Tag Archives: data centre

Unlocking Advanced License Benefits in Enterprise Switches

Enterprise switches play a vital role in modern network architectures, facilitating efficient and secure data transfer within an organization. The Basic license provides standard features, while the Advanced license takes enterprise switches to a whole new level of power and functionality. This article aims to explore the concept of premium licenses in enterprise switches, highlight their importance and delve into the additional features and benefits they offer. We will also focus on the advanced license options available in FS Enterprise Switches, showcasing their capabilities and benefits.

Advanced License Basics

An advanced license is a type of high-level software license, which is not a tangible product but a software package. The advanced software license supports multiple advanced features such as MPLS, LDP, MPLS L2VPN, MPLS L3VPN, VXLAN-BGP-EVPN, IPFIX, etc. In enterprise switches, licenses act as authorization keys that unlock specific features and modules within the switch’s firmware.

Basic licenses typically provide standard functionalities such as data forwarding and basic security features. However, advanced licenses offer a wide range of additional functionalities and advantages, such as increased port counts, support for advanced routing protocols, and more granular traffic control. By understanding the different types of licenses, organizations can make informed decisions, select the appropriate license for their specific needs, and effectively take advantage of the features provided.

Unleashing the Full Potential of Advanced License

To fully unleash the potential of advanced licenses in enterprise switches and optimize network performance and security, organizations can leverage the following functionalities:

VLAN Partitioning: With advanced licenses, organizations can divide their switches into multiple Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs). This enhances network security and provides greater management flexibility.
Quality of Service (QoS): Advanced licenses empower organizations to prioritize network traffic based on specific criteria, such as application type, source, or destination. This ensures that critical applications receive the necessary bandwidth and guarantees a higher quality user experience.
Advanced Routing Protocols: Advanced licenses often include support for advanced routing protocols such as Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) or Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). These protocols enable efficient and scalable routing within enterprise networks, enhancing network stability and performance.
Traffic Monitoring and Analysis: Advanced licenses may offer features for traffic monitoring and analysis, allowing organizations to gain insights into network traffic patterns, identify potential bottlenecks, and proactively optimize network performance.
Enhanced Security Features: Advanced licenses can provide additional security features such as Access Control Lists (ACLs) and Secure Shell (SSH) protocols. These features enhance network security by allowing organizations to control access to network resources and encrypt network communications.

FS Enterprise Switches with Advanced Licenses

FS Enterprise Switches with Advanced Licenses are suitable for organizations that require robust performance, scalability, and advanced networking capabilities. The S5800-48T4S is an FS enterprise switch with an advanced license. Built with advanced hardware and software, the S5800-48T4S delivers a robust Layer 3 routing solution for next-generation enterprise, data center, Metro, and HCI networks. Here are some key details about FS Enterprise Switches:

Advanced License Functions: The Advanced License includes a range of advanced networking functions to enhance the capabilities of the switches. These functions include MPLS, LDP, MPLS-L2VPN, MPLS-L3VPN, VxLAN-BGP-EVPN, and IPFIX.
Network Protocols and Features: The switch supports multiple network protocols and features to optimize network performance and security. These include MLAG for link aggregation and redundancy, a DHCP server for automatic IP address assignment, and support for IPv4 and IPv6 routing.
Management and Monitoring: FS Enterprise Switches with Advanced Licenses offer comprehensive management and monitoring capabilities. They support protocols like SNMP for network monitoring and can be managed using software-defined network (SDN) solutions through RPC-API.
Security Features: The switches provide advanced security features to protect the network and ensure secure access. These features include support for ACL for traffic filtering, MAC whitelisting for controlling access based on MAC addresses, ARP inspection for preventing ARP spoofing attacks, IP source guard to validate IP packet sources, and IEEE802.1X RADIUS authentication for secure user access.

ConclusionAdvanced licenses in enterprise switches unlock powerful functionalities that enhance network performance and security. FS enterprise switches offer comprehensive advanced license options to meet diverse network requirements. By leveraging advanced licenses, organizations can optimize their network infrastructure and achieve a robust and efficient network. If you want to learn more, please visit FS.com.

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Data Center Containment: Types, Benefits & Challenges

Over the past decade, data center containment has experienced a high rate of implementation by many data centers. It can greatly improve the predictability and efficiency of traditional data center cooling systems. This article will elaborate on what data center containment is, common types of it, and their benefits and challenges.

What Is Data Center Containment?

Data center containment is the separation of cold supply air from the hot exhaust air from IT equipment so as to reduce operating cost, optimize power usage effectiveness, and increase cooling capacity. Containment systems enable uniform and stable supply air temperature to the intake of IT equipment and a warmer, drier return air to cooling infrastructure.

Types of Data Center Containment

There are mainly two types of data center containment, hot aisle containment and cold aisle containment.

Hot aisle containment encloses warm exhaust air from IT equipment in data center racks and returns it back to cooling infrastructure. The air from the enclosed hot aisle is returned to cooling equipment via a ceiling plenum or duct work, and then the conditioned air enters the data center via raised floor, computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units, or duct work.

