CASE STUDY Nucor Corporation Expands North American Headquarters with ADC TrueNet ® Products SITUATION Nucor Corporation, the nation’s largest recycler and manufacturer of steel products, recently expanded its North American Headquarters by retrofitting an existing 5-story building. With an aggressive short-term construction schedule, Nucor selects ADC Value Added Reseller (VAR), Network Cabling Systems for all installation activities and ADC TrueNet ® copper and fiber products. SOLUTION A complete turn-key installation of ADC’s TrueNet copper and fiber products to each floors Intermediate Distribution Facility (IDF) in Nucor’s expanded North American headquarters. Also, ADC’S indoor/outdoor rated fiber products were used to support a remote building and 10 gigabit CopperTen ® cabling and patch panels within Nucor’s data center to support active network equipment and servers. RESULTS No one understands quality and workmanship of products better than Nucor Steel. As a leading manufacturer of carbon and alloy steel products, Nucor wanted a quality and robust technology to serve their current and future voice and data requirements. “We sought a vendor that we could work with to do a good and professional installation job,” explained Dave Dunlap, IT Project lead. “We selected Network Cabling Systems (NCS) for this project as we already had good past project experiences with them including our MAC’s (moves, add, changes) work. We knew their workmanship was quality and their commitment to Nucor’s standards was on-target with our expectations.” By NCS introducing us to ADC, we knew we would be getting quality products and a solid installation. “ CASE STUDY SITUATION As a Fortune 500 company, Nucor operates in nineteen states with its’ corporate headquarters located in Charlotte, NC. Products produced are carbon and alloy steel for commercial and residential use. Nucor’s success can be attributed to the hard work and dedication of its employees. Dating back to 1905, Nucor has always been an innovator, producing the first commercial cars with electric lights and electric starters. Known then as an auto manufacturer, Ransom E. Olds, founded Oldsmobile and then in 1905, REO Motor Car Company. Through a series of acquisitions, the company evolved into the nuclear instruments and electronics business and later purchased a company that made steel joists and joist girders. The company‘s remarkable evolution led to major innovations in steel manufacturing. Not long thereafter, in 1972, the company officially adopted the Nucor Corporation name. Nucor has expanded its’ operations over the years and in the summer of 2006, retrofitted a 5-story building for expansion of its North American headquarters in Charlotte, NC. It was an aggressive 6-month construction effort to completely renovate the existing building. During this time, Nucor’s IT department led a project to select a vendor that could deliver professional results with the installation of the building’s horizontal and riser cabling infrastructure. Through a very detailed evaluation, including presentations from Network Cabling Systems, all parties agreed that ADC was the solution that would best fill the requirements Nucor had determined were essential. SOLUTION ADC’s TrueNet Category 6 AirES ® cable and modular Category 6 jacks were installed to each floors’ workstation outlets. Two Category 6 plenum cables were installed to each work location with each floors’ IDF rooms being equipped with ADC’s TrueNet patch panels. For connectivity between each floor’s IDF, ADC provided a “bundled” Category 6 solution. The two 6-cable bundled solution contained speed- wrap and Kevlar for additional strength and durability and was terminated in each closet on ADC’s TrueNet patch panels. In each IDF, two equipment racks were each equipped with ADC vertical managers, three 8-inch managers for each rack. Each 8-inch vertical manager was equipped with removable metal doors. This provided not only the right aesthetics but also ensured proper cable management within each IDF. For vertical riser connectivity between the floors’ IDFs, a 50 micron multi-mode laser optimized 12-fiber ADC cable was installed. The cable with inter-locking armored sheathing was terminated on ADC’s TrueNet 2-RU RMG series rack mount enclosures in each of the floors’ IDFs. “We used ADC’s RMG’s fiber panels not only in the IDFs but also in our Data Center and two other additional locations,” explained Dave Dunlap, Nucor IT project lead, “as it is a low-profile design that is modular and flexible for our needs. We chose to direct terminate in each panel using SC couplers.” In addition to providing horizontal and vertical cabling in the new retrofitted building, Nucor also expanded their network to a remote Generator building as well as a carrier/rquipment room using ADC fiber cable. Two 12-fiber