Network Infrastructure Blog

According to recent reports, one minute of server downtime can range anywhere from USD $1,670 per server to $16,700 depending on the size and scope of the business impacted. The cost of downtime continues to be cited as one of the primary reasons that businesses entrust their IT infrastructure to Cloud and Managed Service Providers.

Downtime can affect anyone, no matter the size and complexity
of an organization’s IT infrastructure, downtime can still strike.

As a service provider delivering business-critical applications, you understand the importance of meeting your SLAs and the financial impact when you don’t. While you can certainly gain a competitive advantage by offering 99.999% availability, you actually have to be able to meet that commitment or face the potential consequences of SLA failure including additional financial costs, reputation damage, and even the possibility of legal repercussions from customers who experience negative business impact. To add fuel to the fire, you need to assure this availability all while supporting ever more devices and growing your business.

You’re Only as Good as Your Foundation

While maintaining “five nines” availability can be challenging, the good news is that technology has come a long way, allowing you to provision resources in a way that ensures continuity of operations. Advancements in virtualization, software-defined networking, real-time monitoring, remote data mirroring and cybersecurity combined with reliable, easy-to-repair equipment and redundancy to eliminate single points of failure, all go a long way in helping you deliver on your availability SLAs. But all of that technology and redundancy is only as good as the underlying cabling infrastructure.

Layer 1 infrastructure is the foundation that supports everything you do, and its importance should never be underestimated. Without a highly-functioning infrastructure, data transmission can be stopped in its tracks, making the delivery of high availability virtually impossible, regardless of any other measures you take. It’s also important to remember that infrastructure isn’t something that is deployed once and left alone. As a successful Cloud and Managed Service Provider you’re constantly adding new services, more capacity, and new devices, and like your other services you need infrastructure solutions that are able to scale as needed and support fast and easy deployment whilst maintaining reliability. With human error typically accounting for approximately 50% of downtime, it’s also always important to ensure that your infrastructure is intuitive and easy to use.

What to look out for:

Whether it’s the copper or fiber cable and connectivity that provides the means for high-speed data transmission, Power Distribution Units (PDUs) to distribute power to active equipment, or the support systems that house and route all your assets, there are few key features to look for:

• Advanced cable management with superior cable protection, improved airflow and ample capacity
• High-density connectivity that maximizes space whilst enabling simple moves, adds and changes
• Superior transmission performance to support uptime, bandwidth and low-latency for current and future applications
• Preconfigured custom solutions to meet your environments exacting needs, streamline deployment and support cost reduction
• Intelligent infrastructure solutions with real-time visibility and monitoring capabilities

Assuring Availability, however, goes beyond reliable, scalable and easy-to-deploy components that comprise the infrastructure. It’s also how well you design the infrastructure and how easy it is to acquire solutions that meet your project deliverables, your budget and your schedule.

To that end, breadth of product, value-added services, superior on-time delivery and an excellent supply chain should also be front of mind when selecting a provider for your infrastructure solutions. At times like these when delivering a solid foundation for Assured Availability, look to industry leadership, reputation and experience.

Useful Links:

• Discover how Siemon supports service providers to create a foundation for continued growth and success
• New Data Center E-book – Get pro tips and best practice insight for managing your physical layer

In most markets, Category 6A/ Class E_A copper twisted-pair cabling has dominated in the data center for 10 gigabit Ethernet links. Now as the demand for high-speed, low-latency access to information continues to grow, server interconnect speeds are increasing beyond 10 Gig and the feasibility of twisted-pair copper cabling. That means network professionals like yourself are faced with choosing between Direct Attach Copper Cables (DAC), Active Optical Cables (AOC), or structured cabling using fiber assemblies and separate optical transceivers. Understanding the pros, cons, and capabilities of each of these options can help you make an informed decision and achieve the best outcome for your specific application and environment.

DACs

Factory-terminated, fixed-length DACs made from twinax copper with small form-factor pluggable modules provide a cost-effective, low-latency direct connection between active equipment transceiver ports. The modules come in various single- or multi-lane technologies to support from 10 to 400 Gig. The most common DACs used in data center switch-to-server links include:

• 10 Gig SFP+ single-lane
• 25 Gig SFP28 single-lane
• 40 Gig QSFP+ four-lane
• 100 Gig QSFP28 four-lane

It’s important to note that SFP28 DACs share the same mating interface as SFP+ DACs, and QSFP28 DACs share the same mating interface as QSFP+ DACs, making them backwards compatible to ease migration. To help you reduce cost via lower switch port counts and space savings, these DACs also come in hybrid breakout assemblies, including QSFP28 to 4 x SFP28 for 4 x 25 Gig applications and QSFP+ to 4 SFP+ for 4 x 10 Gig applications.

