The incidence of offshore-manufactured communications cable products which fail to meet industry fire safety requirements continues to plague the Structured Cabling industry in the North American (NA) market.

As a user of building communications cables, you should be aware that some commercially available cable products are not compliant to minimum NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) National Electric Code (NEC) fire safety standards, even though they may display the listing mark of a major, independent testing organization. In addition, some cable products also fail to meet minimum standards for physical and electrical performance, which can impair network performance and in some cases result in network failures and lost productivity. In other words, these cables offer only the illusion of quality, electrical performance, and fire safety.

The Communications Cable & Connectivity Association (CCCA) has been concerned about this problem which affects the entire Structured Cabling industry and undermines the codes and standards based integrity of the NA market. In 2008, and again in 2009, the CCCA conducted quality testing of randomly selected communication cable samples purchased from NA distribution, from manufacturers not widely known. Tests were conducted by a well recognized independent testing agency familiar with communications cable electrical and fire performance standards and testing. Many of the samples failed minimum flame spread and smoke requirements, showing a serious public safety hazard. CCCA is working with the major independent testing agencies to address this issue, to promote high-quality, high-performance products in the marketplace, for the betterment of the industry.

Based on these findings, it is evident that some manufacturers are continuing to substitute inferior materials and circumvent the quality assurance practices of independent testing agencies. Consequently, there is a significant amount of imported cable currently in inventory that is questionable, at best. If ever there was a time to heed “Caveat Emptor” … “Let the buyer beware” … that time is now.

Our recommendation is to purchase cable from known, reputable, quality-focused manufacturers.

To download a printable version of this article, click CCCA Fire Safety Concerns in Offshore Communications Cables

To download a printable version of the newsletter, click Quip Notes July 2010.

CEO’s Corner:

I am delighted to announce some exciting updates for Compuquip! First, we very recently announced the promotion of Eric Dosal to Chief Operating Officer. Eric started eight years ago in sales and excelled, growing a small territory successfully and winning many new accounts. Several years ago, he was asked to take over our managed services operations, which had many challenges in its infancy, and was able to grow it soundly and profitably. Over the last two years, he has served as director of services streamlining our offerings, hiring a terrific support team and mastering our billing and accounting systems. Please join me in congratulating Eric on his new assignment!

Second, this past April, twelve brave members of the Compuquip Team swam, biked and ran in the Nautica South Beach Triathlon. We are not only proud of their training, preparation and participation, but their sense of “giving back” by raising over $16,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The team of Eric Dosal, Alex Marrero and Ian Anderson took first place of the Compuquip teams participating. We look forward to next year’s event and growing our team to include clients, family and friends.

Lastly, I am honored to have been selected by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce as Group Chair for Domestic Business Development, following in the footsteps of Jorge Gonzalez, president of City National Bank. As Group Chair I will oversee twelve committees that represent Miami’s diverse business and industrial sectors, including technology & bioscience, healthcare, small business, real estate and transportation. I hope you will join me at the Chamber and help us make Miami a better place to live, work and play!

Serving our clients, partners and community continues to be our top priority. Our door is always open and we welcome you to let us know how we can help!

Alberto Dosal, President & CEO

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New @ Compuquip

Compuquip Technologies Promotes Eric Dosal to COO

Compuquip Technologies has appointed Eric Dosal to COO from his previous role as director of services.

In his new role as COO, Dosal will be responsible for the future direction and management of Compuquip’s sales, client services and human resources. This will include a strong focus on client support and the introduction of new offerings to help small and medium-sized businesses leverage technology to reduce costs and improve operating efficiency.

“We’re proud to recognize Eric’s contributions to our company’s ongoing success and welcome his continued leadership in his new role,” said Alberto Dosal, Compuquip’s president and CEO. “Since joining the company in 2002, he has helped to streamline our operations, grow our client roster and reinvent our service offerings to adapt to economic and market demands.”

As director of services, Dosal more than doubled the size of Compuquip’s IT support team and developed and implemented processes and services that grew the business 200 percent over a three year period. Before this, he was director of managed services, responsible for developing and rolling out Compuquip’s successful Managed IT Services business model, which provides complete IT infrastructure and network support to help small and medium-sized businesses improve productivity and reduce business downtime.

“I’m very pleased to expand my role and take on the added responsibility of growing our family-owned and -operated business,” said Eric Dosal. “Along with my father and my brother Brian, we look forward to continuing to evolve our company and deliver IT solutions that benefit regional businesses and provide significant return on their investments in technology.”

