MAKING THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS
2018 ISSUE 21
A special supplement with
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FUTURE-PROOF NEXANS DELIVERS SMART CHOICES FOR DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND DATA CENTRES
Delivering the highest fiber density
R&M Netscale solutions combine unmatched fiber cable management with automation connectivity tracking and an innovative tray design to deliver the world’s highest port density for 100/40/10G Ethernet. R&M - Middle East, Turkey & Africa, PO Box: 54281, K9 & K10 - Dubai Airport Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Tel: +971 (0) 4236 8761, Fax: +971 (0) 4236 8762, Email: are@rdm.com, www.rdm.com
CABLINGPLANNER MAKING THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS
2018
ISSUE 21
FOUNDER, CPI MEDIA GROUP Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015) Publishing Director Natasha Pendleton natasha.pendleton@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9139 ADVERTISING Group Sales Director Kausar Syed kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9138 Business Development Manager Youssef Hariz youssef.hariz@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9111
CONTENTS
Senior Sales Manager Sabita Miranda sabita.miranda@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9128 Sales Manager Nasir Bazaz nasir.bazaz@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9147 EDITORIAL Managing Editor Michael Jabri-Pickett mjp@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9158 Editor James Dartnell james.dartnell@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9153 Online Editor Adelle Geronimo adelle.geronimo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9135 PRODUCTION AND DESIGN Senior Designer Analou Balbero analou.balbero@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5680
4 INTERVIEW: Fluke Networks
6 INTERVIEW: Leviton
Designer Mhar Delaben marlou.delaben@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9156 Operations Manager Shweta Santosh shweta.santosh@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9107 DIGITAL SERVICES Web Developer Jefferson de Joya Abbas Madh Photographers Charls Thomas Maksym Poriechkin webmaster@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9100 Published by
Publication licensed by Dubai Production City, DCCA PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 Regional partner of
8 INTERVIEW: Nexans Cabling Solutions
12 INTERVIEW: R&M
Printed by Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing
© Copyright 2018 CPI All rights reserved
While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.
INTERVIEW FLUKE NETWORKS
TESTING TIMES
Fluke Networks’ regional sales director for the Middle East and Africa, Werner Heeren, believes the firm is poised to take advantage of increased demand for cable testing solutions.
products called LinkWare Live that transfers test results from testers in the field to the cloud. This process allows technicians to share results straight with project managers, architects, and even consultants to monitor project progress, manage assets, and take action on fixing problematic links without being on site. LinkWare Live uses mobile phones or tablets to show this progress, which accelerates access to information and cuts down certification testing time by 65%. Wedd Wael, Fluke Networks
W
hat are the biggest cabling challenges organisations currently face We see the biggest challenges in the field of cabling testing, especially in data centres, to step up to using CAT8 for copper, alongside MPO (MultiFiber Push On) connectors or MTP in Fiber. Wireless access points and CCTV cameras will also need support for the latest POE+/++ standards. How do your organisation’s technologies and services help Middle East organisations to drive their digital transformation? Fluke Networks has developed a cloud-based solution in our Versiv 4 CABLING PLANNER
2018
Is technology innovation a question of doing more with less, or does it demand high investment? The cost of acquiring testers has not been increased for several years, although possibilities have dramatically increased, so installers can even achieve more in a shorter time by reducing the chances of making errors which lead to unnecessary wastes of time. Return on investment has dramatically increased. When surveying 219 users, who collectively installed almost 500,000 links in 30 days, we found out that certification costs were reduced by 65%. What kind of changes are you expecting to see in technology over the coming year in the Middle East? In terms of fiber infrastructure, we notice a shift from multimode to more
Werner Heeren, regional sales director for the Middle East and Africa, Fluke Networks
single-mode fiber due to bandwidth requirements. We encounter more and more MPO (Multi-fiber Push On) cassettes being used which are more challenging to test and certify. Can you highlight any major regional customers you have on-boarded over the last 12 months? How are they using your technologies and services to grow their business? We have on-boarded larger governments, cable manufacturers, larger installers like EOSS, Omnix, Benchmark Technology, Alpha Data and also reputed banks, airlines, new airports. What are the most exciting technological developments to have affected the Middle East in the last 12 months? We notice continued investments in large data centres in the region. Wellknown companies are working on building their local presence to be in line with privacy and data-protection rules. This also means that capturing Big Data and storing it in local servers is key to most companies. We do notice developments in artificial intelligence with Apple through Siri, Samsung’s Bixby and Amazon’s Alexa, although there is still way to go. Not to mention the internet of things, where we notice more and more devices being connected to the internet without even human interaction.
