NCS and Commscope Can Help Your Data Center Become More Profitable and Efficient

Data centers are the new frontier for business. Whether it’s 400G bandwidth, cloud architectures, or edge computing that will help them take on today’s challenges head-on, only data center operations teams and key partners understand exactly how complex it is to run and maintain data center operations successfully. It was not that long ago that data centers were few and far between in the world. Most people had no idea what they were or why we needed them. Today, thousands of data centers in every corner of the world are processing, manipulating, and storing huge amounts of data, which grows exponentially every day.

We’ve already come a long way since the first few decades of the data centers. Cloud computing, gaming, video communications, and more have fueled the need for this innovation. The future, however, holds even more exciting applications that will shape how we communicate (5G and beyond), manage banking operations (such as cryptocurrencies), secure our networks (managed cybersecurity), and integrate artificial intelligence and IoT into our everyday lives.

These advancements naturally come with challenges and expectations as end-users and customers want their data faster and more stable. This demand shows no sign of decreasing. Data center managers must oversee all of these elements while keeping costs and power usage low. Datacenter infrastructure must enhance application delivery while minimizing upgrade costs to address these challenges. So, where does the modern data center go from here?

Evolving next-generation data centers for new applications

Modular, purpose-built data center infrastructure allows organizations to create data center services based on their need − when capacity rises and where it is needed. It is a straightforward challenge: drive efficiency without affecting operations. NCS and our key partner, CommScope, support three main data center applications:

Hyperscale data centers

Hyperscale is an architecture solution that can scale as demand for resources increases. It involves a large number of cloud servers connected to a network. These servers can be scaled up or down as the network’s performance requirements increase. By using hyperscale computing, organizations can meet their need for growing demands for data without requiring additional cooling, electrical power, or physical space. Higher fiber counts with greater bandwidth are crucial to addressing tomorrow’s challenges.

Enterprise data centers

In the ever-changing IT landscape, we have seen an evolution from traditional on-premises physical servers to virtual networks supporting applications and workloads across pools of servers. Data centers migrate from existing platforms to the newest 400G leaf-spine architectures. Enterprise data centers are facilities owned and operated by the company it supports. They are often built on-site at a corporate campus but can be offsite in some instances. They are optimized for their end-users. These facilities are doing more than ever, from ever-expanding storage management to bandwidth-intensive virtualized and cloud applications.

Multi-tenant data centers (MTDCs)

A multi-tenant data center (MTDC aka colocation data center)  allows organizations to rent server space to host their data. They provide the space and equipment to connect an organization to service providers at the lowest possible cost. They have a unique set of challenges in that because competition is high, MTDCs must scale to provide high bandwidth with the best possible efficiency without disruption. Often, fiber-optic infrastructure and high-speed migration platforms are needed for next-generation speeds.

Service provider data centers

DCaaS is a service that provides offsite physical data center facilities and infrastructure to clients through renting or leasing access to the provider’s data center, using the servers, networking, storage, and other computing resources owned by the DCaaS provider. By outsourcing some portion (or even all) of its data center to the provider, a DCaaS provider can help a business that can no longer expand its own data center due to a lack of power, cooling, rack space, capital, bandwidth, or experienced staff or other factors. It also allows businesses to embrace cutting-edge architecture and increased bandwidth with minimal cost and risk.

Design and implementation support for next-generation data centers

The cabling infrastructure of a data center is entirely different from the cabling of a building. The cables tend to be shorter in length and higher in bandwidth. A single cabinet may require anywhere from 24 to 96 connections. The components of a data center, including routers, servers, power subsystems, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), ventilation, cooling systems, fire suppression, backup generators, connections, and external networks, require significant infrastructure to support the center’s hardware and software. This requires an experienced partner to design and implement your solutions.