Cabling market outlook 2020:
Insights into developments in
public, data centre and LAN
Reichle & De-Massari (R&M), the globally active
Swiss developer and provider of cabling systems for
high-quality network infrastructures, presents its
market outlook for 2020. Nabil Khalil, Executive Vice
President of R&M Middle East, Turkey and Africa,
provides us with his insights.
U
ntil relatively recently, the public,
data centre and LAN cabling
segments existed side by side
with little overlap. However, as market
segments keep merging, this separation
will all but disappear. These are the
trends that we can look forward to in the
year ahead. real-time insight into resources such as
server ports, cabinet space and energy
requirements. These solutions vastly
improve efficiency of operation, utilisation
and administration, while reducing
incident resolution time and downtime.
Data centre networks trend #1:
Greater importance of the Edge Deployments such as cloud, software-
as-a-service, 5G, IoT and smart
buildings have changed the network
landscape. Integrated pools of
virtualised resources are increasingly
shared across applications.
Owing to inherent limitations of wireless
solution, fibre is required to successfully
cable and connect billions of sensors,
enabling extremely high, uninterrupted,
low-latency symmetrical bandwidth.
Data transmission and processing
requirements are driving the creation
of Edge infrastructures that extend
and support centralised structures
with computing power at the Edge
of the network. Popular content and
applications are cached closer to less
densely networked markets, improving
performance and experience.
A high-density solution can boost capacity
and increase available space while
preparing for the future. You can start
off with a single rack unit and grow as
required. As high-density infrastructure
runs hotter, cooling is essential.
Cabling shouldn’t restrict airflow. As
cables are more difficult to grip and
www.intelligentdatacentres.com
Nabil Khalil, Executive Vice President of
RM Middle East Turkey and Africa
manipulate in densely packed racks, it
becomes harder to see what you’re doing.
The risk of damage and faulty connections
increases. It is definitely worth investing
in racks and panels specially developed for
higher-density solutions.
Data centre networks trend
#3: Automated Infrastructure
Management (AIM)
Today’s data centres may contain tens or
hundreds of thousands of ports and patch
cords. Network operation automation is
on the agenda as hardware and software
solutions are required to unburden
humans and boost efficiency.
AIM solutions facilitate management
of increasingly large and complex
infrastructures, represented in a
consistent single database. This provides
IP is becoming a common medium
for previously separate systems and
structured cabling will increasingly
transport data along with power,
lighting, security and more. As LANs
merge with Building Automation, a
new kind of connectivity is emerging,
requiring high levels of standardisation,
availability and reliability.
An ‘All over IP’ approach facilitates this,
with building technology and building
management devices communicating over
Ethernet and IP. LAN provides a physical
layer, with Internet and cloud integrated in
the background.
Ethernet will be increasingly used
to network ever-increasing numbers
of devices, and Power over Ethernet
(PoE) will efficiently and inexpensively
power more end devices over data
cables, enabling advanced lighting and
sensor applications. ◊
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Data centre networks trend #2:
High density
LAN cabling trend: Convergence