NC1801

NETWORKEXPERT
Cable testing is not the most glamourous networking task but it is one of the most crucial,
especially if business critical services are to be offered with high availability. The equipment
needed by technicians to undertake this task efficiently and reliably can be expensive - but is
there an alternative approach?
P is for Pay as You Test. Tim Widdershoven, Global Marketing Manager at IDEAL Networks says,
"Anyone responsible for data cable installation knows that cable certifiers are one of the most
expensive pieces of equipment they use. In fact, research shows that most cable installers feel that they
are a necessary and unavoidable capital expense."
For many, purchasing a number of cable certifiers and other related test equipment makes cashflow
difficult and on occasion consumes budget that is sorely needed elsewhere. Any challenge to
cashflow has a knock-on effect and reduces flexibility to spend as priorities change.
The research undertaken by IDEAL found that investment in equipment is often perceived as delivering
a poor return on investment (ROI). This was shown to be particularly true in businesses with a lower level of certifier usage. In these cases, the fixed
purchase cost of a certifier can be an almost crippling capital expense. Tim adds, "In some operations different test equipment is being purchased for
copper and fibre, increasing the burden of equipment in an already full kit bag. This increases expenditure and further reduces ROI."
But there may be help in the form of a pay-as-you-test usage model in which the purchase of cable certifiers and other equipment is switched from
being a capital expense to an operational one, helping to increase vital cashflow."
Tim explains, "A pay-as-you-test approach offers the opportunity to purchase test credits for cable certifiers in batches which can then be topped up as
and when required. To help meet the needs of different businesses it may be possible to opt for either a free on loan certifier agreement, or to purchase
the certifier with an initial up-front payment. Ultimately it comes down to what works best for the business." So if cable testing is a challenge in your
organisation pay-as-you-test could provide a new way to access a cable certifier and deliver improved ROI and cashflow.
The pressure to back up data has not generally been matched by the means with which it can be
recovered. In a digitally transformed world finding the data you need, when you need it cannot
be taken for granted, and it is oftentimes a critical challenge.
R is for Recovery. Both platitude and reality, data is your organisations most important asset.
Whether it's billing information, customer contact details or intellectual property such as a secret
formula, the loss of that data, even for a few hours, could pose an existential risk.
This makes data recovery crucial, and you really don't want to sift through terabytes or petabytes to
find a single email that in a moment in time is critical to the organisation.
Richard Massey, Regional Sales Director at Arcserve explains that, "There's no one size-fits-all, so
before you buy a recovery product, you need to think about what your organisation actually needs
and there are four critical steps."
The first step, according to Richard, is to undertake a data audit. Understanding both existing
volumes of data and predicated growth is foundational. You should also consider how quickly you
will need to access it and the protection required. Lastly you must understand how the data will change and decide how long it should be retained for.
Richard explains that "With this first step complete, the rest of your recovery plan should be pretty straightforward."
Next you should consider your recovery points which are defined by how often you need to backup, essentially a business decision. For example in the
financial sector strict compliance rules dictate this frequency, but each organisation will have its own requirement including, but not limited to, applying
regulation. Where your data will be physically located is important, and backing up to another location is a crucial element of the recovery plan. If, for
example, there's a fire and all your data resides in that single location, you are in trouble. Moving data offsite is more sophisticated than simply copying
18 NETWORKcomputing JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 @NCMagAndAwards
WWW.NETWORKCOMPUTING.CO.UK