Google inaugurates Asia data centers

BBC News - Technology reports that Google has opened its first-ever data centers in Asia. The company says it is looking to expand its growth in the region as countries there become increasingly Internet-connected. As noted in the South China Morning Post, Google said it will double its planned investment in its Taiwan facility to US$600 million. The company is also set to kick-off a new data center in Singapore. Google data centers president Joe Kava has issued an informative blogpost regarding the announcements.

See also:  Google's 10 tips for better data center design

Google: Green data centers aren't magic

CommScope punts on IPO price but with good Sox

Things are shaping up well here in Nashua, NH this fine Monday morning: the Red Sox are lighting up the World Series, the Pats ground out a gritty gridiron win yesterday, and Light Reading's Ray LeMaistre has drawn up a nifty blog analyzing the Xs and Os of how CommScope was resigned to settle for a reduced IPO price.

"CommScope's revenues were up more than 10 percent compared with the same period a year earlier, so [the company's] expected third-quarter sales represent something of a speed bump for the vendor's growth momentum and investors might have reacted to that shift," charges the piece.

The blog describes how The Carlyle Group LLC had its sights set on a higher [IPO] price than what it actually got. Monday morning quarterbacking alert: "It could be that investors weren't as keen as Carlyle had hoped on a company that's carrying $3 billion in debt," writes Light Reading's LeMaistre. "Hence the need to use the IPO proceeds to reduce that mountain."

However, much as with a certain beloved MLB baseball franchise, the blog  goes on to note how CommScope has either a stacked bullpen, or a diversely strategic offensive line-up (take your pick of cheesy metaphors).

"[The company] has a range of products well suited to a market that is centered around broadband rollouts,"  LeMaistre points out. "So it looks like a solid business that is on course to grow its full-year 2013 revenues from the $3.32 billion it generated in 2012."

Either way, whatever happens, the deal is a home-run for investors. As recorded by Light Reading, "the Carlyle Group LLC, which has owned the company since January 2011, is selling about 7.7 million shares, which should net it more than $100 million."

Full Blog:  CommScope Settles for Reduced IPO Price (lightreading.com)

Report: Contractors fight over NSA data center delays

The Wall Street Journal's Siobhan Gorman reports that "contractors working on a new National Security Agency data center in Utah are fighting over the causes and responsibility for electrical failures that have caused construction delays costing up to $50 million, project officials say."

Earlier this month, the newspaper revealed how "the NSA's Utah Data Center, which has become a symbol of the agency's potent surveillance power, has been hobbled by the electrical failures", which resulted in a heavily publicized series of fiery explosions.

"The lead contractor on the project says it has uncovered the cause of the explosions -- a defect in electrical switches provided by a subcontractor -- and is installing a fix," adds Gorman's report. However, "outside investigators from the Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the $1.4 billion construction of the center, say the contractors' explanation, and proposed fix, remain unproven."

Full story:  Contractors Fight Over Delays to NSA Data Center (online.wsj.com)

Government shutdown could test IT security at federal agencies

Computerworld is reporting that a government shutdown that lasts more than a few days could test the ability of federal agencies to protect their information systems against security threats. According to a report, over the past few day several agencies, including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Social Security Administration, have released contingency plans showing that they will have to heavily scale down their IT teams to maintain, manage and protect IT infrastructure during a a shutdown.

Full story:  Shutdown could test IT security at federal agencies (computerworld.com)

See also:  How the federal government doubled its amount of data centers in just 2 years

11 hot cabling tips for cool data centers

Techrepublic's Jack Wallen has compiled a list of 11 quick cabling tips for data center best practices. Directly quoted, they are as follows:

1.  Measure twice, cut once.
2.  Label, label, label.
3.  Don't skimp on terminations.
4.  Don't skip the test.
5.  Keep patch cables short.
6.  Color code.
7.  Upsize your conduit.
8.  Make your design cable-friendly.
9.  Separate Cat 5 and power lines.
10. Keep cables cool.
11. Spaghetti prevention.

Full story:  10 cabling tips to keep your data center manageable (techrepublic.com)

Starbucks likes Google's caffeinated Wi-Fi

Shara Tibken of CNET News has the story of how within the corporate coffee shop empire of "Starbucks, AT&T is out and Google is in for Wi-Fi."