WE CUT YOUR CERTIFICATION COSTS BY 65%! 219 cabling contractors. 30 days. 500,000 links. Their report? Our Versiv Cabling Certification System cut their certification costs by 65%. Versiv’s innovative design delivers massive cost reductions, making your business more competitive and increasing your profits. Curious about saving 65% on your certification costs? www.flukenetworks.com/versiv65 Š 2018 Fluke Corporation. All rights reserved. 18232
INTERVIEW LEVITON
FLEXIBLE, SIMPLE
Shady Youssef, managing director for Leviton Middle East and Africa, believes the firm is well positioned to give organisations more flexibility and simplicity in their networks.
W
hat are the biggest cabling challenges organisations currently face? One of the biggest choices organisations face is the type of cable to select that can support current and future applications, whether its 1, 10, 25, or even 40 Gb/s over copper. The same question is true for fiber backbone systems, except customers might be looking at speeds beyond 40 Gb/s. Organisations want peace of mind over multiple network upgrades, and Leviton’s technical experts can help customers make the best choices based on their network need to prepare them for the future.
the biggest names in networking technology to create high-density data centre networks capable of delivering up to 400 Gb/s. When combined with the latest data centre switches from major players, Leviton cabling and connectivity give customers extra design flexibility for their equipment architecture. More organisations are adopting Power over Ethernet (PoE) technologies that support higher power devices — up to 100 watts. Leviton’s category cabling systems like Atlas-X1 and eXtreme are optimised for PoE and allow organisations to expand their support for IoT, automation, digital buildings, and more.
How do your organisation’s technologies and services help Middle East organisations to drive their digital transformation? The key for Leviton is to help organisations meet tech demands with greater network flexibility. Leviton helps organisations simplify network upgrades and plan for the future with solutions that provide scalability and quick deployment, while reducing risk and downtime. We help customers ensure their cabling infrastructure meets international requirements while minimising the cost of network ownership. We work closely with
How has the rise of east-towest traffic transformed cabling expectations of data centres? The now popular Leaf-and-spine architecture with east-west traffic uses fewer aggregation switches and redundant paths between the access and interconnection switches compared to traditional three-tier architecture. This reduces latency and energy requirements. It is a very scalable fabric. Leviton recommends using a 24-fiber trunk cabling backbone between switches, as it creates fewer connectivity components to be replaced or added when upgrading, and more options
6 CABLING PLANNER
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Shady Youssef, Managing Director, Leviton Middle East and Africa
when considering migrations to 100, 200, or 400 Gb/s. What kind of changes are you expecting to see in technology over the coming year in the Middle East? 100 Gb/s Ethernet made big moves in the data centre market in 2018, and in 2019 we expect bigger data centres — cloud provider, hyperscale, and large enterprise — to move to 100 Gb/s uplinks and 25 Gb/s at the server. Also, 400 Gb/s Ethernet switches began shipping in 2018, and we will begin to see adoption among more hyperscale data centres in 2019. As the market moves toward these higher speeds, single-mode fiber cabling will see greater adoption. This is a result of decreasing cost and recent standards committee activities that continue to promote more single-mode options. The migration path for enterprise data centres will take advantage of multimode cabling while moving to 10, 25, and 100 Gb/s in the future. In enterprise networks, Wi-Fi will continue to evolve and expand. IEEE 802.11ax — also known as Wi-Fi 6 — is due for release in 2019, and will allow for wireless data rates up to 10 Gb/s and wider coverage than 802.11ac. We will see 802.11ax show up in all kinds of devices, including phones, computers, tablets, and more.
