On Thu, 28 Apr 2011, Meenoo Shivdasani wrote:
On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 8:17 AM, Patrick Cable <[email protected]> wrote:
Well, why do you believe that they are? I'm being sincere - I have never
done a cabling RFP and am curious about why I would want to request these
things. Justify it to a technical audience and then distill it down for a
non-technical person to understand.
I do not believe that certifications or degrees in specific areas mean that
any individual is definitively more qualified than another. That said, some
certs are worth more than others and this particular area of certification
is, at the very least, an indication of an individual vendor's desire to do
a good job.
To summarize that document: the folks who have achieved RCDD certification
are more likely to have the skills necessary to make your installation
project a success. BICSI certification is required by many gov't and
military agencies. That doesn't preclude someone who doesn't have that
certification from being a cabling wizard, but companies that support the
BICSI certification of their employees tend to be the ones who do better
or it means that they think that with these certifications they can charge
more for the same service.
cue the standard debate about how much certifications are worth ;-)
This is a junior certification to the RCDD. An ITS will know the difference
between flat cable and rolled cable and will not attempt to terminate to the
wrong kind of RJ-45 connectors -- something which I have personally
experienced with contractors who weren't qualified for the job. Fortunately
it was a small job so re-terminating all of the cabling wasn't too much work
for me, but it's illustrative. On that job, one installer flipped two of the
pairs so we ended up with a system that would work if it was directly
connected, but not if a hub was involved. Or perhaps it was vice versa.
I think the key is that before you have any company do a major job, have
them do a small job and see how good they are.
absent this, get refrences, get pictures of their prior installs.
I've worked with multiple companies doing wireing and I don't know what
certifications each has, but the company that I would have expected to
have more (larger, government contracts, etc) is definantly not the one I
want to have wire my datacenter, the small shop with a half a dozen people
(most of who I have seen enough that we know each other by name) has done
far better work
Structured cabling is currently the foundation to a successful corporate
installation. Everything will ride on it (unless you go purely wireless) and
if it's not done right you'll burn a lot of money troubleshooting and
rectifying the situation. Add in to that the fact that cabling isn't
something that you can swap out as easily as server or network device due to
the fact that it's in your walls and there is a compelling argument for
doing it right from the start even if you're using Greenfield.
I agree with the importance of doing the job right. I just question if
what tests someone has taken (and note that this is not neccessarily the
tech assigned to your work) really is the deciding factor.
David Lang
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