Cold aisle containment encloses cold aisles where cold supply air is delivered to cool IT equipment. So the rest of the data center becomes a hot-air return plenum where the temperature can be high. Physical barriers such as solid metal panels, plastic curtains, or glass are used to allow for proper airflow through cold aisles.

Hot Aisle vs. Cold Aisle

There are mixed views on whether it’s better to contain the hot aisle or the cold aisle. Both containment strategies have their own benefits as well as challenges.

Hot aisle containment benefits

The open areas of the data center are cool, so that visitors to the room will not think the IT equipment is not being cooled sufficiently. In addition, it allows for some low density areas to be un-contained if desired.
It is generally considered to be more effective. Any leakages that come from raised floor openings in the larger part of the room go into the cold space.
With hot aisle containment, low-density network racks and stand-alone equipment like storage cabinets can be situated outside the containment system, and they will not get too hot, because they are able to stay in the lower temperature open areas of the data center.
Hot aisle containment typically adjoins the ceiling where fire suppression is installed. With a well-designed space, it will not affect normal operation of a standard grid fire suppression system.

Hot aisle containment challenges

It is generally more expensive. A contained path is needed for air to flow from the hot aisle all the way to cooling units. Often a drop ceiling is used as return air plenum.
High temperatures in the hot aisle can be undesirable for data center technicians. When they need to access IT equipment and infrastructure, a contained hot aisle can be a very uncomfortable place to work. But this problem can be mitigated using temporary local cooling.

Cold aisle containment benefits

It is easy to implement without the need for additional architecture to contain and return exhaust air such as a drop ceiling or air plenum.
Cold aisle containment is less expensive to install as it only requires doors at ends of aisles and baffles or roof over the aisle.
Cold aisle containment is typically easier to retrofit in an existing data center. This is particularly true for data centers that have overhead obstructions such as existing duct work, lighting and power, and network distribution.

Cold aisle containment challenges

When utilizing a cold aisle system, the rest of the data center becomes hot, resulting in high return air temperatures. It also may create operational issues if any non-contained equipment such as low-density storage is installed in the general data center space.
The conditioned air that leaks from the openings under equipment like PDUs and raised floor tend to enter air paths that return to cooling units. This reduces the efficiency of the system.
In many cases, cold aisles have intermediate ceilings over the aisle. This may affect the overall fire protection and lighting design, especially when added to an existing data center.

How to Choose the Best Containment Option?

Every data center is unique. To find the most suitable option, you have to take into account a number of aspects. The first thing is to evaluate your site and calculate the Cooling Capacity Factor (CCF) of the computer room. Then observe the unique layout and architecture of each computer room to discover conditions that make hot aisle or cold aisle containment preferable. With adequate information and careful consideration, you will be able to choose the best containment option for your data center.

Article Source: Data Center Containment: Types, Benefits & Challenges

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The Chip Shortage: Current Challenges, Predictions, and Potential Solutions

The COVID-19 pandemic caused several companies to shut down, and the implications were reduced production and altered supply chains. In the tech world, where silicon microchips are the heart of everything electronic, raw material shortage became a barrier to new product creation and development.

During the lockdown periods, some essential workers were required to stay home, which meant chip manufacturing was unavailable for several months. By the time lockdown was lifted and the world embraced the new normal, the rising demand for consumer and business electronics was enough to ripple up the supply chain.

Below, we’ve discussed the challenges associated with the current chip shortage, what to expect moving forward, and the possible interventions necessary to overcome the supply chain constraints.

Challenges Caused by the Current Chip Shortage

As technology and rapid innovation sweeps across industries, semiconductor chips have become an essential part of manufacturing – from devices like switches, wireless routers, computers, and automobiles to basic home appliances.

To understand and quantify the impact this chip shortage has caused spanning the industry, we’ll need to look at some of the most affected sectors. Here’s a quick breakdown of how things have unfolded over the last eighteen months.

Automobile Industry

in North America and Europe had slowed or stopped production due to a lack of computer chips. Major automakers like Tesla, Ford, BMW, and General Motors have all been affected. The major implication is that the global automobile industry will manufacture 4 million fewer cars by the end of 2021 than earlier planned, and it will forfeit an average of $110 billion in revenue.

Consumer Electronics

Consumer electronics such as desktop PCs and smartphones rose in demand throughout the pandemic, thanks to the shift to virtual learning among students and the rise in remote working. At the start of the pandemic, several automakers slashed their vehicle production forecasts before abandoning open semiconductor chip orders. And while the consumer electronics industry stepped in and scooped most of those microchips, the supply couldn’t catch up with the demand.

Data Centers

Most chip fabrication companies like Samsung Foundries, Global Foundries, and TSMC prioritized high-margin orders from PC and data center customers during the pandemic. And while this has given data centers a competitive edge, it isn’t to say that data centers haven’t been affected by the global chip shortage.