"Starbucks customers will soon have much faster Wi-Fi speeds, thanks to the company's new partnership with Google," reports CNET. "Starbucks said that Google, in conjunction with Level 3 Communications, will now be providing Wi-Fi service in Starbucks' U.S. locations that's up to 10 times faster than the current service powered by AT&T."

See Also:  802.11ac Gigabit wireless: The great WiFi hope

The faster service will first appear in new Starbucks stores over the next month, to be shortly rolled out to its 7,000 other U.S. locations, starting with the busiest sites where Wi-Fi usage is highest. The company expects to complete the transition in about 18 months. Along with providing faster Wi-Fi, Starbucks and Google also will be working to upgrade the Starbucks Digital Network, the page where users are directed when accessing Wi-Fi in the coffee shops.

Related Wireless Coverage:

WiFi offloading, cell-phone batteries and dual-band access

Get ready for 'application-aware' 802.11ac Wi-Fi

Cisco technical paper breaks down 802.11ac Wi-Fi 

Corning's all-optical ONE platform unifies Wi-Fi, cellular connectivity

Study: Large corporations opting for DAS over small cells, Wi-Fi

Comcast profits surge 30% on broadband growth

A blog by Brian Stelter on nytimes.com explains how while "Comcast has been losing TV subscribers to DirecTV and Verizon FiOS for years...its revenue gain on the broadband side [in Q2 of this year] was 8 percent." The blog reports on how "[it] is broadband, not cable television, that is generally bolstering cable companies’ results these days, because nearly nine out of 10 American households already subscribe to some sort of TV, but only two-thirds subscribe to broadband."

Bloomberg News also notes how Comcast's "Cable subscriber metrics [have] exceeded [analyst] estimates in all three services."

Related News & Products for Cabling Professionals:

Wireless broadband provider Alvarion wins court decision against creditor
TDR fault locator zooms in on plethora of RF cabling issues
Hardened industrial panel computers target hazardous locations
Keynotes announced for 'TIA 2013: Future of the Network'

400G Internet connections?

Bell Labs has reportedly boosted Internet connections to 400 Gbps using noise-canceling technology. Yes, you read that right:  the same technology that bleeds out noise from common headphones may in the end help Internet data not only travel longer distances, but also faster and more reliably, according to findings from Bell Laboratories researchers, recently published in Nature Photonics.

The study's lead author, Dr. Xiang Liu, told BBC News, “This concept, looking back, is quite easy to understand, but surprisingly, nobody did this before.”

See also:  Looking from 100/400G toward Terabit networking line cards

As noted at Digital Trends, "Like noise-canceling headphones that use external sounds to drown out the noise that you hear in your ears, Liu and his team discovered that the interference light runs into when traveling quickly through a fiber optic cable can also be negated. By sending two beams of light rather than just one beam down a cable, the noise from the signals end up canceling each other out when the two beams meet at the other end. As a result, the team was able to push data through 7,954 miles of cable at 400 Gbps, which is 400 times faster than Google Fiber’s gigabit Internet that most of us don’t have access to."

Fallen TV cabling hurts NASCAR fans, scuttles race

As reported last month by Fox Sports' Lee Spencer, in North Carolina, NASCAR red-flagged the Coca-Cola 600 race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the afternoon of Sunday, May 26, after a piece of broadcast TV cabling snapped across the arena's tri-oval onto the racetrack on Lap 121, resulting in injuries to some fans and damage to race cars.

Driver Kyle Busch, who was leading the race at the time of the accident, said, “Something fell apart and of course it fell apart on us.” Crew chief Dave Rogers added, “This is crazy if a TV camera just took us out.” The cabling literally sliced the right side of Busch's car behind the wheel, said the report.

More News:  

Broadcast video-over-LTE may arrive by 2014

Bexel to distribute Belden's Telecast Fiber Systems

Fox made an official statement following the incident: "At this time, we do not have a cause for the failure of the camera drive line that interrupted tonight’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and our immediate concern is with the injured fans."

The failed camera system in question reportedly consists of three ropes:  a drive rope which moves the camera back and forth, and two guide ropes on either side. "The drive rope failed near the Turn 1 connection and fell to the track," reported Fox's Spencer. "The camera itself did not come down because guide ropes acted as designed. A full investigation is planned, and use of the camera is suspended indefinitely."