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Exchange 2010 & Virtualization: Enabling ‘Always On’ Email

by: Jorge Azcuy

Over the past decade, Corporate Email has slowly but surely moved from a Tier 2 application with an acceptable Recovery Time Objective of up to 48 hours, to a Mission Critical application that is always expected to be available. This is mainly due to the maturation of mobility-enabling technology such as Blackberry and Windows Mobile as well as many ‘paperless’ initiatives that rely on a company’s messaging infrastructure. Executives, managers, and everyday employees alike just expect Email to always be ‘On’.

Compuquip recognizes how crucial Email has become to our clients (and really, to ourselves) and has been designing and deploying solutions that meet this rigorous standard without breaking the bank. In fact, over half of our current and scheduled projects involve deploying a Highly Available infrastructure for Email. There are two technologies that are helping to make ‘Always On’ Email a reality:

• Virtualization
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

The benefits of Virtualization in general and VMware in particular have been widely documented for the past few years, including in these two blog posts: Uptime 201 and Cloud Computing and the Future. However, Exchange Server 2010, which was released to the public in November of 2009 and is still in the early adoption phase of its lifecycle, looks like a home run when it comes to High Availability for small businesses and enterprises alike. To note:

• Exchange 2010 improves upon the clustering enhancements introduced in Exchange 2007 by introducing Distributed Availability Group (DAG) technology. DAG eliminates the need for traditional shared storage clusters by replicating changes to the ‘Active’ Exchange database in a near real-time fashion. The changes are sent to one or many ‘Passive’ databases in the form of 1 MB Log files.
• As stated in the previous bullet, there is no longer a 1-to-1 limit for database replication. A single database can be replicated to up to 16 different Exchange 2010 Servers.
• As you may infer from the previous two bullets, clustering across the WAN, which was complex and limited in Exchange 2007, is fully supported with very few restrictions in 2010.
• A failover from an Active copy of the data to a Passive copy of the data can be done on a per-database basis; failing over an entire Server, which may be hosting multiple databases, is no longer required.
• While Windows Enterprise licenses are still required to enable replication, Exchange Standard Edition can be used for DAG, representing a significant cost savings.

Large and small clients alike are now able to achieve ‘Always On’ email that is not only affordable, but can be implemented quickly. There are many more High Availability benefits which are driving our clients’ adoption of Exchange 2010 and Virtualization, but you get the idea.

The following design represents a ‘real world’ example of a deployment scheduled to start this month:

Before reviewing some of the finer points of this design, a note about the client: They have already invested in a Disaster Recovery Site, a good amount of bandwidth dedicated to that site, and a VMware Infrastructure, including SAN replication and Site Recovery Manager. However, to my point earlier in this article, a recent outage resulted in the conclusion that a 2-4 hour recovery window for Email was not acceptable; they wanted Email to be ‘Always On’.

Now, onto the design notes:

• All components will be installed on their existing VMware Infrastructure, which means that all servers will be able to take advantage of features like HA and vMotion that protect against planned or unplanned hardware downtime.
• The environment is designed to provide multiple levels of redundancy: There is no single point of failure.
• If a single physical server fails, VMware will provide redundancy.
• If a single virtual machine fails, Exchange replication or Windows Network Load Balancing will provide redundancy.
• If an entire site fails, Email will automatically be rerouted to the remaining site via the hosted Email Filter (McAfee SaaS, formerly MX Logic, is our provider of choice).
• If both sites fail, incoming Email will be queued by McAfee SaaS and be made available to users over the Internet.

A decade ago, implementing an Email environment that can truly provide this level of High Availability would have taken six months to 1 year and cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Today, we estimate this deployment to take less than a month and cost in the $15,000-$40,000 range, including software and services, making Always On email a reality for even our smallest customers.

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Employee Spotlight:

Michael Baron, Technical Account Manager

This September Mike Baron will celebrate his 5th anniversary with Compuquip Technologies, where he serves Compuquip clients and delivers the latest technologies in a variety of business environments.

A Florida International University graduate with a Bachelors degree in Management Information Systems, Mike began his career at Compuquip as a Field Engineer visiting client sites. Since then he has obtained MCSE 2003, SharePoint Design and Deployment, Citrix Design and Deployment, and VMware Sales and Technical Professional certifications, and has advanced to the roles of Network Engineer and Senior Network Engineer where he was involved with the design of servers at the network component level.