What you need. When you need it.
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© Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc. 2018 7379f | J18
INTERVIEW NEXANS CABLING SOLUTIONS
FUTUREPROOF
Tarek Helmy, Nexans Cabling Solutions’ regional director, for the Gulf and Middle East, South and East Africa, gives his take on how organisations can reduce data centre CAPEX and OPEX in the age of cloud and IoT.
W
hat are the biggest cabling challenges organisations currently face? The advent of cloud computing, the Internet of Things, including mobile apps and the consequential trend to higher-speed Ethernet communications, is making it more imperative than ever for data centre infrastructure managers to carefully consider their network architecture and bandwidth growth requirements. The ever-increasing flow of traffic Tarek Helmy, Nexans Cabling Solutions’ - from the cloud in particular - is regional director, for the Gulf and Middle East, South and East Africa putting pressure on conventional network architectures, particularly in terms of ensuring business continuity. These developments affecting the environment, there is a need data centre environment and even to implement the most costwireless access protocols place a new effective, future-proof connectivity series of demands infrastructure quickly on the network at and efficiently. the level of cabling Nexans believes “INCREASING infrastructure, that the major and are changing BANDWIDTH DEMANDS challenges to data centre design customers are the HAVE OVERWHELMED from the ground demand increase of level up. In today’s more applications EXISTING NETWORKS.” competitive to support and business appropriate 8 CABLING PLANNER
2018
solutions to support the high bandwidth needs, data centre infrastructure and architecture, network scalability, robustness for zero downtime, energy consumption, bandwidth and data speed migration path, and, last but not least, the required CAPEX, and OPEX to support all these targets. In other words, they are a bundle of challenges to be carefully studied to reach an optimal infrastructure. These challenges may vary from one customer to the other depending on their priorities. How do Nexans technologies and services help Middle East organisations to drive their digital transformation? Digital transformation requires carefully planned IT infrastructure and efficient data access and exchange. Nexans’ extensive solutions range from passive FO/Cu to data centres, high-density connectivity and fast deployment techniques to Fiberto-the-Office (FTTO) switching, and Intelligent Infrastructure Management (IIM) - all of which help organisations to drive today’s and tomorrow’s digital transformation requirements. This
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INTERVIEW NEXANS CABLING SOLUTIONS
holds true not only for the region but also across the globe. Increasing bandwidth demands have overwhelmed the existing networks that are in no way equipped to support users’ requirements arising from increasing adoption of Internet of Things, BYOD, cloud and video. The convergence of networking technologies, new expectations including availability, reliability, scaleout and ‘always-on’, are driving data transformation to be redesigned and re-architected. With such customer demands in mind, Nexans offers innovations, ‘smart choices for digital infrastructure and data centres’, to help managers support flexible, costeffective bandwidth architectures, optimised space usage and faster modular deployment. The IoT is growing rapidly everywhere, including in the enterprise. This is often referred to as BIoT: Internet of Things in buildings. All those devices are connected onto the network and this requires extra network capacity and bandwidth. Smart buildings require smart choices. Nexans has a three-step approach to meet explosive growth in demand for bandwidth and functionalities, and ensure cabling, connectivity and networks hold up in an increasingly demanding environment. Nexans’ three-step approach makes it easier to find a solution, as there’s no ‘one size fits all’ answer. How has the rise of east-towest traffic transformed cabling expectations of data centres? Data centres have a different approach in design and implementation when compared to a LAN infrastructure in an office. In data centres, the main requirements are high-speed links with a condensed number or terminations (fibre and copper). The high-speed links require either fibre links, which are usually (pre-terminated) fibre cables to support switch-to-switch connectivity or high-end copper technology such 10 CABLING PLANNER
2018
as Cat6A, Cat7A or Cat8 to support server-to-switch connectivity. Well-designed data centres utilise a well-balanced mix of copper and fiber. Uplinks between switches may require speeds as high as 100G, while the switch-to-server downlinks require a lower capacity of 10G up to 25G or 50G. Compared to top-of-rack design, this can be more cost-effectively provided using copper structured cabling. LANmark-7A and LANmark-8 allow connections up to 35 metres in end-of-row or middle-of-row configurations, providing an upgrade path for switches without re-cabling.