Link:  Fallen cabling hurts fans, halts race (msn.foxsports.com)

See how DIY instructions for installing Cat 5e, Cat 6 Ethernet cable measure up

A step-by-step, do-it-yourself (DIY) installer guide to wiring one's residence with Cat 5e or Cat 6 Ethernet cable for home networking has been posted by the "tips, tricks and downloads" specialist Lifehacker.

Related:  HDBaseT whole-home network shown at CES

Written by a non-professional to the cabling trade and originally appearing on the creative project sharing site Instructables, the re-posted cabling installation instructions generate quite an interesting range of discussion in the article's appended comments section -- presenting a wealth of opportunity for armchair project management and/or second-guessing by the trained cabling professional ;)

See:  How To Wire Your House with Cat5e or Cat6 Ethernet Cable (From Lifehacker via Instructables)

Could Big Data and IP video uncover clues on Boston Marathon bombings?

April 16, 2013 -- Writing in USA Today, former national security analyst Scott Sigmund Gartner speculates on how Big Data (specifically, IP-based security and personal video) could be used to uncover clues on the Boston Marathon bombings.

"The lack of privacy in American big cities and at major public events is concerning," admits Sigmund Gartner. While owning up to the truth that by "analyzing trillions of images and data points, big data does more than threaten our privacy, it creates such detailed individual-level profiles that it literally strips us naked, exposing our values and desires to information's highest bidder," the analyst, who is currently a professor at Penn State's School of International Affairs and Dickinson School of Law, contends that "in this case, the same technology that reveals our shopping patterns and likely friends on Facebook may come through and help to expose a killer."

[Ed. note. -- It must come through -- if not, what is the point of this technology?]

The editorial goes on to place stock in recognition of big data's "positive side" -- noting how "by feeding thousands of cell phone, media and security camera video into massive computers capable of sorting faces, times and locations...authorities [will] put together a comprehensive picture of the comings and goings on Boylston Street."

"Crunching an unimaginable amount of data through social network, facial recognition, geographical information systems and other analytical algorithms...will reveal who seems to be there for the race, for business, or possibly for evil intent," continues the piece.

Link:  Big data could uncover clue on marathon: Column (usatoday.com)

Celebrating you

Well we’ve gone ahead and done it. We tabulated a list of 20 people (well, 18 people, one association and one profession as a whole), as nominated by our audience at large, who have made significant, positive impacts on the cabling trade over the past 20-plus years.

Creating lists like this one is kind of an old trick in the publishing/internet/media business. It’s a virtual guarantee that everyone who looks through it will think of at least one person who deserved to be included and wasn’t. (In many cases the reader’s reaction could be, “Hey, why wasn’t I on that list?!”) I say it’s an old trick because oftentimes one of the main objectives of those producing the list is to elicit just such a reaction. The more people talk about it, the more attention it gets. In today’s media environment, attention equals website page views. Website page views make our bosses happy. Hence the “old trick”—create a list just to get people talking.

That wasn’t the intent here. This list of the cabling industry’s positive contributors was conceived and developed as the most appropriate way to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first issue of Cabling Installation & Maintenance magazine. I’ve always kind of snarkily shaken my head at people who plan their own birthday parties. Actually, make that, adults who plan their own birthday parties. When you’re a kid, the most important days of the year are your birthday, the last day of school, and for us who celebrate it, Christmas. I’ve always kind of believed that once you turn oh, I don’t know, somewhere in your early 20s, the whole birthday thing should take a back seat. If someone else wants to throw you a party, great. Consider yourself a success for being important enough to someone that they want to do something nice for you on your birthday. But planning your own party kind of reminds me of the Brady Bunch episode when Peter planned a celebratory party for himself after he saved a girl from harm. Everyone he invited thought up reasons not to go. It was kind of sad, actually. In the end, the people who gathered to celebrate his good deed were his family members—the very same people who would throw him a birthday party because they care about him for who he is, and who were there for him before he was basking in the glow of his heroic act, and after that glow had faded.

