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Humble label can transform your data centre

Choosing the right labelling solution can help you keep your power, network, voice and data cables and components organised and running effectively, improving maintenance and boosting TCO.

Johannesburg, 11 Nov 2019

In today’s rapidly transforming digital world, the differences between the front-end that the user experiences, and the back-end that the technical people look after, could not be more stark. Customers tend to deal with the cloud, WiFi and any number of other ‘wireless’ forms of connectivity.

At the back-end, however, it must be remembered that even the seemingly ethereal cloud ultimately resides somewhere physical – in brick-and-mortar data centres, filled with servers, cables and wires. Many organisations also still have their own on-premises data centres, which are often maintained for the purposes of meeting regulatory and compliance requirements.

It is here at the back-end that technicians are met with a smorgasbord of wires and cables, and the vast array of these can easily make it extremely difficult to undertake maintenance, server moves, internal adjustments or any of the other myriad tasks that inevitably occur in an environment like this.

So how can the technicians in charge ensure the right cable is plugged into the right device, all the time, even under trying circumstances? The answer is quite simply to correctly label everything within such an environment, something that will increase troubleshooting capabilities and management efficiencies significantly.

If you think about it, a professional labelling job not only improves the overall cable management system being deployed, but it will help to accelerate the technicians’ ability to rapidly discover the source of any issues. The time and cost factors related to this are seldom taken into account, but without correctly labelled cables, such expenses can prove enormous and create major headaches for the data centre manager. Thus, the economic benefits of a well documented installation are huge, as it ultimately lowers both maintenance costs and the total cost of ownership (TCO).

Of course, if you want to ensure such clarity within your own data centre environment, it is not enough to have your technicians stick a bunch of handwritten signs all over the data centre. What you want instead is a portable printer that can produce a multitude of different, professional labels that can be properly attached to wires and various surfaces. With a portable device, you can essentially print labels with one hand, while attaching them with the other.

It is also crucial to understand that in a data centre or server room, you will need a printer that can print label materials that will stay attached, even to extremely curved surfaces, like cables and wires. Other considerations will include the need for flag labels, in order to minimise contact with fibre-optic cables and the need to overcome the heat generated by the numerous servers, as these may cause labels to become illegible over time.

After all, your carefully planned and labelled environment won’t really amount to much if the labels used are not reliable enough that they can be trusted to remain both attached and legible. A failure in either aspect will likely turn your troubleshooting and maintenance operations into a total nightmare.

The ideal, therefore, is to ensure the labels you choose to use for these purposes are resistant to moisture, heat and ultraviolet light. Furthermore, they need to be visible when the infrastructure is being maintained and should be machine generated for the purposes of clarity – the last thing you need is a major failure occurring because a technician couldn’t read someone’s handwritten label.

By utilising reliable, industrial grade labels that offer crisp print, extensive colour and size variation and a choice of flat or raised profiles – which can be printed off a portable printer directly at your location – it becomes easy to identify any safety risk, cable or component in an electrical panel, meet any customer identification requirement and provide immediate insight into the most complex of environments.

Clearly, then, the simple answer to keeping your power, network, voice and data cables and components organised and running effectively, to improving maintenance and boosting TCO, is little more than that most humble of technologies, an effective labelling solution.

Click here to view an infographic and get a free electrical identification handbook. 

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