Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/207723
DESIGN corner The Cost of Real Estate – ways by which to reduce the data center footprint D atacom service providers are faced with many choices. Do they put in the safe and generally accepted infrastructures-- but then worry about the costs and timing of future upgrades? Or, should they put in the cutting edge technologies and deal with the costs and challenges of being an early adopter? Or, do they do something in between? Regardless of choice, the hard costs of passive fiber connectivity and management are real and will continue to grow as the network evolves. The passives of fiber, connectorization, and management are agnostic to the technology yet remain a constant in them all. Filtering out what is necessary and what is not can be a challenge as no one wants to pay for features that, while interesting, cool and sexy, do not provide additional functionality and reliability. Fiber management is meant to consolidate, protect, and distribute a number 18 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL By Cheri Beranek of fiber circuits (incoming and outgoing) in a provider's passive network architecture. Depending on network design, consolidation points connect from one to another until the desired fiber destination is reached. The basic principles of providing protection against bend radius violations, physical fiber protection, and proper route paths must exist but not be overdone. Additionally, workability of the design must include proper access to these circuits and still protect from accidental damage while doing so. The foundation of fiber management is fundamental when using sound, logical, and simple designs to accomplish the basics. The final elements are adding enough features --- that without added capital costs ---reduce the operating costs of deployment through ease of maintenance and installation. The provider should define modularity to match their CAPEX and OPEX immediate and long-term plans at any point in the network. Simply put, they should have the "choice" to decide how and where they spend their money. Solutions that can eliminate other hard costs in the network until now, were a foregone conclusion. Overview of Data Center Architecture and Requirements Imagine a garden in the city with walls around it and only so much space for planting. To maximize the output of the garden, good foundation soil must be maintained and plantings made as dense as possible, without disrupting growth. Real estate for a data center has much the same needs in order to provide maximum functionality and use of space. Let's take a look at the complexities of today's data centers. Most data centers consume more power than a small town and have auxiliary generators in the event that they lose utility www.datacenterjournal.com