So, as Cabling Installation & Maintenance was about to turn 20, the thought foremost in my mind was that I didn’t want to have a “Peter Brady Party” in which we spend pretty much all our energy asking, and answering, how great we are. That sentiment doesn’t come from any type of modesty, but rather from the reality that the cabling industry was humming along quite well before we showed up on the scene. Have we been an overall asset to the industry in our two decades of existence? I like to think so. But at the same time, we don’t embrace the pre-Copernicus mindset that the rest of the universe revolves around us. We’re happy to be one of the figures that floats around what’s really at the center of this industry—a combination of hard work and competence. And, I also like to think, whatever gravitational force we have helps to keep the whole thing in balance.

But it’s that core of the industry, the competence and hard work, that we have chosen to emphasize as a commemoration of our 20 years in business. Like any industry, ours has people, products and practices that span the full spectrum. Many times the structured cabling industry as an entity in and of itself has been challenged to garner an appropriate level of credibility, both from the information technology/networking industry of which it is an integral part, and from the construction industry of which it also is an integral part. While that challenge has been met and overcome in many cases, it remains dogged in others. Still, the complete “food chain” of players—from product design and manufacture, to distribution, through system specification, installation and maintenance—has the opportunity every day to fortify and enhance the credibility of the trade we call ours. In doing so, they (you) have earned recognition.

Yet the structured cabling industry doesn’t really have a platform to, a la Peter Brady, throw a party for itself. So on the occasion of our birthday (we’re in our early 20s now so the time for self-celebration has passed), we’re taking our hats off to all those who advance the industry in a positive direction—the few who we call out on our list as well as the many whose names don’t appear here but whose competence and hard work remain the central lifeblood of the industry. Our thanks to all of you.

Klein Tools looking for the oldest pair of its side-cutting pliers

If some of the tools in your tool belt are older than you, you just may be in luck. Klein Tools is holding a promotion through which it will provide a $2,500 cash prize as well as approximately $2,500 worth of its merchandise to the person who produces the oldest pair of the company's side-cutting pliers.
"Customers can see if their pliers are eligible by determining if their tool is the standard side-cutting type, bears the original Klein trademark and has the 'code markings' that will be found inside the handle," the company explained when announcing the promotion.
Specs and details of the contest, including tips on how to identify your pliers' manufacture date, can be found here.
Members of Klein's engineering staff will select the winning pair of pliers using the above-mentioned criteria. May 31 is the deadline by which entrants must submit a completed entry form and photos of the pliers being entered.
The company's channel sales manager Thomas Barton said, "Klein tools are known for their quality and durability. Our customers are very loyal and some have tools that have been handed down from one generation to another. So we thought it would be interesting to see exactly how long our pliers soldier on."

Thoughts on the “Blackout Bowl” -- from a data center cabling perspective

By Josh Taylor, CABLExpress -- I cringed during the blackout that occurred at the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans. The reaction was not due to the delay of the game, nor the effect it may have on the teams’ momentum. It was due to the fact that I know all too well what was going on behind the scenes. DOWNTIME! Sheer panic!

The impact was huge. Everyone was talking about it, which created embarrassment for the city of New Orleans. According to TV blog reporting from the Washington Post, it even appears to have affected the ratings. Bottom line is that this blackout cost the city and the NFL money… big money!

That is why I cringed when I saw this happening. I knew this was going to cost lots of money, and potentially some people’s jobs! Even when things are going right 99.9% of the time, with power and facilities wiring there is always the potential for something catastrophic to happen at the worst possible time. This is what we saw at the “Blackout Bowl.” When all is said and done, no excuses are accepted. The blackout happened and heads will roll!

I have seen this in my line of work far too often. I work directly with data center staffing to help design structured cabling solutions for their data centers. Too often, customers have approached me for help after they experienced downtime due to a faulty piece of cabling infrastructure.

It is a tough lesson that many have experienced. You are only as strong as your weakest link! It seems that, no matter what the facility, the focus is always on the hardware and too little attention -- in both an economic and a planning sense -- is paid to the cabling infrastructure.

Related:  CABLExpress offers free data center structured cabling guide

When the cost of downtime is so high, and can even result in job terminations, it is amazing to me that people focus on “costs” of a job and skimp out on the cabling infrastructure! Think of it this way – would it be worth saving $5 on a fiber-optic patch cable that ends up failing after being plugged in for the third time? Consider that this patch cable failing could cost your company $XX per minute! The initial savings on the patch cable could be very insignificant compared to the impact of 5 minutes of downtime!

