Making the right connections

Enterprises spend large sums on IT infrastructure and upgrades. Much of this goes towards hardware, software applications, and bandwidth/connectivity. But what about cabling? This component ties all the network components together. More importantly, it is a carrier for the company's crown jewels—its business data.

For this issue of Network Magazine we wanted to highlight a component that has so far been relegated to the background. Once installed, cabling is just a passive component—with cables hidden behind panels and concealed in walls.

You may encounter the term 'Structured Cabling' more often than 'cable' or 'cabling.' But in our cover stories we discuss current and emerging trends in network cabling, then review the current scenario in Indian enterprises. Finally, we list out the cabling solutions available in the country.

Though the CAT 6 standard was ratified last year, and CAT 6 compliant products entered the market months before that, most Indian enterprises use CAT 5/5e—even for new cabling installations. It's mainly the large enterprises (1000+ nodes) who choose CAT 6 for new installations. The prime days of CAT 6 are still a year or two away.

A technology to watch out for in 2004 is Gigabit Ethernet (GbE). As enterprises increasingly use multimedia-based applications over the network (such as VoIP, CAD/CAM, desktop video conferencing), we are going to see more cabling and component upgrades. The same can be said for rapidly growing companies from the SME segment. Also, more enterprises will dare to adopt optical networking and fiber optic cabling (for campus LANs).

Technology Senate 2003

Let me move from cabling to events (both help in 'networking' and making the right connections!) Network Magazine and Express Computer have more than one reason to feel proud. Going by the feedback from IT managers in the country, we believe our just concluded CIO event at Kochi, Technology Senate 2003, was a resounding success.

The editorial team at Network Magazine was directly involved in planning and coordinating this event. No separate event management team was called in. There were moments of despair when the worst scenarios just happened. But our tireless and seemingly indomitable team leaders led us on.

Elsewhere in this issue, you'll find event coverage, news about the two awards ceremonies and some details about the Theme Pavilion (The Future Enterprise), conducted at the event.

If you were a delegate at this event, you'll remember the roundtables, the speaker sessions, the awards ceremonies, and the outdoor activities. If you weren't there, you can look forward to more such events from us next year.

— Brian Pereira (Assistant Editor)