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Modernizing old house network wiring - Part 7 - Interlude - My Home Data Center

Before I hop into the next part of the project, I want to cover my thoughts and feelings of what I want in my home data center.

A lot of people have been asking me what I want in a rack system.  The basics seem easy: a standard 19 inch rack that's able to mount at least 14 U's.  Anything less seems just not big enough - routers, switches, a patch panel, power, and maybe a couple servers... it can add up.  Boy, that would look so incredible!

But let me take a step back before I go down a path like that.

My old Telecom Backboard was a Wreck

My home telecom backboard in the basement was old-school, and it was nothing like a data center.  Instead, it was the world's worst telecom backboard, with 70+ years of sloppy modification. There were at least 22 cables hanging around the area, with about 65% somewhat attached to something else, and the other 35% left dangling.  There were a lot of bare wires twisted together, along with a few wire nuts.   The "backboard" itself consisted of a 1 x 4 piece of scrap wood.  Mounted on the panel was a cable TV splitter and a barrier strip used for a subset of the telephone wiring. There was also a telephone company interface box, which by rights should have been mounted on the panel, but instead was left dangling. 

Now I've removed all that and I'm nearly back to a clean slate.  It's time to think about the future.

My New Home Data Center Solution

I'm an IT guy and I've designed and run mission critical systems and applications within large, established organizations full of industry-leading engineers.  I have substantial expectations when it comes to IT.  But my expectations are likely very different than what people might imagine.

A lot of people on the Internet seem to be interested in "professional looking" data center racks, but what I see is are racks that are great for a photo-op but that are awful from cost, labor, and space perspectives.  I see a lot of good-looking but unnecessary cabling, professional equipment mixed with poor consumer equipment, and a lot of over-complication.  That's exactly not what I'm looking for.

I'm an IT guy.  I like the appropriate level of engineering for the job.   My configuration will be professional, highly reliable, flexible, and appropriately affordable.

So instead of making a faux "data center for the home", I'm going for what's appropriate for my home: I'm going for a plywood backboard, 18 inches wide and 36 inches tall.   There will be no racks, no doors and likely very few blinky lights.   The new panel will have 4.5 square feet dedicated to modern data equipment and clean cable management.  It's a big step ahead.  It's sustainable.  It's appropriate.

My equipment and cabling will be directly attached to this board using clips and screws.  I'll buy what I need, and no more.  Because we all know that IT equipment has a limited operational life.  If it runs out of steam can capacity, I can replace the board with a fancy rack later.

Key Equipment On My Telecom Panel

This is what I'm planning to have hanging on my plywood telecom backboard.  I've linked to the products I'm thinking about:
All of this will be wall mountable.  I can envision a few other small items, but that's about it.

In short, this set up will likely cost under $200 and will include everything I need.

Would a rack really make this set up better?  No.  Then I'd have to buy a big and power-hungry rack-mount equipment.  Would a patch panel make it better?  No, a patch panel would not only mean more connectors and cables, it also means wiring nightmare.

I might add other devices to my telecom panel, but I have no plans for them out of the gate.  Things that I might add later include:
  • UPS: I might want to replace the power strip with a small wall-mountable UPS.  ($40)
  • TV Streaming Tuner: I might want to add a device to stream over-the-air TV to my LAN ($80)
  • MOCA: I might want to add a MOCA interface for the coaxial cable, but it seems unlikely ($80)
  • Analog Telephone Interface.  Haha, just joking.  This is obsolete technology.
And that's it!

Next Up

Next time I'm planning to mop up some of the remaining ugly cabling.


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