Addressing the Network Scaling Challenge

Demand for edge data centers is expected to grow across the world in the short-term, particularly for shared data centers and especially in North America. Uptime Institute research shows a continued usage of redundant power and cooling systems, while at the same time showing an interest in distributed resiliency involving multiple edge data centers.

It goes without saying that the data center business continues to evolve. And, as a part of that evolution, we’re experiencing growth in the market alongside new solutions impacting overall data center operations. The environmental variables of the data center aren’t going anywhere. In fact, we still need to focus on power, cooling, and things like airflow. However, the biggest difference today is that we have smarter sensors and better integration with DCIM systems. Today, we have the integration of digital solutions within the walls of our data centers.

Data Centers vary widely in nature and can be roughly classified as hyperscale, multi-tenant, and private. A critical and common component in the operation of such data centers is the installation and maintenance of the physical cabling infrastructure. A fundamental change taking place is the evolution from cables using classic connectors on copper (RJ-45) or fiber optics (LC) to cables terminated by pluggables such as SFP or QSFP. This represents a new challenge as these cables, called Active Optical Cable (AOC) or Direct Attach Copper (DAC), are not easily validated and tested.

Private networks are already a reality for a host of companies. As spectrum access becomes easier, LTE based private networks are looking to displace existing networks based on Wi-Fi or proprietary standards, solving a range of cost and quality issues. Private networks are typically deployed in business critical or mission critical scenarios. They may be improving industrial process control, increasing teamwork and customer service on theme parks, speeding up response times in emergency situations and many other applications. LTE offers the potential to dramatically increase the quality, ease the deployment and lower the total cost of private networks.