Some of the components data centers have struggled to source include those needed to put together their data center switching systems. These include BMC chips, capacitors, resistors, circuit boards, etc. Another challenge is the extended lead times due to wafer and substrate shortages, as well as reduced assembly capacity.

LED Lighting

LED backlights common in most display screens are powered by hard-to-find semiconductor chips. The prices of gadgets with LED lighting features are now highly-priced due to the shortage of raw materials and increased market demand. This is expected to continue up to the beginning of 2022.

Renewable Energy- Solar and Turbines

Renewable energy systems, particularly solar and turbines, rely on semiconductors and sensors to operate. The global supply chain constraints have hurt the industry and even forced some energy solutions manufacturers like Enphase Energy to

Semiconductor Trends: What to Expect Moving Forward

In response to the global chip shortage, several component manufacturers have ramped up production to help mitigate the shortages. However, top electronics and semiconductor manufacturers say the crunch will only worsen before it gets better. Most of these industry leaders speculate that the semiconductor shortage could persist into 2023.

Based on the ongoing disruption and supply chain volatility, various analysts in a recent CNBC article and Bloomberg interview echoed their views, and many are convinced that the coming year will be challenging. Here are some of the key takeaways:

Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel Corp., noted in April 2021 that the chip shortage would recover after a couple of years.

DigiTimes Report found that Intel and AMD server ICs and data centers have seen their lead times extend to 45 to 66 weeks.

The world’s third-largest EMS and OEM provider, Flex Ltd., expects the global semiconductor shortage to proceed into 2023.

In May 2021, Global Foundries, the fourth-largest contract semiconductor manufacturer, signed a $1.6 billion, 3-year silicon supply deal with AMD, and in late June, it launched its new $4 billion, 300mm-wafer facility in Singapore. Yet, the company says its production capacity will only increase component production earliest in 2023.

TMSC, one of the leading pure-play foundries in the industry, says it won’t meaningfully increase the component output until 2023. However, it’s optimistic that the company will ramp up the fabrication of automotive micro-controllers by 60% by the end of 2021.

From the industry insights above, it’s evident that despite the many efforts that major players put into resolving the global chip shortage, the bottlenecks will probably persist throughout 2022.

Additionally, some industry observers believe that the move by big tech companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google to design their own chips for cloud and data center business could worsen the chip shortage crisis and other problems facing the semiconductor industry.

article, the authors hint that the entry of Microsoft, Amazon, and Google into the chip design market will be a turning point in the industry. These tech giants have the resources to design superior and cost-effective chips of their own, something most chip designers like Intel have in limited proportions.

Since these tech giants will become independent, each will be looking to create component stockpiles to endure long waits and meet production demands between inventory refreshes. Again, this will further worsen the existing chip shortage.

Possible Solutions

To stay ahead of the game, major industry players such as chip designers and manufacturers and the many affected industries have taken several steps to mitigate the impacts of the chip shortage.

For many chip makers, expanding their production capacity has been an obvious response. Other suppliers in certain regions decided to stockpile and limit exports to better respond to market volatility and political pressures.

Similarly, improving the yields or increasing the number of chips manufactured from a silicon wafer is an area that many manufacturers have invested in to boost chip supply by some given margin.

Here are the other possible solutions that companies have had to adopt:

Embracing flexibility to accommodate older chip technologies that may not be “state of the art” but are still better than nothing.

Leveraging software solutions such as smart compression and compilation to build efficient AI models to help unlock hardware capabilities.

LED Lighting

The latest global chip shortage has led to severe shocks in the semiconductor supply chain, affecting several industries from automobile, consumer electronics, data centers, LED, and renewables.

Industry thought leaders believe that shortages will persist into 2023 despite the current build-up in mitigation measures. And while full recovery will not be witnessed any time soon, some chip makers are optimistic that they will ramp up fabrication to contain the demand among their automotive customers.

That said, staying ahead of the game is an all-time struggle considering this is an issue affecting every industry player, regardless of size or market position. Expanding production capacity, accommodating older chip technologies, and leveraging software solutions to unlock hardware capabilities are some of the promising solutions.

Added

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Article Source: The Chip Shortage: Current Challenges, Predictions, and Potential Solutions

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Impact of Chip Shortage on Datacenter Industry

Infographic – What Is a Data Center?

Impact of Chip Shortage on Datacenter Industry

As the global chip shortage let rip, many chip manufacturers have to slow or even halt semiconductor production. Makers of all kinds of electronics such as switches, PCs, servers are all scrambling to get enough chips in the pipeline to match the surging demand for their products. Every manufacturer, supplier and solution provider in datacenter industry is feeling the impact of the ongoing chip scarcity. However, relief is nowhere in sight yet.

What’s Happening?

Due to the rise of AI and cloud computing, datacenter chips have been a highly charged topic in recent times. As networking switches and modern servers, indispensable equipment in datacenter applications, use more advanced components than an average consumer’s PC, naturally when it comes to chip manufacturers and suppliers, data centers are given the top priority. However, with the demand for data center machines far outstripping supply, chip shortages may continue to be pervasive across the next few years. Coupled with economic uncertainties caused by the pandemic, it further puts stress on datacenter management.

