Investment needed in data centre networks, claims expert
Investment needed in data centre networks, claims expert
A new argument has entered the arena with regards to the government’s plans to roll-out superfast broadband, this time coming from networking firm Brocade.
The firm’s manager in the UK and Ireland, Marcus Jewell, has claimed that more attention should be given to data centre infrastructure, as opposed to just investing in fibre networks.
Jewell was responding to the comments made by the former BT Chief Technology Officer, Peter Cochrane, to the government recently, where he said that slow broadband could leave some regions “frozen out of the next industrial revolution”. Mr Jewell said that this was all very well but that investment needed to be made in the infrastructure within the data centres to ensure that money spent on fibre networks isn’t wasted.
He said that the popularity of virtualisation has made bandwidth within data centres ever-more important and this is more important than the fibre-to-the-home provision. Speaking to TechWorld, he argued, “The current debate is about fibre-to-the-cabinet or fibre-to-the-home. Unfortunately, this ignores what is happening in the data centre itself, which is integral to the success of any broadband strategy.
“It's like making all of the trunk roads onto the M25 really good, and leaving the M25 as it is.”
Mr Jewell added that networks are under increasing pressure to provide fast speeds and unlimited storage, which will eventually predominantly be located in the cloud. He added that the move towards BYOD also adds to the pressure on mobile networks and the emergence of 4G will only intensify the situation.
Jewell explained, “If the government is to rise to these new challenges and meet them successfully - as the economy demands - we need a shift in focus from fibre, to the data centre, now.”
Businesses looking to move services into the cloud, should evaluate the performance of their existing network and consider setting up a leased line or MPLS network.