In his current role as Technical Account Manager, Mike is responsible for developing a technical roadmap for his clients and working with Compuquip’s sales and engineering teams to implement pioneering technology solutions. Through analysis and understanding of his clients’ business environments, he leverages IT solutions that can improve their business productivity and bridge the gap between technology and end-users.

Said Mike, “I am excited about my future at Compuquip where I envision my role as a Technical Account Manager becoming more vital in directing the integration of technology across our clientele and continuing to stay on the bleeding edge of technology innovations.”

“Mike has really blossomed in his role as a Technical Account Manager,” added Compuquip’s Technical Services Manager, Jorge Azcuy. “He has a great rapport with his clients and a firm grasp on their technology needs. I have no doubt that Mike will be a key employee for Compuquip for many years to come.”

In his spare time Mike enjoys fishing and playing golf in the summer, and skiing in the winter. A family man with no children of his own yet, he gets plenty of practice in spending time with his nieces and nephews.

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The Hilton Miami Downtown was in dire need of reliable and high speed internet access for their hotel guests.  As the number one complaint received by the hotel, adequate internet services became a top priority.  Installation was complicated by the layout of a 40-year old hotel with hard, inaccessible ceilings and walls, and a need for an aesthetically pleasing design and an installation that was as unobtrusive as possible to guests, staff and hotel operations.

Solution:

Blue Wave positioned a team at the hotel and worked closely with the hotel’s facilities manager to reduce the overall impact to the hotel’s operations, guests and employees. Through detailed investigation, they identified the most suitable locations for the Telecom Rooms and proper pathways between the floors for the fiber backbone cables.  By utilizing the most effective cable pathways, Blue Wave was able to prevent the use of any surface raceway (plastic ducts used on walls and ceilings to conceal cables when there are no other means of routing).

Working under a tight deadline and around the hotel’s varying occupancy levels, Blue Wave installed over 120 cables on a total of 20 floors. The Hilton now has a fully-functional wiring infrastructure and WiFi system for guest internet access that has significantly reduced the number of internet complaints and has allowed the Hilton to more aggressively market this feature to attract more business and increase occupancy.

“We were very pleased with Blue Wave’s cable work at this Hotel in preparation for our transition to Hilton’s “StayConnected” guest internet support,” said David Hendrix, General Manager of the Hilton Miami Downtown. “[The] work was done professionally, on time and within budget.”

To download a copy of the newsletter, click Compuquip Quip Notes November 2009

Field Operations Manager

Blue Wave Communications

Max Bravo joined Compuquip on February 1, 2001.  Nearly 9 years later, he has grown with and within Compuquip where he started as a Computer/Printer Technician, progressed to Cable Technician in 2002, and transitioned to his current role as Field Operations Manager for Blue Wave in 2005.

Max takes special pride in providing Blue Wave clients with the support and solutions they are looking for.  He thrives in his hands-on role where he oversees and ensures the quality of work performed by all Blue Wave technicians, reads and interprets construction plans, pulls necessary permits, interacts with contractors, and verifies that all contracts are completed on time and within budget.

“Our customers appreciate the attention to detail and thorough solution planning that Blue Wave provides.  They know that unlike most cabling contractors, Blue Wave aims to develop long-term partnerships and offers support for the life of their cables,” said Max. “I have enjoyed building relationships with our customers, growing along with Blue Wave, and working in an organization that treats you more like family than an employee.”

Max’s cabling expertise is backed by an Associates Degree in Electronic Engineering Technologies from the American Training Institute, BISCI cabling certification, and Ortronics, Corning, Leviton, and Panduit product certifications.

“Max is one of the hardest working, most dedicated and resourceful individuals that I know,” said Tim Orr, General Manager of Blue Wave.  “His commitment to customer satisfaction and his ability to adapt to ever-tightening construction schedules is truly invaluable.”

Max, who was born in Argentina, was raised in Miami and enjoys boating, fishing, diving, and ATV riding.  He is especially looking forward to this holiday season as he is expecting a son in December!

By James Piper.

Depending on the size, use and age of a typical institutional or commercial facility today, it can include thousands or even tens of thousands of feet of cable. And a good percentage of that cable has been abandoned. Lift any acoustical ceiling panel or inspect any riser system or telecommunications closet, and the chances are very good that abandoned cables — lots of abandoned cables — will turn up.