According to a report from the Dell’Oro Group, robust datacenter switch sales over the past year could foretell a looming shortage. As the mismatch in supply and demand keeps growing, enterprises looking to buy datacenter switches face extended lead times and elevated costs over the course of the next year.

“So supply is decreasing and demand is increasing,” said Sameh Boujelbene, leader of the analyst firm’s campus and data-center research team. “There’s a belief that things will get worse in the second half of the year, but no consensus on when it’ll start getting better.”

Back in March, Broadcom said that more than 90% of its total chip output for 2021 had already been ordered by customers, who are pressuring it for chips to meet booming demand for servers used in cloud data centers and consumer electronics such as 5G phones.

“We intend to meet such demand, and in doing so, we will maintain our disciplined process of carefully reviewing our backlog, identifying real end-user demand, and delivering products accordingly,” CEO Hock Tan said on a conference call with investors and analysts.

Major Implications

Extended Lead Times

Arista Networks, one of the largest data center networking switch vendors and a supplier of switches to cloud providers, foretells that switch-silicon lead times will be extended to as long as 52 weeks.

“The supply chain has never been so constrained in Arista history,” the company’s CEO, Jayshree Ullal, said on an earnings call. “To put this in perspective, we now have to plan for many components with 52-week lead time. COVID has resulted in substrate and wafer shortages and reduced assembly capacity. Our contract manufacturers have experienced significant volatility due to country specific COVID orders. Naturally, we’re working more closely with our strategic suppliers to improve planning and delivery.”

Hock Tan, CEO of Broadcom, also acknowledged on an earnings call that the company had “started extending lead times.” He said, “part of the problem was that customers were now ordering more chips and demanding them faster than usual, hoping to buffer against the supply chain issues.”

Elevated Cost

Vertiv, one of the biggest sellers of datacenter power and cooling equipment, mentioned it had to delay previously planned “footprint optimization programs” due to strained supply. The company’s CEO, Robert Johnson, said on an earnings call, “We have decided to delay some of those programs.”

Supply chain constraints combined with inflation would cause “some incremental unexpected costs over the short term,” he said, “To share the cost with our customers where possible may be part of the solution.”

“Prices are definitely going to be higher for a lot of devices that require a semiconductor,” says David Yoffie, a Harvard Business School professor who spent almost three decades serving on the board of Intel.

Conclusion

There is no telling that how the situation will continue playing out and, most importantly, when supply and demand might get back to normal. Opinions vary on when the shortage will end. The CEO of chipmaker STMicro estimated that the shortage will end by early 2023. Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger said it could last two more years.

As a high-tech network solutions and services provider, FS has been actively working with our customers to help them plan for, adapt to, and overcome the supply chain challenges, hoping that we can both ride out this chip shortage crisis. At least, we cannot lose hope, as advised by Bill Wyckoff, vice president at technology equipment provider SHI International, “This is not an ‘all is lost’ situation. There are ways and means to keep your equipment procurement and refresh plans on track if you work with the right partners.”

Article Source: Impact of Chip Shortage on Datacenter Industry

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Infographic – What Is a Data Center?

The Internet is where we store and receive a huge amount of information. Where is all the information stored? The answer is data centers. At its simplest, a data center is a dedicated place that organizations use to house their critical applications and data. Here is a short look into the basics of data centers. You will get to know the data center layout, the data pathway, and common types of data centers.

To know more about data centers, click here.

Article Source: Infographic – What Is a Data Center?

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Why Data Center Location Matters?

When it comes to data center design, location is a crucial aspect that no business can overlook. Where your data center is located matters a lot more than you might realize. In this article, we will walk you through the importance of data center location and factors you should keep in mind when choosing one.

The Importance of Data Center Location

Though data centers can be located anywhere with power and connectivity, the site selection can have a great impact on a wide range of aspects such as business uptime and cost control. Overall, a good data center location can better secure your data center and extend the life of data centers. Specifically, it means lower TCO, faster internet speed, higher productivity, and so on. Here we will discuss two typical aspects that are the major concerns of businesses.

Greater physical security

Data centers have extremely high security requirements, and once problems occur, normal operation will be affected. Of course, security and reliability can be improved by various means, such as building redundant systems, etc. However, reasonable planning of the physical location of a data center can also effectively avoid harm caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, fires and so on. If a data center is located in a risk zone that is prone to natural disasters, that would lead to longer downtime and more potential damages to infrastructure.

Higher speed and better performance

Where your data center is located can also affect your website’s speed and business performance. When a user visits a page on your website, their computer has to communicate with servers in your data center to access data or information they need. That data is then transferred from servers to their computer. If your data center is located far away from your users who initiate certain requests, information and data will have to travel longer distances. That will be a lengthy process for your users who could probably get frustrated with slow speeds and latency. The result is lost users leaving your site with no plans to come back. In a sense, a good location can make high speed and impressive business performance possible.

