The 5 Coolest Things On Earth This Week

High-frequency silicon chips with an ultra-thin polymer cable can build a data transfer system ten times faster than a USB. The new system design is more compact and cost-efficient than traditional copper wire and draws far less power. The new transfer link could dramatically cut energy use at power-hungry data centers. With speeds of 105 gigabits per second, it also could address the bandwidth challenges as we see this megatrend toward more and more data continues.
Read the full article at: http://www.ge.com

Fiber Broadband Association expands leadership team to meet industry demand

The Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) today announced it has strengthened its core staff of marketing and membership leadership to support the association’s growing initiative to advocate for the entire fiber ecosystem and advance fiber-based broadband deployments everywhere. This expanded team of experts will help expand FBA research, build member resources and drive awareness of the impact and superiority of fiber in the broadband network.

Why are smart buildings important? —

A smart building is a living asset that is utilised by building and facility managers to improve operations. It is connected, using technology to automate processes and control building services including lighting, heating, air conditioning, security, etc. This is achieved through a network of sensors, wired and wireless technology and microchips to collect and aggregate data into a user interface which takes the guess work out of building control and maintenance.

Keeping up with the evolving data center: part 1 – emerging technologies and related challenges – DCD

Traffic between data centers (DCI traffic) is growing faster than the other categories of traffic. This rapid growth is fueled by the increase in content distribution networks, the proliferation of cloud services and the need to move data between clouds and to the edge. There’s an ever-growing volume of data that must be replicated across different data centers which puts pressure on DCI networks to be flexible, resilient and adapt quickly to changing bandwidth demands.