Category: Data Centers

4 ADVANTAGES OF DIRECT ATTACH CABLING (DAC)

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A high speed direct attach cable (DAC) is a factory-terminated cable assembly used in data centers for point-to-point connections of active network equipment. These cable assemblies consist of fixed lengths of shielded copper coaxial or fiber optic cable with pluggable transceivers factory terminated on either end. DACs are available in popular transceiver form factors, including SFP, SFP+ and QSFP. High speed interconnect cables are found in data centers, storage area networks and high performance computing centers (HPC) due to the requirement for high bandwidth, connection density and low latency. Four advantages to using DACs are lower price, lower power consumption, plug & play simplicity, and factory terminated performance.

EDITORIAL GUIDE: Managing a Network’s Physical Layer Infrastructure

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Local area networks are experiencing a metamorphosis of shapes and sizes. Devices that never were part of the network, such as manufacturing equipment, are now being brought online via low-speed connections. At the same time, the rise of edge computing literally is reshaping the network, as it becomes more distributed. These changing patterns of network layout and connectivity are driving the adoption of new approaches and new technologies to manage the network’s physical infrastructure. The articles in this guide look at this evolution from the perspectives of industry standards, business objectives, and choices for technology implementation.

Leading from the Edge: How Edge computing is revolutionizing micro data construction – DCD

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Latency times associated with existing infrastructure is approximately 100 milliseconds. Some services, such as online HD video streaming, need latency reduced by up  to three-times to be properly functional. This issue can be mitigated by locating the physical infrastructure closer to the source data and in turn providing higher bandwidth: Edge computing.

Do You Know about Active Optical Cables (AOCs)?

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Active optical cables (AOCs) are used for short-range multi-lane data communication and interconnect applications. Usually, the wire transmission of optical communication should belong to passive part, but AOC is an exception. AOCs consist of multimode optical fiber, fiber optic transceivers, control chip and modules. They use electrical-to-optical conversion on the cable ends to improve speed and distance performance of the cable without sacrificing compatibility with standard electrical interfaces.

Network Infrastructure Design Lessons from Converged Traffic Lanes

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Judging by the amount of traffic many people face on their morning commutes, anticipating demand and traffic flow is often the greatest stumbling block. My daily commute to work is a prime example: I’m stuck in the traffic on a six-lane highway where it converges into just two lanes ahead. As the car inches forward each time, I find myself repeating in my head “Who designed this highway?” Clearly, I didn’t think this was the most brilliant approach to improve traffic flow. Data center managers go through similar thinking processes when designing the network. The design stage is critical; it practically decides the outcome of a project, and most importantly, whether the investments are fully maximized.

Synergy Research counts 500+ hyperscale data centers worldwide

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New data from Synergy Research Group shows that the number of large data centers operated by hyperscale providers increased to 504 at the end of the third quarter, having tripled since the beginning of 2013. According to the researcher, the EMEA and Asia-Pac regions continue to have the highest growth rates — though the US still accounts for almost 40% of the major cloud and internet data center sites. The next most popular locations are China, Japan, the UK, Germany and Australia, which collectively account for another 32% of the total.

How Graybar helped a rural telecom provider convert its central office to a data center

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Data centers are popping up all over the Midwestern U.S. region to support the ever-growing demand for bandwidth and data, and many of them are reaching capacity. Heartland recognized this fact as an opportunity to diversify its portfolio, and set its designs on converting it’s central office into a new colocation data center with help from Graybar, Corning and Schneider Electric.

Connecting Hybrid Infrastructure: Why Data Center Interconnect Must Go Beyond the Data Center

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DCI is no longer just about data centers — it’s important for organizations to interconnect their data centers with cloud service providers (CSPs), global internet exchanges (IXs) and their customers’ and partners’ networks. They need the flexibility to connect their physical locations with CSPs and IXs to deliver truly cloud-centric solutions.