Choosing a Data Center Location — Key Factors

Choosing where to locate your data center requires balancing many different priorities. Here are some major considerations to help you get started.

key factors of choosing a data center location

Business Needs

First and foremost, the decision has to be made based on your business needs and market demands. Where are your users? Is the market promising in the location you are considering? You should always build your data center as close as possible to users you serve. It can shorten the time for users to obtain files and data and make for happy customers. For smaller companies that only operate in a specific region or country, it’s best to choose a nearby data center location. For companies that have much more complicated businesses, they may want to consider more locations or resort to third-party providers for more informed decisions.

Natural Disasters

Damages and losses caused by natural disasters are not something any data center can afford. These include big weather and geographical events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, lightning and thunder, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, blizzards, hail, fires, and landslides. If your data center is in a risk zone, it is almost a matter of time before it falls victim to one. Conversely, a good location less susceptible to various disasters means a higher possibility of less downtime and better operation.

It is also necessary to analyze the climatic conditions of a data center location in order to select the most suitable cooling measures, thus reducing the TCO of running a data center. At the same time, you might want to set up a disaster recovery site that is far enough from the main site, so that it is almost impossible for any natural disaster to affect them at the same time.

Power Supply

The nature of data centers and requirements for quality and capacity determine that the power supply in a data center must be sufficient and stable. As power is the biggest cost of operating a data center, it is very important to choose a place where electricity is relatively cheap.

The factors we need to consider include:

Availability — You have to know the local power supply situation. At the same time, you need to check whether there are multiple mature power grids in alternative locations.

Cost — As we’ve mentioned, power costs a lot. So it is necessary to compare various power costs. That is to say, the amount of power should be viable and the cost of it should be low enough.

Alternative energy sources — You might also want to consider whether there are renewable energy sources such as solar energy, wind energy and air in alternative locations, which will help enterprises to build a greener corporate image.

It is necessary to make clear the local power supply reliability, electricity price, and policies concerning the trend of the power supply and market demand in the next few years.

Other Factors

There are a number of additional factors to consider. These include local data protection laws, tax structures, land policy, availability of suitable networking solutions, local infrastructure, the accessibility of a skilled labor pool, and other aspects. All these things combined can have a great impact on the TCO of your data center and your business performance. This means you will have to do enough research before making an informed decision.

There is no one right answer for the best place to build a data center. A lot of factors come into play, and you may have to weigh different priorities. But one thing is for sure: A good data center location is crucial to data center success.

Article Source: Why Data Center Location Matters?

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Carrier Neutral vs. Carrier Specific: Which to Choose?

As the need for data storage drives the growth of data centers, colocation facilities are increasingly important to enterprises. A colocation data center brings many advantages to an enterprise data center, such as carriers helping enterprises manage their IT infrastructure that reduces the cost for management. There are two types of hosting carriers: carrier-neutral and carrier-specific. In this article, we will discuss the differentiation of them.

Carrier Neutral and Carrier Specific Data Center: What Are They?

Accompanied by the accelerated growth of the Internet, the exponential growth of data has led to a surge in the number of data centers to meet the needs of companies of all sizes and market segments. Two types of carriers that offer managed services have emerged on the market.

Carrier-neutral data centers allow access and interconnection of multiple different carriers while the carriers can find solutions that meet the specific needs of an enterprise’s business. Carrier-specific data centers, however, are monolithic, supporting only one carrier that controls all access to corporate data. At present, most enterprises choose carrier-neutral data centers to support their business development and avoid some unplanned accidents.

There is an example, in 2021, about 1/3 of the cloud infrastructure in AWS was overwhelmed and down for 9 hours. This not only affected millions of websites, but also countless other devices running on AWS. A week later, AWS was down again for about an hour, bringing down the Playstation network, Zoom, and Salesforce, among others. The third downtime of AWS also impacted Internet giants such as Slack, Asana, Hulu, and Imgur to a certain extent. 3 outages of cloud infrastructure in one month took a beyond measure cost to AWS, which also proved the fragility of cloud dependence.

In the above example, we can know that the management of the data center by the enterprise will affect the business development due to some unplanned accidents, which is a huge loss for the enterprise. To lower the risks caused by using a single carrier, enterprises need to choose a carrier-neutral data center and adjust the system architecture to protect their data center.

Why Should Enterprises Choose Carrier Neutral Data Center?

Carrier-neutral data centers are data centers operated by third-party colocation providers, but these third parties are rarely involved in providing Internet access services. Hence, the existence of carrier-neutral data centers enhances the diversity of market competition and provides enterprises with more beneficial options.

Another colocation advantage of a carrier-neutral data center is the ability to change internet providers as needed, saving the labor cost of physically moving servers elsewhere. We have summarized several main advantages of a carrier-neutral data center as follows.

