A couple of summers ago, I cringed as a customer with whom I was working contracted an electrician to move an aged paging system that, to me, seemed on its deathbed. Fortunately, the move was made, along with bundles of 25-pair cables that someone decades earlier had put to use to serve the campus PA system.
Both the electrician and the original installer of the paging system before him took advantage of "adaptive reuse of a historical property," a term I like to borrow from the planning and zoning folks. The original PA installer reused 25-pair bundles to interconnect the PA console control, power, and audio pairs to speakers and call boxes throughout the campus instead of going the more expensive route of rewiring the entire campus with shielded or heavier-gauge audio cabling. In place for decades, this wiring scheme fits into my argument that the best solutions are always time tested.
Years later, the electrician essentially did the same thing when school administrators needed the console moved because of renovation. The electrician spliced audio cables from the console pigtails and then ran tie cables using Cat5E plenum to a punch down block concealed behind a panel.
A couple of years later, after more issues with the failing PA system, the school gave the green light to go ahead and replace the system with an IP solution using its hybrid IP-PBX.
Now, prior to these recent events, we had built a fiber backbone for the campus, installed new structured wiring plant (Cat5E), and pre-installed two drops in the ceiling of every classroom. One drop served the overhead projectors and the other was intended for a future PA system.
What we did not do was rip and roar the existing cabling plant -- meaning, we didn't blindly tear out old infrastructure and then go into reactionary mode when things stopped working. Instead, we preserved key components of wiring infrastructure. While we did our due diligence, many IT projects don't. They fail or they run amuck with overages and unhappy customers or unplanned disruptions to the business or operation.
Wiring plant, no matter how old, ugly, or dirty, is still a fixed asset. Once installed, it's a permanent fixture or asset to the property. Too often, organizations overlook this fixed asset and initiate all-or-nothing projects to replace legacy gear and infrastructure.
Another consideration that often creeps into conversations between an organization and vendors or IT departments, is this: Why not just replace the PA system since the wiring is already in place? Considering the case I've described, a premise is that the customer had the budget for the IP PA system replacement (which it didn't). A second premise is that that it's always the customer's prerogative to decide and do what it thinks is best for its business or operation.
The process here really isn't unlike other evaluations involving moves to new solutions. In ideal situations, new buildings are erected and all new infrastructure and technology deployed. But even those ideal deployments get derailed. Migration efforts are seemingly journeys and when you undertake yours it best to understand your premise.
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