Fibre Optic Cable: An Essential Requirement in a Datacentre’s Infrastructure

To cope up with modern day data centre’s needs and stringent requirements on its performance, safety, security and modularity, latest technologies and high performance equipment are a must. In the Next-Generation Data centre Forum held recently at Manila, Country Solutions Manager at Dimension Data Philippines highlighted the need to step-up today’s data centre to the next level because of recent emerging technologies in the field of IT including buzzwords like big data, software defined networks, security compliance, hybrid cloud, consumption model and virtualization.Thus data centres are now required to be more agile and must support existing as well as advanced technologies.

Not only the need of IT enhancement was mentioned, rather data centre’s infrastructure was emphasized to be built according to contemporary designs.Today’s data centres must be reliable to provide service 24x7 without any hindrance. It is a mission critical component in a business which is responsible for storing, managing and protecting network’s core operational data. To increase data centre’s flexibility, its infrastructure i.e. cooling, power, cabling etc., should be built in a modular fashion. Damian Hamilton, Data centre Lead at Dimension Data Asia-Pacific, enlightened this fact with his experience in building data centres all over the world.

When it comes to make a future-proofed data centre infrastructure, fibre optics is the first choice of all businesses.Copper cabling has been steadily replaced by fibre optic cables because they provide several advantages over traditional copper communication lines, for example,

•    No other media than fibre optic cables can provide more bandwidth for high-performance networks, which means they can carry more data
•    Fibre optic cables provides immunity towards EMI/RFI, alien cross-talk issues and are less susceptible than metal cables to interference
•    Optical cable and hardware can offer dramatic space savings, because they are much thinner and lighter than metal wires. It is important when data centre real estate is at a premium
•    Fibre optic cables can transmit data digitally (natural form for computer data) instead of analogically

As a result, fibre optics is a growing industry,where manufacturers are trying to bring high end products and that too at a reasonable price.The perfect choice for businesses, both big and small, can be the one that not only provides a solution but also exceptional customer service and 100% product availability.Apollo Technology is a worth mentioning choice particularly when it comes to modern datacentre infrastructure.

Data centres commonly have horizontal networks in their infrastructure, made secured using fibre optics that prevent access to the data. Since fibre optic cables does not emit electronic signals that can be monitored remotely, data transmitted over fibre is highly secured. Also, fibre cannot be tapped into without being detected. Furthermore, data security is accelerating Fibre to the Desktop (FTTD) as a common horizontal network example which can be achieved using fibre optic cables supplied by Apollo Technology.

In the development of data centres, one thing is for sure:data centres will keep growing with the advancement in technology, with more and more demanding requirements in terms of performance, reliability, security and modularity. It will be up to fibre optic providers like Apollo Technology to continue to bring to market high end fibre optics products to meet these requirements and play a vital role in the evolution of modern data centres.

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Growing Adoption of Pre-terminated Fibre Optic Cables in Current Cabling Trends

The aim of modern IT-centric world is to target on having a firm grasp of prevailing cabling trends for flourishing technologies. In recent years, cabling advancements have been a cause of satisfaction for IT and datacentre managers when it comes to installation, usage and maintenance. Moreover, the upgradation and outfitting of datacentres or any other system has now become easier, with savings on both time and cost.

A research on future cabling market done in 2013 by BSRIA - a global market intelligence company, can be summarized as:

• The global market of structured cabling will reach about $8.3 billion by 2020. Of this total, cabling in datacentres is expected to account for $1.6 billion, while LAN cabling alone will contribute $6.7 billion.

• Companies are expected to spend more on LAN structured cabling for wiring IP camera, access points and access controls, building management systems and other equipment.

• Datacentre’s structured cabling will continue to move on utilizing fibre, whereas the smaller datacentres using copper wiring are likely to decrease with the increase in outsourcing and cloud services.

Many IT companies are determined to maximize project ROI in order to improve their commercial sector. They needed to make more sustainable and environmentally sound choices for cables having lower installation costs and requiring less installation time. Here is where pre-terminated fibre optic cable comes into picture. It has proved better results for mission-critical technology networks because it provides high performance and maximum system uptime over long term, without incurring high costs for system upgrades and network maintenance.

Traditionally, once a cabling installation plan is formulated and network topology is approved, installers need to haul large volumes of cables to be installed and terminate at the user’s site. This installation may take days, weeks or even months depending on the size of the project. If the system needs to be upgraded, the installers have to design their schedule in such a way that the network’s performance should not be affected. Furthermore, at the end of the installation process, the installers are left with discarded packaging, unused cabling and even other waste and scrap.

On the other hand, pre-terminated fibre optic cable needs more detailed analysis and planning process, requiring more time upfront to determine the current and future requirements of cabling and termination routes within the cabinets and along the cable trays. Once the plan is formulated, the required cable lengths for various areas are then manufactured by cable providers like Apollo Technology Pty Ltd, and tested to ensure they meet all applicable network standards.

The resulting cabling system is a rapidly deployable ‘plug and play’ system, as there is no need of on-site field termination, because these cables are bundled and pre-terminated at factory. They are ready to install upon arriving on site, without the need of special tools and field termination, leading to lower installation and ownership costs. Furthermore, these cables don’t leave any cable or connector scrap after the installation process is complete. Apollo technology makes pre-terminated cables to your exact specification with improved end-to-end attenuation and throughput. These cables have no termination errors because they have already been inspected for insertion loss and visual defects.

Because of the improved link loss budget, pre-terminated cables have various applications, for example LAN premise and campus applications that utilise pre-terminated cables for their inter-building and intra-building backbones. Also, datacentres deploy these cables in their main, horizontal and equipment distribution area trunk cables for Storage Area Network (SAN) applications requiring high density in limited space.

To conclude, pre-terminated fibre optic cables provide a greener approach and life cycle sustainability to datacentres and enterprise networks because they are economically feasible for a long-term investment. Although implementation of pre-terminated cables require more detailed pre-planning at the early stages, the overall cost/ benefit analysis favors their use.

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