FEATURE: DATA CENTRE NETWORKS
2020, end-user spending is expected to grow in single digits starting in this year. Mishra continued: ‘Much of the reduced demand in 2020 is expected to return in 2021, when staff can physically be onsite. For now, all data centre infrastructure segments will be subject to cost containment measures, and enterprise buyers are expected to extend life cycles of installed equipment.’
Cost optimisation Data centre infrastructure general managers should seek to prioritise a select set of existing and new customers, said Mishra. Specifically, Gartner recommends training the sales force to engage with the chief financial officer and chief procurement officer on a set of cost optimisation initiatives, such as renegotiating IT contracts, optimising cloud costs and consolidating IT. Another recommendation is to create an
industry playbook that helps technology providers understand Covid-19’s impact on a range of different industries to then recommend short- to mid-term action items for the given providers by each industry. Finally, recommends Mishra, it would be
worth investing in a new go-to-market model for digital natives to drive innovation. ‘Build momentum around hybrid IT and consumption- based pricing,’ he said, ‘to improve mind share with digital natives.’ In terms of the market’s impact on component
vendors, the issue of cost optimisation is not necessarily something that has only come about due to the pandemic. As a manufacturer of 3D glass-based integrated optical components for the data centre, Optoscribe has seen a number of trends in this area since its inception more than a decade ago. CTO Nick Psaila explained: ‘We make
glass components that go inside data centres, such as transceiver modules and some of the components of the fibre infrastructures of the data centres – basically glass chips that go into these and the interface between the fibres and the active parts of the transceiver. ’For our data centre customers we have been
helping to try and drive down the overall costs of the modules by facilitating easier methods of assembly and packaging.’
Performance vs cost While the data centre market is expected to remain buoyant, the driving forces are, in many cases, also the challenges when it comes to components. Psalia said: ‘One of the biggest pressures on the industry, as a whole, is to simultaneously increase the speed and bandwidth of these transceivers, while dropping the price per-gigabit per-second.’ Another trend within data centres impacting
on component suppliers is the fibre itself, specifically, the debate between multimode and single mode fibres. ‘Previously, the data centre had been dominated by multimode,’ said Psalia. ‘Tat’s another trend that substantially
www.fibre-systems.com @fibresystemsmag
moved forward, and that’s been fueled by the hyperscalers specifically. Tey’ve taken these architectural decisions. Tis compares to the challenge we were talking about earlier, in terms of trying to drive down the cost of these transceivers, because we have to do that with single mode transceivers, which are even more complicated to build.’ Tis performance-cost balance has been a key
driver when it comes to product development, with new technologies that can help to address the challenge of building these transceivers in a more cost-efficient way. Said Psalia: ‘Te big hyperscale data centre
users have a lot of buying power, which can put pressure on the components manufacturers to drive all of their margins out. In some cases, there will be technologies that inevitably cannot cost-reduce beyond a certain point. ‘Tis will drive solutions that enable those
lower costs per-gigabit per-second, but also, technologies which can scale in terms of density. So the number of channels is also going up for these transceivers, and also the depth and speeds of each channel.’ Optoscribe’s own product development in
this area recently produced a monolithic glass chip for low-loss coupling to silicon photonics (SiPh) grating couplers. Te chip is designed to overcome fibre-to-SiPh photonic integrated circuit (PIC) coupling challenges to enable high volume automated assembly and help drive down costs. It was created using the company’s high-
speed laser writing technique and features low-loss light turning curved mirrors, which are formed in the glass, to direct the light to or from SiPh grating couplers. Tis prevents the need for bend-tolerant fibre solutions. To help address footprint challenges, the
chip also has a low-profile interface of less than 1.5mm in height. Tis allows compact interface layouts that alleviate packaging constraints. It is compatible with industry-standard materials and processes, helping to maximise performance. ‘We launched the OptoCplrLT chip in
December,’ said Psalia, ‘and we’re continuing to work on a range of additional products that we look to launch over the coming year in this application space. Te technology has a lot of advantages, particularly in the form factor and also in facilitating passive alignment, for example, to try and drive down the cost of these assemblies.’ n
BIG HYPERSCALE DATA CENTRE USERS HAVE A LOT OF BUYING POWER, WHICH CAN PUT PRESSURE ON COMPONENTS MANUFACTURERS TO DRIVE ALL OF THEIR MARGINS OUT
New component technologies have many advantages when it comes to driving down the cost of assemblies
Issue 30 n Winter 2021 n FiBRE SYSTEMS 15
Optoscribe
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38
