EDGE8™ Solutions - Preterminated Optical Cabling Systems for Data Centers | Corning

Much has been written about the Internet of Things (IoT) over the last few years, discussing both the explosive growth projections in the number of attached devices and the anticipated value to global business that they will bring. The growth projections alone are staggering. From the chart in this article, you can see that the numerical growth from 2018 to 2019 is 3.52 billion IoT devices globally.

This quantifies what will be asked of IT networking and systems integrators to help attach these devices to various net- works, their potential impact, and devel- oping planning guidelines. In the balance of this article, we’ll focus on what’s im- portant to networking professionals as our business customers ask us to add IoT devices to the infrastructure landscape.

Fibre Channel transport with laser optimized 50/125 µm OM3/OM4 multimode fiber connectivity is the primary method to reliably link servers to external data storage devices in enterprise data centers. The ongoing evolution of high-performance servers and storage technologies drives the need for increased Fibre Channel data rates to reliably link these devices to maximize operating efficiencies and enable low-cost value propositions. This paper will discuss server and storage technologies that warrant the higher Fibre Channel data rates in addition to the utilization of OM3/OM4 optical connectivity.

Seasoned industry professionals may recall the excruciating, painstaking days of installing and connecting countless fibers, one at a time. As the number of data centers grew exponentially in the 2000s, designers and installers were tasked with managing hundreds and even thousands of single- and 2-fiber connector solutions. To accommodate the high volume of connectors within ever-tighter space constraints, installers and designers were forced to create more elaborate storage and routing solutions that came with their own set of challenges.

Fortunately, those days are long gone – thanks in large part to the emergence of the multi-fiber push-on (MPO) connector. The MPO format dramatically reduced the amount of time, effort, and space required to install and deploy network technologies, particularly in parallel optic applications.