Posted on 10/17/2025 10:05:12 AM PDT by Jonty30
Ha.
Anyone who has opened a 10 year old PLC cabinet recognizes that “before” picture. I may have even seen one that had the skeleton in it!
olo. what’s scary is that when I clicked on reply, a full screen pop up appeared offering me to talk with online doctor before I could so much as start typing my reply. This sort of stuff has gone on for the past week only, but first it has intruded into this space.
Anyone who has opened a 10 year old PLC cabinet
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Been there many (hundreds) of times...
I worked at the same hospital for nearly forty years, and when I made the switch from direct patient care (Nuclear Medicine) to Radiology Informatics in 1994, my first trip to the “Data Center” was hilarious in retrospect, but at the time, I knew nothing about IT.
The “Data Center” had no real oversight, was probably about 40 ft by 40 ft, and things had been ad hoc added in over time. When you pulled up a floor panel, the wires looked almost exactly like the image at the top of the one you just posted.
Heaped in a pile, going in every direction, it looked exactly like a colander full of spaghetti.
The guy who had been in charge of Networking for the hospital, was given the mandate to create a new data center and rebuild the entire network. He was given the space in a new building, the money, and the mandate to do it.
Boy, was he ever the right person for the job. Of Scottish extraction, extremely down to earth and intelligent, he built an unbelievably organized, expandable, and capable data center. We were a very IT oriented hospital.
He designed it to that every cable at every junction and connection was accurately labeled in a precise, formatted way so that you could trace the origin and destination of the wire at a glance. Everything was in beautiful, well designed under-the-floor raceways with huge capability for expansion. If you needed to pull up a floor panel, you could see in an instant EXACTLY where to go to pull it up and get to what was needed. the floor panels and racks were spotless and meticulously and rigorously spec’d out.
The wire organization looked like art, it really did.
Everything was symmetrical, spaced, perfectly sized, fanned, and connected. It looked like you could measure the spaces between wires as they fanned out in the racks, the the variable distances were exactly equal.
When new servers needed to be added, the vendors had to adhere to the strictest requirements that were followed with an iron fist for consistency. Power requirements, rack requirements, how they were to be installed.
They made a video that I have lost track of that showed the entire transition, and it was brilliant!
No, no no! Never use zip ties! How will you add more blood bandwidth without cutting all the ties??? Use velcro man! Be a pro!
They can replace all that with one fiber
Only if the fiber goes to the desired terminus.
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