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technologies such as Infiniband. Running different generations of transmission speeds or upgrading to higher speeds in the data centre requires laser optimised multimode fibre links. These fibres, known as OM3 and OM4, support legacy and emerging transmission speeds and provide for most cost effective solutions and extended reach in data centres up to 40/100Gbps. LB. Understanding total cost of ownership (TCO) is key. To achieve a low TCO, the components must be well understood and their performance easy to measure. To help enable this for continuous power infrastructure, Active Power provides a variety of tools. Prospective clients can visit our website to try out our efficiency calculator, which measures at a high level the potential implications of different infrastructure choices. For clients we are working with one-on-one, we offer an in-depth TCO consultation that incorporates the specifics of the client’s operation, environment and organisation to deliver a comparison to typical alternatives or actual existing infrastructure. For clients utilising our infrastructure, our systems offer a real time monitoring and reporting platform that provides critical performance data on the system that can easily be extracted and analysed. Or, we can seamlessly integrate into a client’s building systems platform, feeding critical data into the management platform our client has chosen. WD. The Infrastructure complexities that a company experiences will vary greatly depending on the size and age of their facility, specific business requirements, personnel experience level, management’s involvement in industry organisations and the educational conferences they attend. Generally speaking, most data centres over time will encounter the need to solve varied infrastructure complexities. They include: controlling growth in power usage, implementation of various cooling technologies, server virtualisation, cloud computing, understanding the specifics of physical layer infrastructure connectivity on migrating from 10 Gig, to 40/100 Gigabit, asset management & tracking, automated information gathering techniques and processes, capacity planning, automation to achieve increased operational efficiencies, greening and IT optimisation processes. Measuring data centre performance and efficiencies is dependent on understanding the metrics involved; many industry organisations can provide the tools needed to assist you.
This sometimes adds an extra complexity to good performing data centres. This was confirmed in a study we recently conducted on “greening” data centres. We deliver tools that can help both departments to manage the physical infrastructure to plan, control and report. These tools are often used for increased security with IP traffic controls and alerts. They can also link to energy saving through power and environmental monitoring. KS. Today, data centres are divided into functional areas that often fall under different administrations. Server specialists provide computing power; storage experts various levels of memory space. Connecting everything falls into the responsibility of the networking group. Sometimes the cabling itself is even assigned to facility management. In order to leverage the potentials of a holistic network infrastructure approach, these functions and areas need to be aligned. Array fibre-based backbones provide for migration capabilities where legacy duplex fibre networks may not meet the performance specifications for skew, insertion loss and distance capabilities required in parallel optics applications like 40 and 100Gbit Ethernet and High Performance Computing
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Damien Simon is product manager for data centres at Nexans Cabling Solutions.
SM. Optimisation needs to be considered at the data centre infrastructure level, and not only at each individual technology level, such as cooling, power, monitoring etc. Virtualisation, specifically, has created a dynamically changing application environment operating on a static physical environment, exposing a critical information gap between the data centre and IT infrastructure layers and the inefficiencies that gap creates. In addition to a broad range of solutions from switchgear to power and cooling equipment, Emerson Network Power has expertise and solutions on both sides of that information gap.
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