DCN April 2016 | Page 24

cabling GENERATION GAME Tony Robinson of Corning Optical Communications explains why choice shouldn’t be an obstacle to your data centre evolution. F our TV channels, two political parties, one football team (ie. your local one)… what the olden days lacked in choice, they more than made up for in sheer, unbridled certainty. We can blame technologists for progress. Blame those pesky innovators for dabbling in our sepia stained nostalgia for an easier and more predestined life. We never wanted things to change – or did we? 24 Dwelling on the past should come with a health warning, especially when it comes to the complexities and challenges that greet data centre professionals today. Yes, there is unprecedented pressure bearing down on you and your data centre to achieve more agility, efficiency and performance. Yes, this in turn demands you to deliver greater density, faster provisioning and more accurate management. And yet, in spite of all this, the truth is you’ve never had it so good. No one is saying it’s simple today. It’s just no longer a case of following the same path as everyone else. In the past everything about data centre cabling was 10G and two-fibre; no ifs, no buts, no argument. Now there is real diversity in transceiver technology driving choice like we’ve never seen before. These successive waves of technology innovation have diffused the one way we had of progressing to