Why Should Enterprises Choose Carrier Neutral Data Center

Redundancy

A carrier-neutral colocation data center is independent of the network operators and not owned by a single ISP. Out of this advantage, it offers enterprises multiple connectivity options, creating a fully redundant infrastructure. If one of the carriers loses power, the carrier-neutral data center can instantly switch servers to another online carrier. This ensures that the entire infrastructure is running and always online. On the network connection, a cross-connect is used to connect the ISP or telecom company directly to the customer’s sub-server to obtain bandwidth from the source. This can effectively avoid network switching to increase additional delay and ensure network performance.

Options and Flexibility

Flexibility is a key factor and advantage for carrier-neutral data center providers. For one thing, the carrier neutral model can increase or decrease the network transmission capacity through the operation of network transmission. And as the business continues to grow, enterprises need colocation data center providers that can provide scalability and flexibility. For another thing, carrier-neutral facilities can provide additional benefits to their customers, such as offering enterprise DR options, interconnect, and MSP services. Whether your business is large or small, a carrier-neutral data center provider may be the best choice for you.

Cost-effectiveness

First, colocation data center solutions can provide a high level of control and scalability, expanding opportunity to storage, which can support business growth and save some expenses. Additionally, it also lowers physical transport costs for enterprises. Second, with all operators in the market competing for the best price and maximum connectivity, a net neutral data center has a cost advantage over a single network facility. What’s more, since freedom of use to any carrier in a carrier-neutral data center, enterprises can choose the best cost-benefit ratio for their needs.

Reliability

Carrier-neutral data centers also boast reliability. One of the most important aspects of a data center is the ability to have 100% uptime. Carrier-neutral data center providers can provide users with ISP redundancy that a carrier-specific data center cannot. Having multiple ISPs at the same time gives better security for all clients. Even if one carrier fails, another carrier may keep the system running. At the same time, the data center service provider provides 24/7 security including all the details and uses advanced technology to ensure the security of login access at all access points to ensure that customer data is safe. Also, the multi-layered protection of the physical security cabinet ensures the safety of data transmission.

Summary

While many enterprises need to determine the best option for their company’s specific business needs, by comparing both carrier-neutral and carrier-specific, choosing a network carrier neutral data center service provider is a better option for today’s cloud-based business customers. Several advantages, such as maximizing total cost, lower network latency, and better network coverage, are of working with a carrier-neutral managed service provider. With no downtime and constant concerns about equipment performance, IT decision-makers for enterprise clients have more time to focus on the more valuable areas that drive continued business growth and success.

Article Source: Carrier Neutral vs. Carrier Specific: Which to Choose?

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LC Connector for High Density Data Centres

SC duplex connector was popular a few years ago. But as time goes on, smaller and more compact cabling components are required since the packing density of optical devices keeps increasing, namely high density. The smaller the shape, the more popular the component, just like development history of cellphone. Driven by this requirement, optic manufacturers start to produce mini components. The most widely known is the LC connector, a small form factor connector. The following article will introduce various types of LC connectors in details.

Common LC Connector

LC small form factor connector has just 1.25mm ferrule, half the size of the standard connector (compared with SC connector). Because of the high density design, LC connector solution can reduce the space needed on racks, enclosures and panels by approximately 50% throughout the network. So LC connector is a good solution for high density data centres. The LC connector uses RJ45 push-pull style plug that offers a reassuring, audible click when engaged. It makes moves, adds and changes easy and saves costs for you. Besides, the protective cap completely covers the connector end, which prevents ferrule end face from contamination and impact and enhances the network performance.

lc-lc-duplex

LC Uniboot

LC uniboot connector includes a finger latch release that there is no need for tools when making the polarity change. Some LC uniboot connectors are color-coded and labeled “A” and “B” to provide visual references when making a polarity change. The uniboot design is compatible with transceivers using the LC interface. The LC uniboot patch cords use special round cable that allows duplex transmission within a single cable, and it greatly reduces cable congestion in racks and cabinets comparing to standard patch cords. LC uniboot patch cord is perfect for high density applications. FS.COM LC uniboot patch cords are available in SM, OM3 or OM4 multimode fibre types to meet a wide variety of configurations and requirements.

uniboot-lc

Push-Pull LC Connector

If you have tried to release LC connectors in patch panels with high density, you must know how difficult it is. As to high density panel, thumbs and forefingers can not easily access to pull the connector. So some manufacturers start to offer a special LC connector which can be easily dealt with. And that’s push-pull tab LC connector.

Push-Pull-Tab-Patch-Cable

LC push-pull connectors offer the easiest solution for installation and removal. The special design is available in a compact model, ideal for minimizing oversized panels. With this kind of connector, you don’t need to leave additional space at the top or bottom to allow room for engaging the latch. The structure of the LC push-pull compact is designed as the latch can be slid back, instead of being pushed down, to facilitate smooth removal. It’s simple for installation and removal. Push-Pull LC patch cable allows users accessibility in tight areas when deploying LC patch fields in high density data centres. Push-Pull LC fibre patch cords are available in OM4, OM3 or single-mode fibre types to meet the demands of Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet and high speed Fibre Channel.

