As the nerve-centre of any business, data centres and equipment rooms have become a critical component in any business operation. To ensure that business can continue to operate without interruption, the reliability, flexibility and security of data centres are essential. A data centre is designed to centralise information and ensure efficient exchanges and communications among all users within the organisation. A good data centre design takes into consideration the diverse bandwidth-intensive devices, including blade servers, storage systems, backup devices, virtualization appliances and connectivity requirements of networking equipment. It should address not just current requirements but allow for future expansion. To this end, the design of physical infrastructure cabling and the types of the cable used play a significant role in the performance and scalability of the data centres both presently and in the future.
From a structured cabling solution perspective, data centres require high-speed networks and are characterised by a very high density of passive communication points and active components. Specific cabling solutions that look at long-term needs are not only more efficient, they also extend the lifespan of your network and drive top- and bottom-line profitability, thereby ensuring that the returns of these strategic infrastructural investments are maximised.
Data Centre Infrastructure
Data centres must adhere to standard design guidelines and meet the requirements of the latest structured cabling standards. In 2005, the ratification of TIA/EIA-942: Telecommunications Infrastructure Standards for Data Centers ensures uniformity in design and performance. The standard includes facility specifications, functional areas and equipment placement in a hierarchical star topology.
Cable Options
Mission-critical data centres and storage area networks (SANs) require reliable, flexible and scalable infrastructures with guaranteed performance. Keystone System+Cable offers a comprehensive selection of high-density copper and fiber optic structured cabling solutions as well as cable management and pathway systems to support these demands.
A full fiber optic infrastructure guarantees the best performance (10 Gigabit) and is compatible with future 40 to 100 Gigabit networks. However, fiber optic solution is still relatively expensive compared to copper. As such, most data centres today opt for copper cabling infrastructures for economic reasons.
Category 6A systems offer the best performing solution for 10 Gigabit networks and should support the future 40 Gigabit protocols over short distances (the typical length of links in data centres is 20 metres).
Within this category, Shielded Category 6A systems are highly recommended for data centre environment. As data centre cabling infrastructures involve a very high concentration of very short links, these cabling solutions minimise cable-to-cable interferences (Alien Cross Talk), which deteriorate the data transmission at high frequencies.
According to the ISO Standards, Alien Cross Talk parameters are met “by construction” (No field test required) when the Coupling Attenuation (immunity to electromagnetic noises) of the system is higher than 55dB. Keystone System+Cable's Category 6A Shielded solution has a coupling attenuation of 75dB and ensures a very high level of protection against cable-to-cable interference in dense cabling infrastructures.
The alternative to Shielded Category 6A systems is optical fiber solutions. Our Single-mode and Multi-mode OM4 solutions provide an additional layer of performance and support longer distances, and are designed to future proof physical infrastructures.