Traditionally, as with many other elements in facilities, abandoned cables have been largely ignored — out of sight, out of mind. But that attitude is changing rapidly. Abandoned cables, particularly those found in ceilings and walls, are increasingly viewed and treated as a major fire-safety concern.

Fire Concerns

Consider the typical communications cable that might be installed in a building. A significant portion of the weight of that cable is in the form of plastic insulation and jacking material that surrounds the copper wiring. Here is the fire hazard: In the event of a fire, these materials can both fuel and spread the fire in a concealed space.

Smoke produced by these materials contains toxins. Older-generation cables and wires are the worst culprits. But even newer cabling that adheres to standards regarding smoke and flame spread can be a problem, given the sheer volume of cabling found in many buildings.

Recognizing the extent and the seriousness of this issue, the National Electrical Code (NEC) now requires the removal of all accessible abandoned copper and fiber cable from the buildings. Unused cables can remain as long as they are identified with a “for future use” tag.

Depending on the age and the building’s past use, these requirements typically create three major problems for maintenance and engineering managers:

• Identifying all wiring that is not being used
• Removing it
• Determining who pays for carrying out this work.

Identification

The only practical way to identify wiring that is not being used within a building is to conduct a comprehensive wiring survey or audit. The survey will take time and effort, but if it is performed properly, it will identify the extent of the problem and, even more importantly, the level of effort that will be required to correct it.

When the survey is complete, all cabling within the facility will fall into one of three categories:

• In use
• Tagged for future use
• Abandoned

The survey will need to examine all areas in which cabling has been installed in the facility. The process should start with a survey of all telecommunications and computer equipment closets.

Typically, inspectors will find that as the equipment in these areas has been updated, older, incompatible cabling has been abandoned in place. the inspector should tag as abandoned all cable that will not be reused in the near future.

The next step is to examine the cabling that is installed in building raceways and risers. It is not uncommon, particularly in older buildings, to find that a significant percentage of the cabling in these areas has been abandoned and is taking up much-needed capacity.

Finally, the inspector should take a look at cabling that is installed above drop ceilings and below raised floors. Here, too, it is not uncommon to find a large amount of abandoned cable.

Removal and Disposal

The best and easiest time to remove abandoned cables is during the addition of new cabling systems or during building renovation projects. Removing abandoned cable at these times minimizes the disruption to building occupants, and it helps free capacity for newly-installed cables.

With enforcement of the NEC requirements for abandoned cable removal on the rise, failure to remove abandoned cables during a renovation project might trigger an enforcement action, which in turn could delay completion of the project.

Managers have the option of either removing the abandoned cables themselves or contracting for their removal with a firm that specializes in cable removal. These companies will handle all steps in the process, from set up to disposal of the removed cables.

If a manger decides to remove the cables using in-house personnel, a number of readily available tools can easily and quickly separate cable insulation and jackets from copper and aluminum wiring. The stripped wire then can be sold to a recycling company, where it is sent for smelting or re-refining.

Costs vary widely with the market demand for copper and aluminum. If the insulation and cable jackets have not been removed, the going rate is about one-half of that for stripped wire.

Even the insulation and cable jackets can be recycled. Burning, once an accepted method of removing insulation and cable jackets, should not be a consideration, due to the possible generation of toxic smoke and fumes.

Responsibility

One of the biggest problems that managers face when dealing with abandoned cables is determining who is ultimately responsible for their removal. Even in relatively new buildings, managers might have seen a significant amount of tenant turnover.

Typically, tenants install the cabling that is required to support their operations while abandoning all previously installed cables. Unless the lease spells out the responsibility for removing the cabling, the responsibility and the cost for its removal falls on the owner.

Managers should take a close look at all leases and license agreements between the organization and tenants, telecommunication companies, and information and cable service providers.

In most cases, a lease will not address the issue of removal of inside wiring to be abandoned. It would be worthwhile to review and revise these existing contracts, as well as all future contracts.

Catching Up, Getting Ahead

One thing is certain: Unless managers address the issue of abandoned cables in their buildings as soon as possible, it will only get worse. The need for cabling in buildings is accelerating, and there no guarantee that tomorrow’s computer, telecommunication, and building systems will be able to use the cabling systems that already are installed.

Managers can take several steps today to minimize the future impact of abandoned cables and wires.