Secure Keyed LC Connector

Secure keyed LC connectors are designed for network security and stability. 12 colors are available in FS.COM, including red, magenta, pink, yellow, orange, turquoise, brown, olive, etc. Connections only work when the color matches. The color-coded keying options provide design flexibility and facilitate network administration. It reduces risks and increases the security of network from incorrect patching of circuits. Secure keyed LC connectors feature low insertion loss, excellent durability.

Conclusion

This article tells different types LC connectors, including common LC connector, LC uniboot, push-pull LC and secure keyed LC connector. The design of those LC connectors keeps improving to adapt to high density data centrers. Nowadays, the trend of network is high speed and high density. So effective cable management is significantly important. And the key concern is how to manage more cables within less space. Thus, among so many kinds of interfaces, LC connector is the most frequently used and the most effective solution for space saving in data centres.

Suggestions for Data Centre Design

The demands on data centres and networks are growing very fast. To meet communication needs, more and more devices are connected to the data centre network links. It brings difficulties in data centre management. The infrastructure design should guarantee the reliable network performance. But how to achieve the best performance? Four suggestions are recommended for you when designing a data centre.

Maximizing Network Performance

As today, many companies adopt high density configurations and virtualization to increase the capacity of existing IT equipment. To ensure the network performance, a robust data centre infrastructure is necessary. And three parts of the infrastructure must be considered: the structured cabling, racks and cabinets, and the cable management.

data-center

Figure 1. Structured data centre

First, the structured cabling performance has a close relationship to the connectivity and cable components. If the components fail to deliver good cabling system, great optical loss will be caused. To improve the channel performance, insertion loss should be minimized especially in 40G and 100G data centre. Second, choose right rack or cabinet to accommodate new equipment with different size and weight requirements since active equipment in the infrastructure turn to be broken easily and will be replaced in five years or less. Third, manage the airflow and maintain good cooling system. Because the rising temperature of the data centre has an influence on network performance. The last component of the infrastructure is cable management. A well-designed cable management should meet the standards of spare space, high reliability and scalability. The infrastructure is designed for both copper and fibre, maintaining proper bend radius for both copper and fibre, protecting cable from damage, and creating crosstalk and return loss.

Saving Time

Although data centre grows in size and complexity, it often requires faster deployment. It must adapt to the rapid changing business requirements. As it says, time is money. Selecting an infrastructure that optimize time, result in faster deployments can save lots of costs.

In order to save time in deployment, installation and future moves, adds, and changes, a suitable modular solution based on the rack or cabinet should be applied. The modular solution is also good for effective airflow management and cooling, which can save time because it can easily support high density when needed. Pre-terminated copper and fibre cabling solutions can also save time during installation and future cabling moves. Pre-terminated fibre systems, for example, MPO to MPO trunk cables or MPO to LC harness cables, can facilitate the migration to higher speeds.

Optimizing Spare Space

To adapt to high speed demands, data centre infrastructure turns to be more complex. Now space is a premium in the data centre as port densities continue to increase. Considering the cost, infrastructure should be optimized for greater flexibility and scalability. High density connectivity options including high density patch panel, MTP cassette, etc. are the solutions to optimize space while supporting large port densities. For instance, LC connectors (2 fibre) have been replaced by MPO (typically 12 or 24 fibres) connectors for the migration from 10 GbE to 40 GbE and 100 GbE.

Figure 2. MTP components for saving space

To optimize space in the data centre, the following factors are needed to be considered:

Choose the rack or cabinet as your basic building block
Select racks and cabinets with higher weight limits, sufficient depth and heights that support growing vertically
Select cable management that can support existing and future cable density, fluent airflow, and is designed to support both copper and fibre
Select connectivity that supports high density and mixed media
Use cable with small outside diameter
Consider patching outside the rack and cabinet to save space for equipment
Select a rack or cabinet solution that easily integrates with overhead pathways

Finding a Cooperator With Rich Experience

During the design phase, the data centre design must provide guaranteed performance while providing flexibility and scalability for future needs. During the installation phase, the solution must be easy to install, quick to deploy and easy to manage. So it’s important to find a qualified contractor who has a history of quality installations. You also need to choose a good manufacturer providing cost-effective components covering cooling, power, connectivity, cabling, racks and cabinets, cable management, and pathways, like Fiberstore (FS.COM). And the manufacturer should also have expertise of extending the equipment life, reducing cost and solving other problems in the data centre.

Summary

Data centre design is not an easy job as the cabling infrastructure becomes more complex for meeting the growing high data rates demands. To maximize the efficiency of a data centre, too many elements should be taken into consideration. The above content gives suggestions for data centre design to guarantee performance, save time, optimize space, and find an experienced cooperator. Hope this article is useful to your data centre design.

