Abstract: A system and method for constructing a housing, such as a rack-mountable housing, for computer and telecommunications equipment, and for arranging modules, circuit boards, and other components within such a housing, to enable integration of telecommunications and information technology (IT) application services for delivering next generation, converged, network and multimedia services. The system and method provides a rack-mount server system with one or more line interface modules accessible from the front panel of the system housing, and a motherboard and a backplane with a switch fabric for allowing interconnection of the motherboard with any of the line interface modules. The rack-mount server system provides access to the high level of computing power, advanced storage technology, and standard operating systems of rack-mount server platforms, while retaining the modularity and front-panel connectivity of conventional rack-mountable telecommunications equipment.