While DACs offer a cost-effective and efficient way to connect equipment, they are limited in length. Passive DACs are limited to about 5-meter lengths, while active DACs that contain electronics for signal conditioning can reach to 10 meters. The distance limitations of DACs make them suited for a Top-of-Rack (ToR) data center topology.

AOCs

AOCs are similar to DACs in that they are factory terminated and provide an easy, high-performance direct connection between equipment. However, they leverage the distance capabilities of fiber optic cable and embedded transceivers to form a complete cable assembly that can support up to 100-meter lengths. Like DACs, they are available in SFP+, SFP28, QSFP+ or QSFP28 form factors for 10 to 100 Gig applications, as well as hybrid breakout assemblies for cost-effective 4 x 25 Gig and 4 x 10 Gig deployments. The greater distance capability means that AOCs can be used in ToR, End-of-Row (EoR) and Middle-of-Row (MoR) topologies.

Considered a cost-effective alternative to structured cabling and optical transceivers due to their lower material cost and power consumption, AOCs also benefit from the smaller diameter of fiber that allows for tighter bend radius, easy installation and increased airflow for cooling.

Fiber Cabling with Transceivers

The third option for high-speed data center links is to use two optical transceivers and connectorized fiber, either factory or field terminated to duplex or multi-fiber MPO connectors. Fiber cabling with transceivers can support much greater distances of up to 10 kilometers depending on the application and fiber type. That makes them suitable for virtually any architecture (e.g., 3-tier, full mesh, leaf-spine) and topology (e.g., ToR, EoR, MoR) including large hyperscale data centers where switches may be centrally located well over 100 meters away from servers.

Fiber cabling with transceivers also supports the use of standards-based structured cabling that offers the most flexible deployment and the use of cross-connects or interconnects for superior manageability. This can be useful in multi-tenant colocation data centers where connections between customer and service provider equipment needs to be accomplished outside of the meet-me room or customer space. While implementing cross-connects or interconnects adds additional points of failure, reliability is improved by ensuring that quality fiber cable and connectivity (including jumpers) are purchased from reputable manufacturers with third-party verified standards-based performance.

The other main benefit of using fiber cabling with transceivers is that the fiber can support multiple generations of applications and does not need to be replaced—only the transceivers need to be replaced. Multimode fiber currently supports 10 to 400 Gig, while Singlemode will support up to 800 Gig and beyond.

While the cabling lasts generations, the use of structured cabling with transceivers can ultimately be as high as 74% more expensive than DACs and AOCs due to several factors. First, the material cost of cabling and separate transceivers is higher than DACs and AOCs. Second, the power consumption is higher per port on the equipment side. Initial installation is also more complex and can cost up to three times more due to more components and the need to ensure proper polarity as explained here in one or our previous blogs.

How Do You Choose?

When it comes to selecting an option for high-speed data center links, first and foremost you need to know your application, architecture and topology to understand your speed and distance requirements. For example, if you’re deploying an EoR or MoR topology with link distances greater than 7 to 10 meters, that pretty much rules out DACs. You also need to consider your plans for the future. If you plan to eventually migrate to a 200 Gig application like 200BASE-SR4, Multimode fiber with MPO connectivity deployed today for 100 Gig will support it.

While application and topology may dictate your choice, we also know that budget is one of your biggest decision factors—including material, labor and even cooling. We put together the following comparison table for a snap shot .

Additional Considerations

Once you’ve made your choice, there are other considerations beyond cost that might influence where you purchase your components, including interoperability and compliance, quality and breadth of the product line. Because not all cables are created equal.

DACs and AOCs are often offered by switch vendors and can contain an EPROM, which contains information such as the length of the cable, data rate supported and vendor identity data. This allows some switches to check vendor-security IDs on DACs and either display errors or prevent ports from functioning when connected to an unsupported vendor ID. Siemon DACs have been specifically programmed to overcome this issue, avoiding the potential for vendor lock-in and maximizing interoperability. They have been third-party tested for interoperability and compliance with IEEE application standards, including Cisco. It’s also wise to ensure that AOC transceivers (or any transceiver for that matter) are multi-source agreement (MSA) compliant for compatibility across equipment from various vendors.

When purchasing DACs and AOCs from switch vendors, also beware that you may find yourself with limited length and color options, as well as a lack of warranty and service options. Purchasing DACs and AOCs from a reputable cable manufacture like Siemon means more choices and superior technical support and warranty protection. Siemon offers DACs and AOCs in half meter lengths and multiple colors to support a wider range of deployments and color-coding, as well as a complete offering of high-performance Multimode and Singlemode structured cabling.