Fusion Splicing–A Popular Option for Data Centre

As fibre deployment has become mainstream, splicing has naturally crossed from the outside plant (OSP) world into the enterprise and even the data centre environment. Fusion splicing involves the use of localized heat to melt together or fuse the ends of two optical fibres. The preparation process involves removing the protective coating from each fibre, precise cleaving, and inspection of the fibre end-faces. Fusion splicing has been around for several decades, and it’s a trusted method for permanently fusing together the ends of two optical fibres to realize a specific length or to repair a broken fibre link. However, due to the high costs of fusion splicers, it has not been actively used by many people. But these years some improvements in optical technology have been changing this status. Besides, the continued demand for increased bandwidth also spread the application of fusion splicing.

New Price of Fusion Splicers
Fusion splicers costs have been one of the biggest obstacles to a broad adoption of fusion splicing. In recent years, significant decreases in splicer prices has accelerated the popularity of fusion splicing. Today’s fusion splicers range in cost from $7,000 to $40,000. The highest-priced units are designed for specialty optical fibres, such as polarization-maintaining fibres used in the production of high-end non-electrical sensors. The lower-end fusion splicers, in the $7,000 to $10,000 range, are primarily single-fibre fixed V-groove type devices. The popular core alignment splicers range between $17,000 and $19,000, well below the $30,000 price of 20 years ago. The prices have dropped dramatically due to more efficient manufacturing, and volume is up because fibre is no longer a voodoo science and more people are working in that arena. Recently, more and more fibre being deployed closer to the customer premise with higher splice-loss budgets, which results in a greater participation of customers who are purchasing lower-end splicers to accomplish their jobs.

More Cost-effective Cable Solutions
The first and primary use of splicing in the telecommunications industry is to link fibres together in underground or aerial outside-plant fibre installations. It used to be very common to do fusion splicing at the building entrance to transition from outdoor-rated to indoor-rated cable, because the NEC (National Electrical Code) specifies that outdoor-rated cable can only come 50 feet into a building due to its flame rating. The advent of plenum-rated indoor/outdoor cable has driven that transition splicing to a minimum. But that’s not to say that fusion splicing in the premise isn’t going on.

Longer distances in the outside plant could mean that sticking with standard outdoor-rated cable and fusion splicing at the building entrance could be the more economical choice. If it’s a short run between building A and B, it makes sense to use newer indoor/outdoor cable and come right into the crossconnect. However, because indoor/outdoor cables are generally more expensive, if it’s a longer run with lower fibre counts between buildings, it could ultimately be cheaper to buy outdoor-rated cable and fusion splice to transition to indoor-rated cable, even with the additional cost of splice materials and housing.

As fibre to the home (FTTH) applications continue to grow around the globe, it is another situation that may call for fusion splicing. If you want to achieve longer distance in a FTTH application, you have to either fusion splice or do an interconnect. However, an interconnect can introduce 0.75dB of loss while the fusion splice is typically less than 0.02dB. Therefore, the easiest way to minimize the amount of loss on a FTTH circuit is to bring the individual fibres from each workstation back to the closet and then splice to a higher-fibre-count cable. This approach also enables centralizing electronics for more efficient port utilisation. In FTTH applications, fusion splicing is now being used to install connectors for customer drop cables using new splice-on connector technology and drop cable fusion splicer.

FTTH drop cable fusion splicer

A Popular Option for Data Centres
A significant increase in the number of applications supported by data centres has resulted in more cables and connections than ever, making available space a foremost concern. As a result, higher-density solutions like MTP/MPO connectors and multi-fibre cables that take up less pathway space than running individual duplex cables become more popular.

Since few manufacturers offer field-installable MTP/MPO connectors, many data centre managers are selecting either multi-fibre trunk cables with MTP/MPOs factory-terminated on each end, or fusion splicing to pre-terminated MTP/MPO or multi-fibre LC pigtails. When you select trunk cables with connectors on each end, data centre managers often specify lengths a little bit longer because they can’t always predict exact distances between equipment and they don’t want to be short. However, they then have to deal with excess slack. When there are thousands of connections, that slack can create a lot of congestion and limit proper air flow and cooling. One alternative is to purchase a multi-fibre pigtail and then splice to a multi-fibre cable.

Inside the data centre and in the enterprise LAN, 12-fibre MPO connectors provide a convenient method to support higher 40G and 100G bandwidth. Instead of fusing one fibre at a time, another type of fusion splicing which is called ribbon/mass fusion splicing is used. Ribbon/mass fusion splicing can fuse up to all 12 fibres in one ribbon at once, which offers the opportunity to significantly reduce termination labor by up to 75% with only a modest increase in tooling cost. Many of today’s cables with high fibre count involve subunits of 12 fibres each that can be quickly ribbonized. Splicing those fibres individually is very time consuming, however, ribbon/mass fusion splicers splice entire ribbons simultaneously. Ribbon/mass fusion splicer technology has been around for decades and now is available in handheld models.

Ribbon/Mass Fusion Splicer

Conclusion
Fusion splicing provides permanent low-loss connections that are performed quickly and easily, which are definite advantages over competing technologies. In addition, current fusion splicers are designed to provide enhanced features and high-quality performance, and be very affordable at the same time. FS provides various types and uses of fusion splicers with high quality and low price. For more information, please feel free to contact us at sales@fs.com.

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