Once the cabling infrastructure is planned and the IT service providers have been contacted and booked in, the next thing to start planning is the IT cabinet. Smaller restaurant owners often do not think they require cabinets for the amount of IT equipment that they need. They think that is only for larger organisations. But this is not a good approach. Standard 19 inch IT cabinets are not expensive and they both protect and keep all your IT devices tidy and well organised. Moreover, restaurant offices are often very small so containing the IT kit in a purposed designed cabinet is a real plus. Failing this, you run the risk of all the IT and audio vendors just popping their kit anywhere in the office. This often results in devices and cables being 'peppered' all around the office rather than contained in an organised central location.
Before purchasing the cabinet, you need to make a list of all the equipment that is planned to go in it. You need a cabinet large enough for the existing kit and ideally with some expansion possibilities for the future. If space allows, I generally like to get all the IT kit and audio kit in the one rack. If space is tight, you may consider having two cabinets in slightly different areas, one for audio equipment and one for IT equipment. Remember to co-ordinate with all your IT and audio vendors and know what kit they are supplying. Things like switches can often be doubled up if you are not careful. Far better to have one quality 24 port rack mountable switch than several small consumer devices all daisy chained together. Try and keep the relevant vendor sections separated and tidy. You do not want the network engineers knocking out all the CCTV camera connections when they do some work on the Ethernet cabling just because all the cables is all tangled up together.
