September 18, 2007
Updated 18:04:30 (Mla time)
BRISBANE, Australia -- Even before 10-Gigabit Ethernet takes full shape, this early the jump toward 100-Gigabit is predicted to happen as early as three years from now, according to cabling supplier Systimax.
Most networks today provide 100-Mb connections to end-users, while adoption of 1G or gigabit Ethernet started only last year. Meanwhile, 10-Gigabit or 10G Ethernet was ratified as a standard by the IEEE only last year.
Systimax already produces Cat6A copper cables and fiber that support 10G but network equipment makers like Cisco have yet to release products that support this standard.
"We expect networking suppliers to come out with switches that support 10G," said Matias Peluffo, Systimax vice president for global technical support.
What this all points out to is that cabling will gain more significance as corporate networks begin moving to higher bandwidth standards.
Based on Systimax data, cabling infrastructure remains the biggest investment component in setting up a network. Companies, however, rarely or are slow to upgrade their cabling infra compared to other network equipment like routers and switches.
The reliance on networks to deliver bandwidth-intensive applications is driving centralization and consolidation in today's data centers, Peluffo said in an interview during a Cisco networking conference being held here.
Systimax and Cisco announced the integration of the former's iPatch cabling management solution into Cisco's own IP solutions, which allows system administrators to better monitor network problems down to switch ports.
"Today's servers would be tomorrow's desktops," Peluffo said, illustrating the growth of bandwidth. "Gigabit is becoming rapidly popular while end-users are finding out that network downtime costs them money."
According to a Systimax survey of some 1,500 respondents with networking backgrounds, the quality of physical cables used and technical performance are the most important factors.
"A few years ago, when you say Gigabit Ethernet, users would question whether they have use for it. Now, they wouldn't even blink their eyes," Peluffo said. "For a data center, this just means there are more connections, higher density and the need to support faster transfer speeds."
http://services.inquirer.net/express/07/09/19/html_output/xmlhtml/20070918-89308-xml.html
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