The Datacenter Journal's Jeff Hodges has identified the five most crucial trends in data center cabling for today's technologic era.
"As companies and data centers alike recognize that structured cabling is the long-term groundwork for an efficient and capable network infrastructure, leaders are rethinking the why and how of their existing data cabling designs," contends Hodges. He adds, "Given enterprise dependencies on high-end structured data cabling, it’s not a service or product companies want to skimp on."
The five most crucial data center cabling trends are as follows, each provided with a teaser quote from the full article.
1. New data centers designed for modularization - "Whether you need standard modularization or an actual modular solution, the data cabling infrastructure is the foundation for both."
2. Network infrastructure optimization - "A common approach to an optimized network infrastructure involves standardization in components such as fiber and copper cabling, cabinets, racks, and data center designs. This approach, in conjunction with a physical-layer cable-management system, yields an organized and accessible system that provides valuable connectivity data at any given time."
3. Seamless cloud initiatives - "There’s little argument that a seamless cloud solution allows a scalable alternative in which physical layers can be added (or removed) in a phased approach for rapid deployment (or scaling back)."
4. Network Convergence culture - "Henry Jenkins coined the phrase convergence culture as where old and new media collide."
5. Virtualization services - "Virtualization has an effect on cabling as cabling has an effect on virtualization. With shared storage, web servers commonly connect to a network using a Fibre Channel, iSCSI, SAN or NAS file system. Robust cabling is required for uptime and to support many virtual networks for routing and forwarding using simple network cabling links."