Ian Wilkie of Brand-Rex
Q & A
How has the Hi-Dex product line been received ?
Hi-Dex is a ground-breaking solution and the market response has been incredible . Sales are already much higher than expectations and we are rapidly developing new service models to meet this important and increasing demand . One thing Brand-Rex has always done well is to listen to our customers and understand what is important to them . With Hi-Dex , we have a solution that was developed as much by our customers ’ stated needs , desires and frustrations , as by our highly skilled development team . The need to manage both the installation and operation of high density fibre cabling and connectivity within the data centre is a growing challenge and Hi-Dex was designed to provide to achieve this .
Can you tell us about any projects you are currently working on ?
With the market now seeing our strengthened company as a highly desirable supply partner , we are now working with customers on many of the world ’ s latest and greatest new developments .
Whether it be a large telecommunications company upgrading its data centres across the United States , Europe , and Middle East , a key player in Asia ’ s hospitality industry that sees the appeal of combined Brand-Rex and Leviton system solutions , or a US software company that wants to replicate its existing Leviton network infrastructure in other regions across the globe ; they all have one thing in common — they want the best solution available – and that is exactly what they will receive .
What future trends do you expect to see in the data centre space ?
Fibre adoption will continue to increase – driven by large and cloud data centres . Most of the hyper-scale data centres are 90-100 per cent fibre . Even medium sized data centres are seeing an increase in the use of fibre .
Copper cabling continues to be installed in computer rooms and small data centres . It is still the first choice in colocation data centres where network infrastructure decisions are mainly driven by cost .
How will wideband multimode fibre affect speeds in the data centre ?
By using Shortwave Wavelength Division Multiplexing ( SWDM ), four separate signals can be aggregated ( multiplexed ) and transmitted concurrently over an 850nm to 950nm window . This makes the wideband multimode fibre solution ideal for future 100Gb / s Ethernet and 128Gb / s Fibre Channel applications , maintaining industry preferred LC duplex connectivity . Furthermore , this technology establishes a sensible building block from which 400Gb / s speeds can be achieved using our market leading MTP connectivity set .
How is Brand-Rex preparing for the Construction Product Regulation ( CPR ) for cables ?
We have been making extensive preparations for several months . As CPR goes live on 1st July we will be on hand to support and provide advice to specifiers , installers and the supply chain through the one year transition phase .
Our experience in this area will make us the go-to supplier for information and solutions .
We believe that many industry players are still in the dark about what the changes actually mean – the industry collectively needs to ensure clear consistent messaging is delivered , otherwise customers will be totally confused .
Are Category 7 and 7A solutions gathering any traction in the UK market or are they limited in their application ?
We see limited uptake and applications for Category 7 and 7A . Category 8 is just around the corner and provides the highest performing and most flexible infrastructure solution to support future network growth . Category 8 will use triedand-true RJ-45 connectivity , while preparing networks for the latest applications , including :
Cloud services Convergence Virtualisation advancements Multi-Gigabit Base-T switches Top-of-rack switch topologies End-of-row switch topologies
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