INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cabling
POWERED BY
Hyperscale computing for
enterprise data centres
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world, the ideal starting point for scalable,
future-proof spine and leaf topologies.”
R
&M, the globally active developer
and provider of cabling systems for
high-quality network infrastructures,
is forecasting new challenges for traditional
data centres. On the road to cloud
computing, data centres will have to
modernise and extend their networks to be
able to provide resources more flexibly. And
they have to extend their fibre-optic cabling.
“The start into the era of the private and
hybrid cloud and the leap from 10 to 40
or 100 gigabit Ethernet can be mastered
with flat architectures and the hyperscale
concept. Sooner or later even ordinary data
centres will have to turn into hyperscale data
centres,” predicts Dr Thomas Wellinger, R&M
Market Manager, Data Centre.
R&M market surveys show that this trend
is already starting and co-location data
centres, as well as some enterprise data
centres, have a few obstacles to overcome.
“A typical example: The cable entry into the
building and the cabinet for splitting the
multitude of outside cables are not suitable
for hyperscale design,” explains Wellinger.
Conventional cabinets were not designed
for the flexible scaling of cabling. And cable
routing, breakout and splice components
often turn out to be user-unfriendly. The
www.intelligentcio.com
development team at the North American
R&M site Milpitas, California, is looking into
the current requirements of co-location data
centres in detail. The BEF 60 splice cabinet
(BEF stands for building entrance facility)
was created based on extensive experience
with large volume FO distribution cabinets
and best practice studies. Its total capacity is
23,040 splices. 384 fibres can be managed
in each of its 60 stackable splice trays.
Wellinger says, “With the BEF 60, R&M is
once again underscoring its role as a leading
developer of high-density FO systems. This
platform is the fast track for co-location and
enterprise data centres into the hyperscale
SOONER OR LATER
EVEN ORDINARY
DATA CENTRES
WILL HAVE TO
TURN INTO
HYPERSCALE DATA
CENTRES
R&M sees a growing need for splice
platforms such as BEF 60 and hyperscale
solutions in the enterprise segment. “Cloud
applications and the Internet of Things
are growing into corporations. Today there
are already 8.4 billion things networked
with each other worldwide. Every day
more and more enterprises are integrating
complete production systems, buildings,
offices, applications, storage and lots more
into a private or external cloud. This trend
is presenting a major challenge to the
networks,” says Wellinger.
R&M estimates that high count fibre
installations and hyperscale infrastructures
are the only answer when it comes to
medium- and long-term planning. Enterprise
data centres can orient themselves to the
experiences of the public cloud giants.
Hyperscale data centres have an incredibly
scalable computing architecture which can
be managed like a single unit. Hyperscale
solutions allow operators to start out modestly
with lower investments and then react
accordingly to growing demand. They can
thus immediately aggregate or extend their
networks smoothly without having to interrupt
operations. Hyperscale capability is based in
particular on there being an available mass
of optical fibres. High count fibre cables with
more than 2,000 or 4,000 multi-fibre cables
are typically needed to cover the connectivity
requirement. Currently major cloud service
providers are implementing the hyperscale
concept so they can adapt their computing
performance to suit the market at all times.
The hyperscale data centre market is currently
growing at around 20% on average every
year and in 2022 will reach an estimated
volume of 71.2 billion USD. n
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