In conversation with Heena Jhingan, Simon Cowley, Vice President-Global Technical Support, CommScope, discusses the data center networking trends, the impact of iTRACS acquisition and its India business. Excerpts…
What is making Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) into mainstream as it is getting lot of attention and focus from CommScope and others?
Globally we see a continuing trend for higher and higher speed, bandwidth moving relentlessly from 1G to 10G to 40G to 100G. In fact, now we even hear discussions within the standard bodies around 400 G. Secondly, we observe a big shift happening at the architecture level. With this evolution, we see emergence of things like Top of Rack (ToR) data center design where servers connect to one or two ethernet switches installed inside the rack and then there are even modular and performance optimized data centers (PODs), which are small data centers that can easily replicates either within the site itself or on different sites anywhere globally.
We do see that the traditional architecture, end of row or middle of row server kind of architecture is still pervasive. However with standards bodies like Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) talking of 40G, things are expected to change.
We certainly see more fiber going into the data centers, particularly in the larger ones, some even becoming essentially 100% fiber based. Besides, the industry is moving towards intelligent infrastructure, going beyond just the network perspective. Its now about intelligent and overall management of the data center. In tune with this we have been pushing our imVision software platform, which helps IT heads manage their networks intelligently
Modular data center is an emerging trend today, so how is CommScope working around it?
The modular data center is typically smaller so the space requirements are lesser. We actually have a solution that is a cable in the order of Cat 6 (an ethernet standard) in terms of diameter and we call that as Systimax solution. Since it is small in diameter, it takes up less space and is lighter, ideal for modular data center design. Now with fiber infrastructure everything can be done neatly.
The other good thing about the modular data centers is that they are easy to replicate. These drive a new approach to traditional copper infrastructure. There is another approach if an enterprise wants to have a little less formality or tailored appearance we have a solution called InstaPATCH QUATTRO, a pre-connectorized modular cabling system, which is 10G capable that allows you to just order a trunk cable assembly and a module that presents an RJ45 (connector standard for telephone cables) at the front and you essentially plug the truck cable and put it back into the module. So it is much like on a fiber side, is the same concept, but transported over copper media.
How has been business for CommScope on the India front?
In 2012, I think on the whole we have made tremendous progress in terms of going into some new verticals like healthcare and hospitality where people are becoming increasingly aware of importance of giving consistent, high quality front end customer service. I believe these are two verticals where we made tremendous progress. We have also made our place in some of India? educational institutes and partnered with our customers in building some of their very large campuses. It? interesting to see how the customers are coming out of the commoditized cabling environment because that is how the market has been for a long time. So we are having a lot more engaging conversations with existing and prospective customers in terms of intelligent infrastructure and ensuring that whatever we build is the bandwidth for future. I am optimistic about the years ahead in the India market. This is a growth market for us along with the China in the APAC region. We are making sure that we bring all our solutions to the Indian customers as fast as possible.
Will there be any strategy shift in terms of CommScope’s approach to the market post the iTRACS acquisition?
We are in early stages of the acquisition, so for the time being we are continuing with the existing strategy for both the imVision tool and the iTRACS tool. With DCIM being such an important hub for all types of information like the big data of the data center, the actual data that is available from the equipment itself needs to be leveraged.
