In This Issue:Deals of the Week | The Future of Ethernet in Data Centers | News to Start Your Day
Happy Hump-Day! Anyone else remember the days of playing outside with friends seeing who could build a paper airplane that would travel the farthest? Today we celebrate the simple aeronautical toy that put lots of smiles on many faces – Happy National Paper Airplane Day!
The CK Daily – Where has the time gone?
Happy Wednesday! We are halfway to a long weekend! Leo Christopher once said, “There’s only one thing more precious than our time and that’s who we spend it on.”
This quote forced me to take a step back and reevaluate the boundaries I set around how I spend my time and where my time goes. Our time is so precious and something we can never get back so why not be protective over it?
Here are 3 things I’ve reminded myself this week:
1. No amount of money, accolades or personal accomplishments are as important as the time I spend enriching my relationships with those who are important to me.
2. I am in control of my life and I have all the strength needed to succeed in anything I set my mind to.
3. Stress doesn’t help anything! No need to spend time stressing over things I can’t change.
Certainly, there are times in our lives where everything seems to be crazy busy and it’s necessary for use to sacrifice time, but whether we are almost to the finish line of a major work project, navigating how to homeschool your children, or building your passion project, never lose sight of what’s most important.
I challenge you, as I have challenged myself, to value your precious time and stay focus on what’s in front of you!
Shanyce
Product Spotlights & Updates:
The Deals of the Week just keep on getting better! We’ve highlighted a few so far, but there are many more where those come from!
This week we’ve included, a Cisco 2960-X Series Switch, a Cable Management Kit, a 20 ft-Snagless Ethernet Cable, a singlemode duplex Fiber Cable, and a Cisco Series Router! Enjoy up to 25% off some of these incredible products!
Pretty sweet, right?!
To add to it – we’re still offering free shipping on orders over $250 and $4.99 flat rate shipping on all other orders! What are you waiting for? Snag one of these great deals today!
The Future of Ethernet in Data Centers – CK Learning Center
Does Copper Cabling Still Have a Place in Data Centers?
More than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced every day. That’s a mind-boggling number. Equally impressive is that roughly 90 percent of all data in the world was produced in the last two years. That second statistic will likely hold true even as years pass. That’s because the rate at which we create new data continues to accelerate. In the face of such overwhelming numbers, it often feels like the entire future of networking rests on the shoulders of fiber optics. While fiber networking is absolutely essential to handling massive, consolidated data streams, it’s a mistake to think that every network needs to completely convert. Ethernet still has a strong place in networking, and that holds true even for the most advanced data centers in the world. Let’s take a look at exactly why Ethernet is still important and how we can expect it to function in the near future.
Ethernet To the Desk
There is no contesting the fact that fiber will continue to do more of the heavy lifting for data centers. IoT and similar concepts are increasing the total amount of information being transmitted by leaps and bounds. Despite that, copper cable’s secure place in all of this is based on a simple fact. None of the endpoint devices building those data tables need high bandwidth. IoT devices themselves tend to be simple and require little bandwidth. It’s an important part of the design. This extends to a large segment of endpoint devices. Sensor networks, digital cameras, long-range detection, monitoring and LED-based power systems all thrive on copper networks. When data rates aren’t needed, the cost of fiber optics is prohibitive. This is to say nothing of the efficiency of running power through copper data lines. PoE saves cost on extending Wi-Fi networks, monitoring systems and an almost innumerable number of additional applications. Basically, Ethernet still has a place in data centers because so many of the devices in the center just don’t need fiber optics.
The Better Ethernet Cables
There’s a second reason that Ethernet is here to stay. It keeps getting better. Cat5 was introduced in 2001. It was the first copper cable to achieve 1Gbps data rates (if inconsistently). In the decades since, Ethernet cables have expanded in capabilities and uses — many of which reside in data centers.
Cat6 Ethernet
While it’s been around for a while, Cat6 has been essential in extending the lifespan of Ethernet networking. Running at frequencies up to 250 MHz and data rates up to 10 Gbps, Cat6 introduced better shielding that protects against crosstalk. It is optimized for VoIP, and in most cases, it’s a superior cable to any other for this purpose. Cat6 can maintain 10 Gbps at distances up to 55 meters, and it is otherwise effective up to 100 meters.
Cat6a Ethernet
Cat6a took improvements in Cat6 and expanded them. It still caps at 10 Gbps, but it can maintain this rate up to 100 meters. It also operates at a frequency of 500 MHz. Perhaps the signature changes is the Cat6a further expanded on shielding to eliminate crosstalk struggles in cable-dense networks. That stronger shielding also makes it well-suited for industrial work and rugged environments.
Cat8 Ethernet
Cat8 is the latest and greatest. It is an Ethernet platform designed for significantly higher data rates. It supports 25GBASE-T and 40GBASE-T applications, meaning it can get up to 20 Gbps. Part of the advancement of Cat8 resides in its 2 GHz transmission frequency. With greater data transmission capabilities, Cat8 is at its best in switch-to-server interconnections. It’s clear to see why it’s a powerful option in data centers. The fact that it still uses copper wires just shows that the future is not fully dominated by fiber optics. Copper cables still have a place in this world, and that isn’t going to be changing anytime soon. While the continued expanse of data transmissions will require some emphasis on fiber cables, applications are increasingly favoring copper at the endpoint. Decentralized networking and hyper-efficient data collection both favor less-expensive networking cable, and copper will continue to be essential in that function. By all means, look for opportunities to utilize fiber where it fits, but never make the mistake of overlooking Ethernet solutions.
This post is from the CK Learning Center.
Today’s News to Start Your Day:
- As of this morning, in the US, active COVID cases are on a decline and are reported at 5,735,539.
- Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 infections per million people — on a seven-day rolling basis — have exceeded that of India. Malaysia has been battling a surge in coronavirus cases since the last few months of 2020. India has been experiencing a devastating second wave since April and has the world’s second largest Covid caseload.
- Amazon Prime Day is expected to kick off next month. Look for deep discounts on headphones, TVs, exercise gear and Amazon devices.
- The San Jose city council has approved Google’s big plans for a mega campus that’s been in the works for the last four years. Construction may begin as soon as next year, but the campus will still take around a decade to fully build. It’s Google’s first mixed-use campus and aims to be a model for other tech campuses as soaring real estate prices drive growing alienation toward tech companies.
- The Chinese government wants to crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading. Meanwhile, the US Treasury will require all cryptocurrency transfers worth more than $10,000 be reported to the government.