“THE CONVERGENCE OF NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES ARE DRIVING DATA TRANSFORMATION TO BE REDESIGNED AND RE-ARCHITECTED.” Parallel optics enable us to achieve up to 100GB today with multimode fibres (OM3 & OM4). Two-lane SM is also possible but will be much more expensive because of higher transceiver costs. As part of our vision of supporting the world’s growing data needs, Nexans offers copper-based solutions to support bandwidths of 25Gb/s and 50Gb/s Ethernet and ultra-high density LANmark ENSPACE solutions for data centres. Is technology innovation a question of doing more with less, or does it demand high investment? In today’s market, customers are becoming highly concerned about technology roadmaps, their current and future needs, and most importantly, their return-on-investment.
It is a bit difficult to judge, while combining CAPEX, OPEX, ROI, and customers’ specific needs, if technology innovations require less or more investments. It has already been proven that CAPEX is not the only criteria that a customer needs to evaluate when deciding their data infrastructure needs. That can be a simple enterprise solution, a data centre, Intelligently Managed Infrastructure, or even a fully based FO solution using FTTO switches or in few cases Passive Optical LAN (POLAN). From Nexans’ perspective, we are glad to have been working with all end customers as their consultants. We assist them in selecting their optimal solution in terms of technology, CAPEX, and OPEX. With today’s fast development of bandwidth growth, integration, applications and BIoT, we realised that Nexans’ wide range of solutions can provide hybrid solutions depending on case by case requirements, with solutions differing from one customer to the other. As an example, Nexans LANactive, Nexans’ Fibre-to-the-Office (FTTO) solution, offers customers a new alternative approach to office networking by using passive fibre cabling and components together with locally distributed active FTTOswitches to provide GB Ethernet services and PoE+ via standard copper-based RJ45 technology to the device. The approach can provide significant cost benefits in specific types of environment such as long distances within the building, space restrictions for floor distributors or cable trays, refurbishment with minimum disruption and redundancy at user level, and even 100% network redundancy. Defense, universities, hospitals, utilities, and airports to name some verticals, have deployed our FTTO solutions. The FTTO solution is proven to show cost savings of up to 35% of CAPEX, and up to 55% in OPEX including 70% in power consumption.
11th December 2018
Renaissance Downtown Hotel, Dubai TahawulTech.com’s seventh edition of Hot 50 Awards is scheduled to take place on 11th December, 2018. Each year, the event inspires channel stakeholders to go above and beyond and truly optimise market opportunities to be considered as an esteemed Hot 50 brand. The exclusive event pays tribute to channel players who are resolute in their strategies to craft value and equally successful relationships for customers, partners and themselves.
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INTERVIEW R&M
AT YOUR SERVICE
R&M’s marketing and communications manager for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Sandrine Prat, highlights how the firm’s emphasis on high levels of service and product integration can ensure high return on investment for enterprises.
H
ow do R&M’s technologies and services help Middle East organisations to drive their digital transformation? Digital transformation is already omnipresent in various areas. For us at R&M, there are primarily two areas affected: the interaction with customers and the digitalisation of our products and solutions. I can give you an example: with our new website,
we aim to provide digital support to customers on their entre path of decision making. In the future, our customers will be supported in the end-to-end configuration of complex solutions through to order processing, including supplementary training. Simultaneously, our solutions are becoming more intelligent with digitalisation. For example, four years ago, we launched our first product with sensors: the network monitoring
“WHILE R&M ENSURES THE HIGHEST SWISS QUALITY THROUGH RIGOROUS TESTING OF EACH SOLUTION AND CABLE, THIS ISN’T TRUE OF ALL PLAYERS.”
12 CABLING PLANNER
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system R&MinteliPhy. This kind of solution provides information all the time. Customers can use this information to continuously optimise their network or data centre. I am convinced that digitalisation will bring massive advantages for our customers in the future, as well as for R&M. What are the biggest cabling challenges organisations currently face? The biggest impact to business results from poor performance and the potential for downtime. There are many factors that could contribute to these challenges, among which are poor cabling quality and improper installation. The Middle East market has a number of cabling vendors and
www.rdm.com
SYNO dome closure from R&M. Unleash the networks.
