Additional network outlets vs sharing one outlet in a switch??

We've got a room in the office that we're thinking about putting our servers in.

At present there are no network outlets in the room - we've got 3 servers to potentially put in there.

My initial feeling is that we have 3 network points put in - as all 3 systems are our servers I'm not that keen on them sharing a single outlet via a 4 port switch - which is the alternative.

Does anyone have an opinion on this?

 

3 outlets would be best. Otherwise all three servers are sharing a single connection into the network, and that connection will be a bottle neck.

Also running three cables through a hole (or set of trunking) is not really much more difficult that running one. Its not really much of a job to put in two more. I wouldn't be surprised if a cabler charged you about the same to run three connections through as one.

With that in mind - run five or six through. I guarantee that in a year or two's time you'll want to add more servers or network devices and regret not giving yourself spare connections to build on. It's generally a good rule of thumb to think how many connections you want, and then double it.

If you have no other choice, make that single connection the fastest one in the network. For example, if you have a 100 Mb/s network, make the connection into the server room a gigabit link and connect the servers together via a small gigabit switch.

However, three gigabit links giving each server a gigabit link into the 100Mb/s network would be a better solution.

 

Fiber back to the main switch with Gigabit switches on both ends.

 

I love fibre. However, I would point out that fibre is only going to be worth doing in this case if you use it to provide bandwidth that would otherwise not be possible. That is, if fibre allows you to run a 10Gb/s connection between your gigabit switches or makes it easier to multiplex - so you get multiple connections into the new server room, then fibre is a good option.

If you put in fibre and run at the same speed as you could over copper, you haven't really achieved much.

If it is a choice between a single 1Gb/s fibre connection, or multiple copper connections, the multiple copper connections would be better.