Data center · build-out & MACs
Built for the change window three years from now
Anybody can make a rack look good on handover day. The question is whether a technician who wasn't there can trace a circuit at 2am during a change window, without a flashlight and a prayer. That's the whole design brief.
The four failures
What goes wrong in data center cabling
In fifteen years we've been called in to fix the same four things. Every one of them was created on install day and paid for every month afterward.
Airflow blocked
Cable bundles routed through the rear exhaust path. The equipment runs hot, fans spin harder, and the cooling bill goes up permanently. Nobody connects the invoice to the cabling.
Nothing traceable
No labels, or labels on one end only. Every change becomes an archaeology project, and change windows get blown by cable tracing rather than by the actual work.
Point-to-point patching
Direct runs between cabinets instead of a structured cross-connect. Six months in it's a bird's nest, and removing anything risks taking down something else.
Docs that went stale
Good as-builts on day one, then two years of undocumented MACs. The drawings become actively dangerous — worse than none, because people trust them.
How we build
Structured cross-connect, always
Every cabinet lands on a patch field. Every change happens with a patch cord in the cross-connect, never by pulling a new run across the room. It costs slightly more on day one and it is the single decision that determines whether your data center is still manageable in year five.
- Cabinet patch fields sized with growth headroom, not filled to capacity on handover.
- Overhead tray or underfloor pathway sized to fill ratio with room to add.
- Copper and fiber separated, bundled, and supported to spec — no zip ties crushing jackets.
- Rear routing clear of exhaust, so the cooling system isn't fighting your cable plant.
- Grounding and bonding to standard, documented, and verified.
Published pricing
What data center work costs
Real installed ranges from Central Texas colocation and enterprise work over the last twelve months. Every quote is line-itemed — you can cut a rack or defer a phase without renegotiating the whole thing.
Why we push the prepaid blocks
Not because they're better margin — they're worse. They're better for you, and they're better for us in the way that matters: block clients get their documentation updated on every visit, which means we're never doing archaeology on our own work. Hourly clients tend to defer the small stuff until there's a big mess. We'd rather have the small stuff.
Change control
How a MAC actually runs
Request
You send the change. We confirm scope, port availability, and whether it fits your current documentation.
Window
Scheduled against your change window, including nights and weekends. Block clients get first pick.
Execute
Work performed, labeled on both ends as we go — not at the end, when it gets skipped.
Verify
Link tested before we call it done. If it doesn't pass, it isn't finished.
Update docs
Port schedule and rack elevation updated the same day. Your drawings never drift out of date.
Questions
Data center work, answered
What does data center cabling cost?
Cabinet build and dress runs $1,800 to $4,500 per cabinet. Copper cross-connect is $38 to $72 per terminated port, fiber $45 to $95 per strand, and overhead tray $34 to $78 a linear foot. Ongoing MAC work is $115/hr, or roughly 20–30% less on a prepaid block. Full table above, and every quote is line-itemed so you can defer a phase without repricing the job.
Can you work in a live production environment?
Most of our data center work is in live rooms. We work to your change control process, we don't touch anything outside the approved scope, and we don't move a cable we haven't verified. If your process requires escorted access, badge screening, or two-person rule, that's normal and we'll accommodate it.
What's your lead time?
Typically two to three weeks for scheduled build work, and inside a week for block clients doing MACs. Emergency restoration — a cut fiber, a failed cross-connect — we treat as drop-everything, day or night, block client or not.
Do you carry the insurance a colocation facility requires?
Yes, at levels that satisfy the major Central Texas colo operators, and we're already credentialed at several of them. Send us the facility's requirements and we'll have certificates over the same day.
What documentation do we actually get?
Rack elevation drawings, a port-to-port schedule, TIA-606 labeling matched to physical labels, certification test results for every link as PDF and raw tester file, and photographs of front and rear of every cabinet at handover. Native files, not locked PDFs — it's your documentation and you should be able to edit it.
Will you take over a room another contractor built?
Yes, and we'll be straight with you about what we find. Sometimes the right answer is a documentation refresh on a fundamentally sound room for a few thousand dollars. Sometimes it's a re-dress. We'll tell you which one you have and we won't inflate the answer — you'll be able to check our reasoning against the photographs.