You’ve put effort, time and energy into your data center infrastructure. Sometimes you may have wanted to tear your hair out trying to meet industry standards and make use of every inch of valuable space.

Now is your time to enjoy the fruits of your labor! Send us a picture of your cabling infrastructure to receive a “Layer One Hero” AND be entered to win a pizza party for your team!

Visit http://www.cablexpress.com/land/do-you-respect-layer-one/ to learn more!

A while back, we produced some funny videos demonstrating why data center operations should respect their cabling infrastructure and the rest of layer one. I thought it might be a good idea to revisit this series.

Check out the first video:

Pretty funny, right? Stay tuned to find out what happens when you don’t respect layer one!

I just returned from the 2012 BICSI Winter Conference & Exhibition. It was great to get together with other colleagues and individuals that all have one thing in common: we respect layer one! One of the great benefits of this conference is the educational opportunities, and BICSI certainly delivered this year.

The most common theme that I heard throughout the conference was that 40/100G Ethernet isn’t just on the horizon, it’s already here. This will have profound effects on data center structured cabling – which wasn’t a surprise to me, we’ve been preparing for this for years!

One of the choices data centers must consider when migrating to 40/100G Ethernet is whether to use fiber or copper cabling. Based on what I’ve seen, fiber will be the primary cabling type. The IEEE 802.3ba standard for 40/100G Ethernet states a maximum distance of 7M to run 40/100G, and that will be using “active” cables. (An active cable is a cable with a transceiver hard-wired to it.) This limitation rules out copper as a primary medium of transport.

Fiber optic cabling does offer the choice between multi-mode and single-mode cabling. There are a few key factors to weigh here: distance, transmission type and total link cost. Single-mode fiber will run longer distances and will still utilize a serial transmission. Multi-mode fiber will require parallel transmission, which is a dramatic change for many, and can only run limited channel lengths.

Cost is, of course, key factor here – which makes multi-mode fiber an attractive option. Single-mode fiber is cheaper, but the transceivers are very expensive. Overall, a multi-mode link is projected to be about half the cost of a single-mode. This cost delta is based largely on the expensive lasers required for single-mode transmission. The link distances for multi-mode fiber running 40/100G Ethernet is 100M using OM3 fiber, and 150M using OM4. Since roughly 90% of data center link distances are within the multi-mode distance limitation, it appears to be a no-brainer.

Because of this, it is evident that multi-mode fiber will be the predominant cabling of choice for these higher network speeds. Single-mode will be used only when necessary, and copper could potentially be utilized in specialized areas where short link distances occur. Another consideration for copper: copper transceivers will utilize more power.

Choosing your cabling infrastructure is a critical decision for any data center team, but there is a wealth of information out there (and this site!), and I would suggest doing a little research until you feel comfortable with your decision. We also have a dedicated team to help answer any further questions you may have – give us a call and 800.913.9465 to find out more.

Join the CABLExpress team on n January 12th at 11:00 am EST for a Webinar  titled:

Planning Your Layer One Cabling Infrastructure to Support Virtualization and the Move to Cloud-Based IT Architecture

In this webinar we’ll discuss the shift in data center architecture and associated cabling infrastructure design to enable next generation services enablement.

As virtualization becomes more pervasive within the server, storage and network infrastructure, your cabling investment must also keep pace – in terms of performance, loss characteristics and most importantly, in its ability to be agile and support your overall business need.

In this webinar you will learn:

• How cloud-based IT services enablement and virtualization will affect the cabling infrastructure of tomorrow
• What the ideal cabling infrastructure to support an agile and evolving data center for business looks like
• Why a miss-step in this infrastructure today could be very costly as your IT infrastructure needs change

Space is limited so Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/560842123