They must make it a requirement that when occupants update or replace systems, they must remove all old cabling systems. All leases with tenants and service providers must require removal of abandoned cables.

While the initial building survey will help to identify abandoned cables that must be removed, managers also will need to schedule subsequent follow-up surveys, conducted on a regular basis, as a method of ensuring that tenants and service providers are adhering to the lease requirements of their.

When new buildings are planned or when renovation projects are initiated for older buildings, managers should consider installing cable raceways wherever possible. Raceways make it relatively easy to remove and replaced cables while minimizing disruptions to building occupants. Managers can no longer assume that abandoned cables are an out-of-sight and out-of-mind issue.

James Piper is a national consultant based in Bowie, Md. He has more than 25 years of experience with facilities maintenance management issues.

By Vanessa Orr

For a printable version of this article click here, Blue Wave Hospital News Article.

Tim Orr, General Manager of Blue Wave

There are few things more frustrating in an office setting than slow-moving data or frequent computer crashes.  And while many people are quick to blame phone lines or software programs, the fact is, there could be another reason why things aren’t working the way they should.

“A lot of businesses don’t realize that their networks are only as good as their weakest links, and cabling can have a lot to do with that,” explained Tim Orr, general manager of Blue Wave Communications. “If cables aren’t tested and installed to the proper standards, they can degrade a company’s network, causing it to run more slowly, take more time to connect, and cause programs to crash.”

Blue Wave Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of IT provider Compuquip Technologies, designs and installs cabling systems for clients including medical offices and hospitals.  Working with clients and building contractors, Blue Wave designs cabling systems that can adjust to evolving office space, as well as technology upgrades. “In a lot of telecom rooms and data centers, the space is not well designed for managing the vast number of cables involved in newer networks,” said Orr. “Years ago, most offices were primarily cabling telephone systems in small, wall-mounted boxes with the cables strung up.  When data and computer systems were brought on in the 1990s, more space was needed.

“In larger offices, there can now be hundreds of cables converging in one room,” he added. “If that space is not designed properly, it becomes unmanageable.”

Cabling is especially important in health care offices, where physicians may store electronic medical records on computers or use PCs as part of their imaging systems. “Hospitals and medical offices tend to use more emergent technologies, which require a strong network with the capacity to handle large amounts of data,” said Orr. “Because these offices tend to be more forward-looking in technology, it’s important that the cabling be ‘future-proofed’ – while we don’t know what technologies will be available 10 years from now, we want to install higher grade cable that has the capacity to handle increased data traffic.

“Unlike a company in a commercial building, which may lease space for five or six years and then leave, medical offices tend to stick around,” Orr added. “In this case, installing higher-grade cable enables them to get a higher return on their investment for a longer period of time.”

Blue Wave certifies the cable in every installation it does, testing it to make sure that it meets industry standards and performs as it should. “If we install 1,000 cables, we test and certify 1,000 cables,” said Orr. These test results are also provided to the customer.

Approximately 60 percent of Blue Wave’s business is new construction, and it is also known for its expertise in MAC (Moves, Additions, and Changes) work. “Hospitals are often moving offices, adding people, and changing layouts,” said Orr. “This is one of the reasons that it’s so important to establish long-term relationships with clients; it’s a lot easier for them if they have a company to work with who knows their facilities.”

John Santangelo, IT director at Florida’s Cleveland Clinic, agrees that Blue Wave’s background in health care cabling is quite an asset. “Our Palm Beach project was very unique – we needed cabling for a fully functioning health care clinic on the 14th floor of City Place Tower, as well as cabling for full MRI and CT capabilities on the first floor,” he said. “It was a 90-day, start-to-finish job.”

“Tim assured me that Blue Wave would meet our deadline and that the cabling would pass inspection without issue so that we could open on time,” he added. “Because he was very proactive in pointing out issues that could arise, the project had zero problems, and it was seamless for us to take over.”

Blue Wave also handled all of the wiring on the fourth floor of Cleveland Clinic’s main clinic building in Weston. “This was an open cubicle business environment that was converted to clinical space in order to accommodate our growing medical staff,” said Santangelo. “Similar to Palm Beach, Blue Wave’s knowledge of healthcare IT make it a complete success with no delays.”

“We keep our clients’ needs in mind all of the time,” said Orr of Blue Wave’s commitment to quality. “What our customers want is honesty, integrity, responsiveness and expertise, and that’s the way we do business.”