Having respect for Layer One is critical in any data center. With a well-planned infrastructure, downtime related to cabling can be reduced drastically.

Do yourself a favor - look for the weakest links within your cabling infrastructure and address them immediately! Also, don’t allow cabling to be purchased on price alone. Do some research and find the best overall value for your situation.

Also, put pressure on your cabling supplier to provide documentation on certifications and testing procedures (or lack thereof) that ensure you won’t experience downtime due to a cabling failure!

Josh Taylor is a Senior Product Manager with CABLExpress (www.cablexpress.com)

WiGig coattails on 802.11ad, Wi-Fi

A new market insight opportunity (i.e. report for sale) from ABI Research investigates the industry situation now that WiGig is officially part of 802.11ad and Wi-Fi.

See also:  WiGig issues version 1.1 spec, setting stage for 60-GHz multi-Gigabit Wi-Fi

"As early as 2009, ABI Research called WiGig as the 60 GHz technology that would beat out competing 60 GHz solutions," writes ABI Research analyst Philip Solis. "WiGig was exactly what the Wi-Fi Alliance was interested in to expand to include a 60 GHz solution. The WiGig Alliance knew that becoming a part of Wi-Fi would allow it to hang on the coattails of the most ubiquitous connectivity technology in the world."

Find out more about the research.

Lightning Round: Q&A on the cabling industry's hottest topics

Watch the flagship episode Cablinginstall.com's Lightning Round, a stand-up Q-and-A of selected experts on the cabling industry's hottest current topics of news and technology advancements. Below, I interview Cabling Installation and Maintenance's chief editor, Patrick McLaughlin.

Here are the Lightning Round's questions:

1.)  Which news from the world of cabling standards in 2012 will have greater implications for network infrastructure professionals going forward in 2013 – the approval of the TIA-606-B data center standard, or the recent announcement of the TIA’s Category 8 designation for next generation of twisted-pair cabling specifications?

2.)  Which IT CEO legend made the following prediction in a nationally known IT technology publication of circa 1993 – and I quote – “Wireless computing will flop – permanently.” Was it:

a. Oracle’s Larry Ellison
b. Apple’s Tim Cook
c. Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe
d. Cisco’s John Chambers

3.)  What will be the bigger “game-changer” for network cabling deployments in 2013:  the preponderance of pre-terminated fiber systems -- or the rise of distributed antenna system, or DAS, technologies?

Watch the Q&A Lightning Round

Was Apple the best IT hardware, networking stock for 2013?

As reported in a Business Insider article posted at the San Francisco Chronicle's SFGate, certain capital investment experts are tilting "mega-bull on [Apple], despite the 30% collapse of the [company's] stock since September" -- due specifically to the company's exisiting and expected influence in the IT and networking space, globally.

Brian White, an analyst at Topeka Capital, says, "our top large-cap stock pick in the 'IT Hardware & Networking' group for 2013 is Apple. The negative sentiment around the stock has reached epic levels that we haven't seen in recent memory and yet we believe the product portfolio has never been stronger."

Smartphones and tablets are "still going to be huge this year [and] no company is in better shape to take advantage of the growth of mobile [networking] than Apple," adds White.

RELATED STORY:  Apple currently seeking data center professionals

On the logistics end, the effect of supply chain cuts for the iPhone itself are deemed insignificant. Never mind that; Apple is forecasted to strike a massive mobile wireless and telecom provider deal with China Mobile. "If every China Mobile wireless subscriber had an iPhone at the current ASP, this would represent ~$450 billion in sales for Apple," estimates White.

Stateside, the impact of the long-awaited Apple TV -- to be broadcast to customers over the company's "digital grid" -- is as yet unknown, but is almost certain to be "amazing," contends the analyst. Ultimately, Apple TV "will allow [the company] to tap into an entirely new $100 billion market opportunity" in the IT and networking sphere, predicts White.

Not all analysts are as bullish as Topeka Capital's on Apple's prospects here; elsewhere predictions are being made that the company's iPhone business is "going to be dead in the water."

SEE ALSO:  Aerial photos reveal Apple's Oregon data center site

Full story:  Here's What The Last True Believer In Apple Has To Say About The Stock Getting Destroyed (AAPL) (sfgate.com)