24
CABLING
Choosing the
right density
By Nexans
www.nexans.com
Bandwidth demand continues to
grow so the need for a vast
increase in the number of
connections is required
For data centre operators, one of today’s main challenges is
significantly increasing the number of connections without
using more space for rack units and cabling. After all, space
for cabling and hardware in data centres is finite and
generally limited. Partly because space itself is expensive,
but also because a great deal of available real estate is
taken up by cooling and other facility equipment.
Higher density racks and patch panels make it possible to
introduce significantly more connections in the same space.
However, simply introducing the highest possible density
throughout the data centre isn’t the answer – this would just
be extremely expensive.
In our own experience, using ultra-high-density in a server
rack is unnecessarily more expensive than using ‘regular’
high-density. There are no additional savings to be made
since there aren’t really any space constraints. For top of the
rack panels in server racks, there’s little benefit in using ultra-
high-density. However, in the highly populated patching
zones, the additional cost of ultra-high-density panels is
more than compensated for by the savings associated with
the space saved. It’s certainly worth considering.
www.networkseuropemagazine.com