INTERVIEW R&M
which has ever while R&M ensures shorter refresh the highest Swiss “CABLING REMAINS and replace cycles, quality through the typical cabling rigorous testing of THE FUNDAMENTAL infrastructure each solution and BACKBONE UPON can serve an cable delivered organisation’s to our customers, WHICH THE ENTIRE requirements for this isn’t true of all up to 25 years, the players. Vendors NETWORK RELIES.” cost of cabling is who choose entirely justified. to differentiate After all, the cabling themselves by offering system will have to meet not just the the lowest price often undercut present needs of the organisation but quality. As mentioned above, when also its long-term goals and future the average lifetime of the cabling requirements. infrastructure exceeds 20 years, such compromises have a long lasting What kind of changes are you impact that regularly manifests itself expecting to see in technology over in poor performance, frequent issues the coming year in the Middle East? and downtime. Fibre-optic signal transmission is Other challenges arise due to reaching a new dimension: 400 improper installation. Even the best Gigabits per second. 400G chips will products will not perform as designed be commercially available from the unless they are deployed as intended. end of this year. The general industry This is especially true with fibre-optic consensus is that the time has come cabling wherein field termination for 400 Gigabit/s. This will give data remains a challenging and error-prone centres the opportunity to work even task. At R&M, we address this through faster than they are working now. our Qualified Partner Program (QPP) Another focal point for discussion which ensures partners are expertly around connectivity, especially trained and certified, and by designing in the region, is the launch of 5G many of our products with a ‘plug services, which will require a massive and play’ approach which can even extension of fibre optic networks both eliminate the need for specialised in expanses and between the base tools and expertise. stations and antennas. Is technology innovation a question Can you highlight any major of doing more with less, or does it regional customers you have demand high investment? on-boarded over the last 12 In the area of structured cabling months? How are they using your in particular, the investment is technologies and services to grow comparatively low when considered their business? against the IT infrastructure as a For ABC Verdun, Lebanon’s largest whole. Typically, cabling only accounts mall, we delivered a state-of-the-art for 5% of these total costs with active cabling infrastructure which serves equipment such as servers, storage as the platform on which critical mall and compute consuming the largest services including internet, point-ofportions of the budget. However, at sales systems, CCTV, digital signage, the same time, cabling remains the and the building management system fundamental backbone upon which now run. We were selected for our the entire network relies. When you established reputation, quality and consider that unlike active equipment, 14 CABLING PLANNER
2018
R&M’s marketing and communications manager for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Sandrine Prat
service and were capable of offering our unmatched 25-year system warranty on the cabling infrastructure, thereby ensuring it will be reliable and future-proof. As a result, key systems in ABC Verdun now efficiently run on the high-speed cable network enabling everything from in-store payments to mall security and even systems that optimise its 1,700 car parking spaces. Etisalat has utilised R&M cabling solutions to upgrade and extend its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network with the innovative SYNO Dome Closure solution. This undertaking enables Etisalat to have one of the first patch-free connectivity solutions in the region, which translates to a resilient, tamper-proof network that increases the reliability and uptime of crucial connectivity services for both home and business users. By leveraging the SYNO Dome closure, Etisalat has now moved the critical Fibre Distribution Hub units underground, which is not only more aesthetically pleasing, but has also reduced the cost of civil contracting. The patch-free nature of the new systems eliminates the possibility of tampering or unintentional disconnection of cables.
REDEFINING technology transformation
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LANmark-8
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LANmark-7A and LANmark-8 can be installed in cost effective End- or Middle of Row configurations and offer an easy migration path for 2 performance steps ahead of today. Built around the GG45 connector with a 2GHz interface, Nexans LANmark-8 system supports both 40G and 25GBase-T whilst LANmark-7A accommodates 25GBase-T. Ideal for data centres which currently use 1 or 10Gbps at server ports today.
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