The Real Problem
Brownfield cabling is the most common source of enterprise network failure.
Wi-Fi 7, high-density PoE, IoT, and in-building cellular all increase load on copper and fibre infrastructure that was installed for a different era. The cabling is still there. The OTDR certification is expired or was never done. Nobody validated it under today's load.
The risk is not the age of the cable. It is infrastructure assumed to be fit for purpose without evidence. That assumption is where enterprise networks fail. An audit takes days. A network outage costs far more.
Between 20 and 40 percent of tested brownfield structured cabling has at least one performance fault that visual inspection alone would never find. Testing reveals what assumption hides.
Copper
Cat6 and Cat6A runs failing certification under 10GBase-T or high-density PoE load
Fibre
Fibre degraded by connector loss, bend radius violations, or splice faults OTDR would expose
Documentation
Undocumented moves and changes leaving orphaned runs, unlabelled ports, and no audit trail
Patch Panels
Patch panels with no cable management, airflow obstruction, and mislabelled port schedules
As-Builts
No as-built drawings after years of brownfield changes by multiple contractors
Faults
Physical layer faults misdiagnosed as switch or ISP issues, costing weeks of misdirected troubleshooting
