Optimizing cabling efficiency becoming critical in data centers
Cabling efficiency plays a key role in network performance, making multi-protocol solutions a prime solution for many companies.
By Donna DonnawitzNovember 6, 2012
If you think about how most companies looked at the network a few years ago and compare it to what things are like now, you'll probably notice a monumental difference. In the past, the network was the epitome of a facilitator. Its role in the data center was simply to keep everything running. This meant that the only time anybody really paid any attention to the network was when they were configuring it or if it didn't work properly. This is all changing.
Contemporary network climate
The network is no longer just a facilitator. Emerging technologies have pushed data centers beyond their traditional capabilities and many organizations are now heavily dependent on superior network performance to enable advanced functionality. This completely changes how IT managers have to look at the data center, turning a background process into a technology that is on the forefront of operations.
This shift in role not only changes the approach IT managers have to take regarding the data center, but also the way they go about interacting with it. According to a recent Cabling Installation & Maintenance report, the changing network climate is creating a dynamic in which documentation plays an even larger role in network success.
If you look at a data center cabling setup, it will appear as if somebody took a few hundred plates of spaghetti and clipped them together in a somewhat orderly fashion. The challenge, therefore, is to know which of those cables goes to which equipment, as it is not exactly easy to untangle wires to figure it out. This is where effective documentation comes in. The news source said that a strategic and well-documented cabling system offers short- and long-term benefits. In the immediate moment, the installation process is much easier because cables are properly marked. In the future, it will be easier to solve cabling-related problems because technicians are able to quickly identify what each cable does.
Simplifying the network through deployments with multiple media types
Documentation is not the only way to make the network less complex from a cabling standpoint. Organizations can also deploy more fiber in the data center to reduce the number of cables needed in backhaul and some storage settings. On the surface, this may appear to make things more complex. However, fiber to Ethernet media converters can make interoperability so easy that the end result is a simpler and more efficient cabling architecture.
Perle has an extensive range of Managed and Unmanaged Fiber Media Converters to extended copper-based Ethernet equipment over a fiber optic link, multimode to multimode and multimode to single mode fiber up to 160km.
Contemporary network climate
The network is no longer just a facilitator. Emerging technologies have pushed data centers beyond their traditional capabilities and many organizations are now heavily dependent on superior network performance to enable advanced functionality. This completely changes how IT managers have to look at the data center, turning a background process into a technology that is on the forefront of operations.
This shift in role not only changes the approach IT managers have to take regarding the data center, but also the way they go about interacting with it. According to a recent Cabling Installation & Maintenance report, the changing network climate is creating a dynamic in which documentation plays an even larger role in network success.
If you look at a data center cabling setup, it will appear as if somebody took a few hundred plates of spaghetti and clipped them together in a somewhat orderly fashion. The challenge, therefore, is to know which of those cables goes to which equipment, as it is not exactly easy to untangle wires to figure it out. This is where effective documentation comes in. The news source said that a strategic and well-documented cabling system offers short- and long-term benefits. In the immediate moment, the installation process is much easier because cables are properly marked. In the future, it will be easier to solve cabling-related problems because technicians are able to quickly identify what each cable does.
Simplifying the network through deployments with multiple media types
Documentation is not the only way to make the network less complex from a cabling standpoint. Organizations can also deploy more fiber in the data center to reduce the number of cables needed in backhaul and some storage settings. On the surface, this may appear to make things more complex. However, fiber to Ethernet media converters can make interoperability so easy that the end result is a simpler and more efficient cabling architecture.
Perle has an extensive range of Managed and Unmanaged Fiber Media Converters to extended copper-based Ethernet equipment over a fiber optic link, multimode to multimode and multimode to single mode fiber up to 160km.