multi-mode (MM) indoor/outdoor plenum rated fibers were installed in conduit between the Nucor data center and the generator building and another two 12-stranded MM fiber cable was installed in the carrier/equipment room. “We needed to provide connectivity to the generator room for some time now and additional fiber was needed to expand carrier services into our data center equipment distribution area,” explained Dunlap. In both the ADC's Copper and Fiber cabling running from the Main Distribution Facility to the Intermediate Distribution Facilities. CASE STUDY carrier room and generator building, a 2-RU ADC RMG fiber panel was installed originating from the data center on a 4-RU RMG fiber panel. The fiber panels contain sliding and removable front and rear panels which provide convenient access inside the panel. Up to 72 terminations can be made in one RU enclosure. Inside the data center, ADC’s TrueNet 10-gigabit cabling and 24-port CopperTen 1-RU patch panels were installed to server cabinets. Each server cabinet, approximately 15 cabinets total, were equipped with ADC’s CopperTen 24-port patch panels. From each server cabinet, ADC CopperTen cables were extended to a centralized cabinet. The centralized cabinet, also equipped with ADC’s CopperTen panels, allows a single point for moves, add, changes without ever making any patch changes in the individual server cabinets. “We wanted an inter-connection between our switches and servers that would provide us a single access point for any network changes required. Now, if we need to make a network change to any of our servers, we only do it in the centralized cabinet,” said Dunlap. ADC’s TrueNet high-performance patch cords were used in the cabinets as well as the industries only laser-tuned modular jacks in the patch panels. This ensures that each jack manufactured is individually optimized for 10-gigabit performance. The project also included voice and data expansion to another floor of the newly renovated building. Nucor’s affiliate, Castrip, currently occupies a portion of another floor. Both fiber and Category 6 “bundled” cables were extended to this floors IDF originating from the data center. There were six total bundled cables each with six Category 6 cables. All cables were terminated on TrueNet patch panels. The fiber was a 12-strand MM 50 micron cable with an armored cable design using an all dielectric central strength member (CSM). RESULTS Nucor Corporation emphasizes one goal, “Take Care of our Customers.” They are committed to being the best in their industry by providing the highest quality products and having the most productive work-force possible. Their key to being such a profitable company today is attributed to working together as a team committed to this one goal. Their recent North American headquarters expansion, allowed ADC and our partner, Network Cabling Systems, to be a part of their exciting growth and to work with many talented Nucor professionals. The challenges were many and at times, not everything during the installation went as planned, however, the end result was a very clean installation and a reliable network infrastructure that will provide many years of high-quality and consistent network performance. “We knew we could count on NCS to provide a quality installation,” concluded Scott Messenger, “and we are very happy with all ADC products that are in our network today.” A front view of one of the IDF’s with ADC TrueNet patch panels and 8" vertical managers with removable doors A rear view of the IDF rack with ADC's CopperTen cabling terminated and ADC cable management Website: www.adc.com From North America, Call Toll Free: 1-800-366-3891 • Outside of North America: +1-952-938-8080 Fax: +1-952-917-3237 • For a listing of ADC’s global sales office locations, please refer to our website. ADC Telecommunications, Inc., P.O. Box 1101, Minneapolis, Minnesota USA 55440-1101 Specifications published here are current as of the date of publication of this document. Because we are continuously improving our products, ADC reserves the right to change specifications without prior notice. At any time, you may verify product specifications by contacting our headquarters office in Minneapolis. ADC Telecommunications, Inc. views its patent portfolio as an important corporate asset and vigorously enforces its patents. Products or features contained herein may be covered by one or more U.S. or foreign patents. An Equal Opportunity Employer 104886AE 7/07 Original © 2007 ADC Telecommunications, Inc. All Rights Reserved CASE STUDY . CASE STUDY Nucor Corporation Expands North American Headquarters with ADC TrueNet ® Products SITUATION Nucor Corporation, the nation’s. expanded its North American Headquarters by retrofitting an existing 5-story building. With an aggressive short-term construction schedule, Nucor selects