BIG DATA AND THE INTERNET OF THINGS
EFFECT ON DATA CENTERS
Over the past five years, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data are
terms that have become highly prevalent, especially within the IT Industry.
While there are desagreements on the key definitions of these terms, one
thing is underniable across the board—we all ely on their output in some
way, shape or form.
Regardless of the medium or setting—smartphones, laptops, social networking, texting, emails, business, personal—there is one common denominator that drives us to be reliant on these tools… data. In contrast to technology usage patterns from a decade ago, today’s consumers are creating and churning data at an unprecedented rate.
Mobile phones and tablets equipped with multiple sensors are constantly transmitting data. In the home, various automation devices like Nest thermostats and Dropcams are also contributing to the data glut. The global widespread use of social media is of course also a major catalyst for the data explosion that now surrounds us. And we cannot forget about our evolving shopping habits, with most of us now relying on the likes of eBay, Google and Amazon to discover and acquire what we need.
This is the reality of the age that we live in. And as our lives revolve around data, so the data center has become a virtual storage vault for this critical asset. The debate is now moving towards how vendors providing data center and colocation services can ensure they have the underlying infrastructure to address increasingly larger storage and compute requirements, while mitigating any predicted future trends safely and efficiently.
Fiber optic cabling is the medium of choice in the data center backbone and standards groups such as the IEEE P802.3bs 200 Gb/s and 400 Gb/s Ethernet Task Force are already busy working on a new generation of fiber applications which will support extremely advanced speeds of 200 and 400 Gigabits per second. However, the shift to higher speeds requires new fiber optic cabling technologies for optimal support.
At Siemon, our data center solutions are designed to provide futureproof technologies that deliver the needs of today while anticipating tomorrow’s requirements.
Source: The Siemon Company Magazine
Issue 14
