Chapter 9. Cables and CabinetsPassive but Essential for Reliability

Cables form the nervous system of the information age. With the exception of wireless systems, all network connectivity to SAP systems is based on cabling. These nearly invisible parts of the infrastructure are called passive components because they do not consume electrical power. The cabling infrastructure can be one area, however, where the reliability and the total cost of ownership of a network are strongly influenced. Experienced planning and high-quality craftsmanship are essential elements of flawlessly running network infrastructures.

As mentioned before, all communication between mySAP.com application components is based on the Internet protocol family. Any media able to transport Internet traffic with sufficient response time is appropriate for SAP applications. However, when client/server-based SAP systems replace terminal-based legacy applications, all legacy cabling must also be replaced. In addition, the introduction of SAP often leads to a proliferation of networked PCs to places on the factory floor, where no cabling was seen before.