Recommends systematic digitalization and manual management of the increasing number of physical connections in data networks is now almost impossible
“Digitization of the economy without a sufficient network infrastructure is as like a railway without tracks,” says Andreas Rüsseler, Chief Marketing Officer for cabling specialist R&M AG, in his market outlook. R&M, the globally active Swiss developer and provider of cabling systems for high-end network infrastructures based in Wetzikon, expects to see an increase in demand for integrated solutions for network infrastructures in 2017. “Cabling with copper and fiber optic systems is still required as the physical foundation for digitalization – in the same way that tracks are required for transportation by rail. But these days it is more than just a question of cabling,” says R&M CMO Andreas Rüsseler. The building and network infrastructures themselves have to be digitized.
“First of all, the basis of a network needs to have the right dimensions and level of reliability in order to cope with the wide-ranging applications of the future,” says Andreas Rüsseler. He adds that, given the high expectations for the age of the digitized economy, it is easy to forget that network installations are just as necessary as apps, computers, data centers, and the billions of things that are connected to the internet – the Internet of Things. Rüsseler even believes that the trend toward digitalization is even making the economy fully dependent on tight-knit, fast, interruption-free network infrastructures. A market study conducted by IT consultancy company Capgemini confirms this trend, revealing that digitalization is the topic currently at the top of the agenda of more than half of all CIOs. And it looks set to stay there for the foreseeable future.
“Without digital planning, stocktaking, and online management of the entire data center, it is no longer possible for IT providers to present services with high availability. Detailed information and status updates in real time are an absolute requirement,” says Andreas Rüsseler. In this regard, R&M advocates full and continuous monitoring that covers every level of data transmission, from the connector to the application. “What use is there in monitoring the higher layers of a network if somewhere a network connector has been disconnected or inserted incorrectly and nobody has noticed?” asks Andreas Rüsseler. With reference to market statistics, R&M points out that operational errors and other such faults at the passive network infrastructure level are behind more than half of all data center failures. The company believes that this problem alone is reason enough for real-time monitoring of cabling to be introduced. Causes of damages, delays, signal losses, and high consumption data can be identified quickly online by referring to the digital profile of a process or infrastructure.
In future, virtual profiles will also be created for building infrastructures in the same way as for data centers. Building Information Modeling (BIM) allows for continuous digitalization from the architect’s initial drawing to the ongoing building management. Here, R&M has identified another growth market. Andreas Rüsseler says: “BIM makes it possible to create a virtual representation of every section of structured cabling from the serving area interface to the outlets. This provides a solid foundation for planning economically, detecting tampering immediately, simulating changes, and carrying out efficient maintenance work on the local data network.”
