Cabling & Power Requirements

1. Put a switch on each floor to concentrate the data cabling - thereby only have cabling required on the 11th floor being provided by the switch and patch panel on that floor.

2. Run 1 pair of fibre optic cables as a backbone between the two switches - it will cope with the length of the run and is also faster and more reliable than copper.

3. Power Requirements - Put a power adaptor bar in each rack (if not already) and localise the power for each rack so you will only have 1 cable per rack.

4. Run each rack's power off a UPS and ideally a dedicated power spur. APC's website gives a sizing tool to work out UPS Size/Requirements.

5. Get experts in to sort out the HVAC for the computer room and make sure that you get some sort of remote monitoring system to alert if the HVAC fails.

I like answer # 1's 1, 2, & 4.

But how critical is the server/LAN system ? Are you dead in the water if it is down ? (critical = DC powered, major or below = AC powered) What is the probability of a power outage ? (Historically speaking and how long do they last ? This will give you an idea of how long the UPS must last.)

HVAC take the max they suggest, when you add equipment later you do not want to have to upgrade HVAC to accommodate the additional cooling needed !

First thing you need to do is either create or obtain a print of each floor. Now layout the locations of ac, ethernet, lighting ect. By doing this you will define the wiring needs.

Contact several telco firms and get quotes on running the cable for the ethernet and telephone system.

You will want to place one or more switch's on the 11th floor and run fiber optics to the 15th. This will minimize the line loss and any electrical interference that might be encountered in long runs.

You don't say if you are going to remodel or if it is new construction.

Take a close look at the electrical capabilities on both floors. Limiting the number of computers on a single circuit will save you some headaches in the furture.

By letting your electrician know which outlets are computers he can avoid placing them on the same phase as known emi/rfi producing equipment.

The computer room needs to have dedicated circuits, isolated grounds would be perfered.

The equipment that will be in the computer room will dictate the capacity of the enviroment control. This should be separate from the floor ac system if at all possible. Having some employee's sweat is a minor inconvience. You let the computer room starting getting hot that's a different story.

You can contact APC: http://www.apc.com and they will help you configure the ups requirements for your computer room.

If the moneys will let you look in to using a dedicated fire supression system in the computer room.

Good Luck Lee

If your company alloted a hefty budget, why not outsource? obtain 3 proposals from the outsourcing companies and have it personally assessed using their recommendations and all the past responses you have received. These people knows what they are saying. Afterwards propose it to the management, of course include everything including the warranties.