Apr 13th, 2009 |
Let’s talk about infrastructure…real infrastructure. I’m thinking cables and connectors and wall jacks, here. No, no, come back, this is interesting stuff, especially with speeds going up and critical needs going right along with them.
Now, I’m going to make an odd confession, here: I like working with physical infrastructure. I’ve always enjoyed pulling and terminating cable (even back in RS-232 terminating with DB-25 days), and I’ve found that doing a really good job on the physical plant makes everything that comes afterward a little bit easier. I’ve never failed to be impressed by just how casual some groups can be about cabling — and how it never fails to bite them when it comes to trouble-shooting network issues.
When is the last time you really thought about cabling? How much consideration have you given to the plusses and minuses of fiber versus copper for 10 Gig Ethernet? When someone starts talking about “structured cabling” do your eyes glaze over? Finally, do the initials “RCDD” after someone’s name mean anything to you? If you answered “No” to most of these, then you need to take a bit of time and contemplate the copper and glass that makes the high-speed portions of your network operate. Oh, sure, wireless is going to do away with all the nasty cables, but you still have to feed those access points, and I haven’t heard anyone yet say that wireless connectivity was the way to go for SANs or server clusters.
There will be a number of solid physical infrastructure vendors at Interop this year. If you’ve hurried past them in other years, take a moment this year to stop in and talk — you’ll be amazed at what’s happening in the data center and wiring closet to make the network function at higher speeds and greater reliability. One of the vendors I’m learning about is ConnectZone.com. Their racks and cabinets will be featured, but they have everything from connectors and bulk cable on up.
Oh, yes…where did I connect with ConnectZone.com? In the Interop group on LinkedIn. If you’re a LinkedIn member, search on “Interop” and join us — it’s another great way to make sure you’re getting great information as you get ready for the conference and show.
[...] we’re waiting for those, feel free to head over to Inside Interop to check out my posts on network infrastructure, keynote addresses, and cloud computing. There’s more to come, [...]
[...] reluctant to talk about. Maybe they don’t seem “sexy” enough — things like cables or air conditioning — but the avoided topics tend to be nuts & bolts things that have [...]