office
somewhere else. That brings a few practical things with it, and we are used to all of them.
Our engineers speak English on site, not just over email. We can work to a specification
written abroad and tell you where it does not match Dutch practice before we start rather
than after. And we deliver documentation you can hand to a landlord, an auditor or a head
office without translating it first.
One thing worth knowing if you are used to other markets: in the Netherlands the
permanent cabling run is limited to 90 metres, with 100 metres allowed once patch cords at
both ends are included. Specifications written for the American market often quote 300 feet,
which is not the same number. We check that before anything is ordered.
What determines the cost
We do not quote a price without having seen the situation, because without that we would
either overcharge you or promise something we cannot deliver. What we can tell you is what
drives the number: the number of outlets, the distance from each outlet to the cabinet,
whether existing routes can be reused or new ones have to be made, whether the ceiling is
accessible, whether power over the data cable is needed, and whether the building is in use
while we work. That last one is often the biggest single factor.
Talk to an engineer, not a call centre
Call 036 52 98 447 or send us a message and one of our own engineers
will get back to you. We are based in Almere and work across the Netherlands. Everything is
done by our own people; we do not subcontract the work and disappear.
