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With global data consumption at its highest-ever volumes and businesses experiencing greater need for storage, many organisations are looking into future-proofing their networks and ensuring they can stay online no matter what their connectivity needs.
There are various ways in which this can be done, but one company has demonstrated a possible solution that could be ideal for firms across the globe. Nexans Cabling Solutions has been discussing its next-gen data centre and FTTO (Fibre-to-the-Office) solutions at GITEX in an interview with Tahawul Tech - and its model is something that IT decision-makers could be keen to emulate.
Tarek Helmy, regional director of the company, said FTTO has emerged as an alternative method of office networking that uses passive fibre cabling and components together.
"It is going to help some niche markets with large floors to replace their telecom rooms completely," he stated.
What is FTTO?
To take a step back, it is first necessary to clarify just what FTTO is and what its benefits are. FTTO is a standard-compliant and decentralised cabling concept for modern offices that combines the advantages of fibre optic technology with the flexibility offered by twisted pair cabling.
The fibre optic cables are future-proof and used in riser cabling and horizontal wiring, with copper cabling used exclusively to connect terminal equipment including workstations and VoIP phones.
As a result of this, customers are offered rich power management functions like Power-over-Ethernet and Energy-Efficient Ethernet.
Benefits of FTTO
FTTO is highly cost-effective because of the way it operates, resulting in flexibility and reduced life-cycle costs. It is therefore ideal for environments like hospitals or businesses that require long transmission distances but don't have much space or a particularly large budget.
Previously, installing fibre optic cables was costly and complicated, but this has changed considerably in recent years. Technology has improved and the production costs for fibre have been lowered, making FTTO an affordable solution for companies of all sizes.
Because FTTO uses fibre that runs straight from the core switch to outlets, it eliminates the need for technical rooms on each floor of a building, which frees up vital floor space for business operations and also ensures the IT infrastructure is long-lasting and low maintenance.
Another benefit of FTTO is that it is at far less risk of downtime, disconnects and hacking than traditional networks thanks to it being hard to tap and not radiating signals. If it is tapped, the breach is easy to monitor and therefore fix.
Finally, FTTO is an easy solution for businesses that already have IT infrastructure but are looking to upgrade it, because it requires only very minor changes to the building in which it is to be fitted. This creates less disruption for staff and could also be useful for companies that are in protected buildings.
With future-proofing infrastructure becoming a vital consideration as the cloud and Internet of Things achieve greater prominence, now may be the time to emulate Nexans and look into FTTO.