For more information, check out the following resources:

• Siemon TechTalk: Unlock the Benefits of High Speed Interconnects
• Tech Brief: Point-to-Point High Speed Interconnects in the Data Center
• Siemon High-Speed Interconnects
• High-Speed Interconnect Interoperability

With new digital applications and ever-increasing data and storage needs, millions of businesses are increasingly entrusting their IT to MSPs. In fact, prior to the global coronavirus pandemic, the global managed service provider (MSP) market was going strong at a compound annual growth rate of about 12.5%.

Like most businesses, MSPs have been impacted by the pandemic, it certainly doesn’t appear that companies will be going back to business-as-usual any time soon (if at all), and as an MSP, you can’t either. Fortunately, the “new norm” also means new opportunities and continued market growth for your essential services-as long as you have the right foundation.

Download the Digital Digest: Data Center Infrastructure Solutions for MSPs.

Your Services Are More Essential Than Ever

Whether you’re focused on a specific technology or vertical market, or you provide a broad offering of IT services to a variety of business types, you likely experienced a wider range of requests from your customers as they scrambled to support work-from-home initiatives at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. With hundreds of remote employees spread out working from home, businesses suddenly had to deal with outdated home equipment, laptop shortages, hundreds of networks, and a greater need to protect data and maintain business continuity and application integrity. Remote working, furloughs, and shelter-at-home orders due to the pandemic have also driven a global increase in data traffic with e-commerce sales at an all-time high.

While many may have turned to MSP services to achieve sufficient work-from-home functionality, businesses are now grasping the reality that this virus isn’t going away anytime soon, and just “functioning” is no longer enough. Many are therefore looking to reinvent the way they do business and fast-tracking the shift to a 100% digital approach, both internally and externally. With all these initiatives comes an increased demand for bandwidth, connectivity, VPNs/server refreshes, cybersecurity, and cloud-based backup, collaboration, education, and other business continuity tools.

Whilst the benefits of using managed services-streamlined IT processes, disaster recovery, improved network reliability, buying power, access to new technology, etc.-may have once seemed like a luxury for some businesses, more are now turning to MSPs to handle new-norm IT issues and digital transformation. In fact, 67% of companies say they are now more likely to explore MSPs to help ramp up their mobile workforce and remote IT capabilities. Make no mistake that this is an ideal opportunity to grow.

But Are You Up To The Challenge?

Of course, providing managed services to help customers survive and thrive in the new norm doesn’t come without challenges-and MSPs need to remain strategic to remain profitable. If you haven’t already, now is a good time to diversify your customer base to include markets that are experiencing growth during the pandemic (e.g., healthcare, biotech, food retail, and delivery).

Also increasing your range of services to support demand for secure high-bandwidth connectivity and new work-from-home initiatives can better position you for growth in the new-norm economy. Businesses around the world are seeking hosted collaboration and VoIP solutions, virtual desktops, replication and remote access services, equipment upgrades, and enhanced cybersecurity. And as 5G continues to roll out, both the public and private sectors will also be looking to leverage these faster cellular networks to support new and enhanced product offerings that help them thrive in a digital world (think virtual events, remote learning, online gaming, telemedicine, artificial intelligence, augmented reality). As an MSP, you need to be ready to help customers deploy these new technologies.

Whilst the importance of MSPs has never been clearer, it takes the right foundation to achieve continued growth and success during these challenging times. As an MSP, you need the ability to quickly and efficiently expand services without worrying that your network infrastructure can’t perform and scale without risk.

High-bandwidth network availability is more critical than ever, and your infrastructure must deliver maximum performance, reliability, flexibility, and manageability. Through a combination of high-performance network and data center solutions and renowned technical services, logistics, and a global network of technology partners, Siemon supports MSPs like you to deliver worry-free, on-time, and cost-effective infrastructure that allows you shift your focus away from the day-to-day and concentrate on growing your business.

Power distribution units (PDUs) are required in racks and cabinets that house active equipment. How else would you plug those devices in so they get power?

PDUs come in all types of sizes and flavors – from horizontal rack-mounted PDUs and vertical PDUs, to various types of outlets, input and outlet voltages, and amount of power delivered (i.e., capacity). Depending on your location, the voltages will vary—208V is used for North America only while 230V is used elsewhere. The type of input plugs and outlets will vary as well. And the amount of capacity you need will also dictate which PDU you choose. If your capacity is 5.7kW, you’d better choose a PDU capable of delivering it.

PDUs also come in single phase and either Delta or Wye three phase power. Without delving too much into the technical aspects, single phase power uses one voltage delivered over two hot wires and one neutral and is used primarily for homes. Three phase power consists of three AC voltages delivered over three hot wires—Delta having three hot and one ground and Wye having three hot, one neutral and one ground. Three phase Wye offers the benefit of providing both 208V and 120V and can be used to power both 3-phase and single-phase devices.

