Your data center may not be built for today’s thermal demands. With all the attention that’s paid to cooling and older professional and Class A buildings share a secret hiding in the darkness above the ceiling tiles. Up there, covered in dust and long forgotten, are thousands of feet of abandoned IT infrastructure. Take a peek in your plenum space, and you’ll find legacy category cable, old telecom wire, security cable, AV infrastructure, coax, fiber remnants, decommissioned workstation runs, and unsupportive bundles hanging from j-hooks. Together, it’s a dense, spaghetti monster of unused, unnecessary, and unwanted mess. Not only is it unsuitable, but it also creates operational, thermal, safety, and scalability challenges. After years of upgrades and technological advances, the spaghetti monster has grown too big to ignore, especially as organizations look to deploy Wi-Fi7, PoE++ workplace technology, smart building systems, AI-enabled collaboration systems, and dense wireless infrastructure.
We’re here to tell you what many have already learned the hard way. Ignoring or forgetting about the IT infrastructure that came before will cause issues with the IT infrastructure you are about to deploy.
Must for Modernizing Commercial Space IT Infrastructure
- Add high-capacity trays
- Remediate cables
- Optimize pathways
How Above-Ceiling Congestion Takes Root in Professional Buildings
Facility managers and IT teams are always expected to add new IT infrastructure. Rarely do they concern themself with removing what was already in place. So what a building’s plenum space ends up with is layers upon layers of cable, supports, and trays. Basically, there is an ignored, unmanaged accumulation of tech that has been left behind.
Common Additions with IT Infrastructure Upgrades
- Cable bundles
- Pathways
- J Hooks
- Access points
- Security devices
Abandoned Cable as Defined by the NEC
- According to NEC, abandoned cable is any cable that is:
- No longer terminated
- Not identified for future use
- No longer operational
- Left in place after decommissioning
Using that guidance will help you identify and determine what is abandoned and ready for removal. Even if you’re not planning IT infrastructure upgrades above the ceiling tiles in the near future, it’s wise to remediate the old tech. Doing so will simplify future upgrades when they occur. Having more open space will also improve HVAC, fire suppression, electrical, and other systems running through those spaces. Less clutter always makes for an easier workspace.
More Than an Eyesore: The Dangers of Abandoned Infrastructure in Plenum Spaces
Leaving large volumes of abandoned cables increases the amount of combustible materials in the plenum space. Ask any fire marshal, and they will always recommend removing them.
Fire Risks Include
- Increased fire load
- Increased smoke generations
- Toxic fumes during fire events
Those risks are why NEC not only defines abandoned cables but also recommends their removal.
HVAC Risks Include
- Diminished efficiency
- Poor air circulation
- Limited cooling performance
PoE++ Challenges
All of the mentioned risks magnify as PoE++ deployments increase cable heat loads. PoE++ delivers up to 90 watts to devices. That’s enough to power smart lighting, cameras, advanced access points, occupancy sensors, digital signage, and many building automation devices. PoE++ brings modern buildings to life, and you need to create plenum spaces with enough room to accommodate it.
IT Infrastructure Risks Include
- Overloaded j-hooks
- Unsupported cable bundles
- Crushed pathways
- Difficult cable pulls
- Blocked access routes
In some buildings, legacy networking cables can get so bad that there is physically no room left for modern infrastructure to expand.
Abandoned Cables Bring Troubleshooting Headaches
If the risks and dangers of overcrowded plenums are not enough to convince you to remediate old networking cables, perhaps this point will — increased IT costs.
Plenums packed with cables make IT troubleshooting more difficult, slower, and more costly. Cable tracing becomes much harder, especially as labeling becomes unreliable. Those two factors make upgrades and troubleshooting slower.
Every time your network goes down, slows down, or encounters an issue, every layer of unmanaged IT infrastructure makes the problem worse. And potentially, more common.
How Unmanaged Cables and IT Infrastructure Hinder Wi-Fi 7 Adoption
Wi-Fi 7 is the latest and best wireless standard. It provides faster speeds, lower latency, and higher capacity. All are musts for modern computing, especially AI integrations.
As you might expect, better performance comes with increased requirements. Wi-Fi 7 demands more access points to create better density, as well as multi-gig uplinks, higher-performing cable, and additional ceiling-mounted hardware. It’s unlikely that a building’s existing pathways were designed to accommodate this much IT infrastructure density. Often, the only way to make it fit is by removing any extraneous, unused infrastructure.
How To Identify and Remediate Cables
Identifying which cable is needed and which can be discarded should not be done through trial and error. What you need is a plan of attack, and we have it for you.
Step 1: Audit and Assess the Plenum Space
- Existing pathways
- Cable tray utilization
- Unsupported cable
- Abandoned cable volume
- J-hook condition
- Firestopping compliance
- Available space for expansion
Step 2: Identify Active vs Abandoned Infrastructure
- Cable tracing
- Documentation review
- Switch port validation
- Physical testing
- Tennant’s history records
Step 3: Remove Abandoned Cable
- Create usable pathways
- Improve airflow
- Lower fireload
- Simplify future installations
- Streamline IT infrastructure management
Ready to Future-Proof Your Commercial Building Maintenance with Cable Remediation?
Removing abandoned IT infrastructure above your ceiling tiles and within the plenum is a key part of future-proofing ongoing operations. Identifying and deploying the best approach to achieve it requires working with an expert. Matrix-NDI solves the challenges of your business operations by unlocking the full ROI of your technology investments. We design and install networks built for maximum speed and perfectly matched to bandwidth demands.
Why Work With Matrix-NDI?
We have on-staff Registered Communications Distribution Designers (RCDD), coast-to-coast service, and elite data networking partners, including Extreme Networks, Nile, and others. Ultimately, Matrix-NDI aligns your business with the devices, internet service, and software to achieve all technical objectives. We invite you to reach out with your needs and see how our expertise, partnerships, and national scale can be leveraged to solve them.
Contact Matrix-NDI to get started. Let’s build smarter, safer, more connected spaces — together.
