Structured cabling is no longer a background utility — it’s critical business infrastructure. With most organisations now cloud-dependent and hybrid work permanent, the physical network layer directly impacts performance, productivity, and scalability. Fast Track Communications’ Mark Forland draws on 30 years of experience to explain why treating cabling as a commodity is a costly mistake, and what a genuinely future-ready network looks like.
Introduction
When Mark Forland co-founder of Fast Track Communications started his career over 30 years ago, a “network” meant running copper cables back to an on-site server. Today, it means ensuring seamless cloud connectivity for a workforce spread across offices, homes, and cities. In that time, one truth has remained constant: the businesses that treat their physical infrastructure as an afterthought are the ones that pay for it later.
As a founding partner and CEO with decades designing and managing large-scale cabling projects for corporate businesses and government agencies, Mark has seen every mistake in the book and the costly consequences that follow. In this post, we share his expert insights on what’s changed, what businesses are getting wrong, and how to make sure your networking solutions are genuinely future-ready.
From Telephone Cables to Cloud Highways: How Infrastructure Has Changed
Not so long ago, cabling existed to connect terminals back to an on-site server or run the office phone system. The standards were lower, the stakes were lower, and frankly, so was the speed. Fast-forward to today and the picture looks entirely different.
“Infrastructure has become a lot more critical from a quality point of view, from a speed point of view, a network transfer point of view,” says Mark. “Where we had on-site servers, now we’ve got cloud-based infrastructure going out to data centres. That infrastructure is definitely more critical to the operation of business.”
In short, cabling is no longer a background utility, it’s the backbone of your entire business operation.
Hybrid Work Is Here to Stay — Is Your Infrastructure Ready?
Despite the push from some organisations to get employees back to the office full-time, Mark believes hybrid work is a permanent fixture of modern business. “Realistically, that’s not going to change in my opinion, ever. We’re going to continuously have hybrid workplaces.”
That means your infrastructure can no longer only account for what happens inside your four walls. The connectivity between your office, your cloud services, and your remote workers needs to be fast, reliable, and built to handle the volume. Any weak link in that chain including the physical cabling will show up as latency, dropped video calls, and frustrated employees.
The Biggest Mistake Businesses Make With Cabling
When asked about the most common and costly mistake he sees, Mark doesn’t hesitate: treating cabling as a commodity.
“We’ve gone from relatively simple installations with small data transfer to critical infrastructure running large data transfer. It’s no longer a commodity. It really needs to be a certified, specialised installation with quality vendor products.”
He’s not suggesting you need to spend recklessly but cutting corners on cabling when you’re running high-speed video conferencing across offices, interstate teams, and offshore staff is a false economy. Cheap cable and uncertified installers create problems that compound over time and are expensive to fix.
What Separates ‘Good Enough’ From Future-Ready?
There’s a meaningful difference between infrastructure that technically works and infrastructure that’s built to last. Mark describes it simply: “Good enough is ‘it’s just cabling, that’ll do.’ Future-ready is taking it seriously and putting effort into a design solution that’s going to give you longevity, rather than just getting the cables in and hoping it works.”
At Fast Track Communications, they offer a 25-year certified solution because when installation is done right with the right products, it should serve your needs for decades. The caveat? That certification is a snapshot of today’s applications. As technology evolves and with the rise of AI and increasing data demands, it’s evolving fast so older infrastructure may no longer cut it.
5 Signs Your Business Has Outgrown Its Infrastructure
Mark sees the same warning signs repeatedly. Watch for:
• Your cabling is 10–15 years old and you’re running modern cloud-based applications over it.
• You’re experiencing latency or video quality issues during calls and conferences.
• You’ve invested heavily in backend hardware but haven’t reviewed your cabling.
• You’re planning a move to the cloud and haven’t audited your physical network.
• Your infrastructure was designed for a smaller, on-site workforce and hasn’t been updated for hybrid work.
The timeline isn’t a blanket rule, it depends entirely on what applications you’re running and how demanding your business has become. But if any of those signs resonate, it’s worth having an expert assessment done.
The Hardware vs. Cabling Debate
It’s a pattern Mark sees time and again: businesses invest significantly in backend hardware servers, processing power, cloud infrastructure and then undermine the entire investment with substandard cabling. As he puts it, you can spend a lot of money on the hardware that does all the processing and gets you out to the cloud, but pair it with cheap cabling installed by uncertified contractors and you’re just buying yourself problems down the track.”
Hardware has an end-of-life of three to five years. Quality cabling, installed correctly, can last 25 years. Don’t let the short-lived component be the one you invest in while skimping on the long-lived foundation.
Final Thought: Infrastructure Is a Business Decision, Not an IT Decision
With 30+ years designing and implementing infrastructure for some of Australia’s leading corporate businesses and government agencies, Mark’s message is clear: the physical layer of your network isn’t just an IT concern, it’s a business continuity, productivity, and competitive decision.
If you’re unsure whether your current setup is keeping pace with your ambitions, Fast Track Communications can help. Explore our data centre solutions and find out how a proper infrastructure assessment could future-proof your business.