There is however another aspect to consider when selecting a PDU—intelligence. PDUs can be very basic with zero intelligence so really all they do is distribute power. Basic PDUs are reliable and lower cost, and sometimes they may be all you need. However, in today’s data centers where power usage effectiveness (PUE) is a critical metric to ensuring efficiency by measuring the ratio of energy used by the data center versus the actual energy delivered to the equipment, you might need a little bit more. Maybe you want to really get into monitoring power usage of individual pieces of equipment, or you need a way to restart or shut down equipment remotely. Or maybe you want to see power usage trends over time to help make informed decisions for improving PUE.

If any of this sounds like something you could use in your data center (or for that equipment you’ve got housed in someone else’s data center), you need an intelligent PDU. Let’s take a closer look at your options.

Metered PDUs – That Little Something More

If all you really want to know is how much power is being consumed by a single PDU, maybe you only need a little bit of intelligence. As a cost-effective option for getting more intelligence than your basic PDU, metered PDUs will show you real-time power data—typically via an LED display right on the PDU itself.

Monitored PDUs – When You Can’t Be There

One step up in intelligence from the metered PDU is the monitored PDU. It too will let you know real-time power usage, but it will also let you see this information remotely using an Ethernet port capable of delivering that data to wherever you are. That means you can also save this data to keep track of trends. Some monitored PDUs will also give you the capability of setting alarms so that you’re notified the minute your power usage hits a certain user-defined level. They may also include ports for connecting sensors that can collect other information from the cabinet, like temperature and humidity sensors for example.

Smart PDUs – When Individual Power Usage Matters

While monitored PDUs will give you power usage information remotely, the smart PDU takes that capability down to the individual outlet level. That way you’ll know exactly which piece of equipment is using the most power (or the least). And once you get to the outlet level, there are other benefits such as being able to configure outlets into groups (hmmm… let’s use these 12 outlets for primary email server power and these other 12 for something else).

Switched PDUs – When Remote Control Matters Most

While the ability to see power usage at the outlet level is great for seeing which piece of equipment is using the most power, sometimes power usage at the cabinet level is all you need. And maybe actually controlling the outlets so you can remotely restart or shut down a piece equipment is more important. If so, the switched PDU is for you.

Managed – When You Want It All

There are those of us that need (or simply want) it all—the ability to measure power usage for each outlet AND the ability to shut down individual pieces of equipment remotely, as well as all the other benefits that go along with an intelligent PDU. A fully managed PDU will offer this highest level of outlet-level control and monitoring.

The good news is that Siemon offers a full range of basic, metered and intelligent PDUs in their comprehensive PowerMax™ line so you can get the exact amount of intelligence you need! All PowerMax PDUs feature soldered connections for superior reliability and come with a 3-year warranty.

PowerMax intelligent PDUs—available in monitored, smart, switched and managed—offer an industry leading accuracy of +/-1%, an IP address sharing option, outlet grouping and group access control, and an intuitive user web interface for easy-to-read power usage information and for setting alarm thresholds and group settings.

Click HERE for more information on Siemon’s PowerMax PDUs.

In looking at current and future applications – for both multimode and singlemode – it is easy to see that the foreseeable future will be dominated by 2- and 8-fiber solutions. Table 1 below clearly shows that the Ethernet Optical Transceiver Roadmap includes fiber applications that are always divisible by either 2 or 8 fibers. What does this mean for existing 12-fiber MPO/MTP connections?

Table 1: Ethernet Optical Transceiver Roadmap includes multimode and singlemode fiber applications that are always divisible by either 2 or 8 fibers

For applications like 40 Gb/s (40GBASE-SR4) and 100 Gb/s (100GBASE-SR4) that are based on 8 multimode optical fibers, as well as future 400 Gb/s, the use of 12-fiber MPO/MTP solutions means that 33 percent of the optical fiber goes unused. One way that data center managers can ensure 100 percent utilization of optical fiber with 12-fiber MPO/MTP solutions is to use conversion cords or modules that transition two 12-fiber or one 24-fiber trunk from backbone cabling to three 8-fiber MPO/MTPs for connecting to 40 and 100 Gb/s equipment. This is ideal for those data centers that already deployed 12-fiber or 24-fiber backbone trunk cables. It should be noted however that conversion modules introduce additional insertion loss into the channel and conversion cords mean that three ports need to be taken off line in the event that the cord needs to be replaced.

On the other hand, 8-fiber MPO/MTP solutions that are starting to hit the market are considered the most efficient option since they support current and future duplex fiber applications using modules that break out 8-fiber MPO/MTPs to duplex LCs, as well as current and future 8-fiber applications without the need for conversion cords or modules.