​Audience

This course is for anyone involved in Data Center infrastructure design, installation or management who have some experience but want to increase their knowledge and understanding of cabling choices and architectures. It has been designed to ensure that the student understands not only the technology available today but new and emerging systems, and how the choice of components is critical to ensure a viable future upgrade path. Although the course focuses on pre-terminated solutions, anyone involved in working with data centers will learn about making decisions on cable type, cable containment methods, HVAC design, power supplies and rack or cabinet specification together with the standards that must be considered, so if the student has any involvement in these areas then the course will be suitable for them.

Pre-requisite experience

No pre-requisite experience is required to take this course as the subjects covered will be of interest to anyone working in the data center field although some of the later lessons are quite technical and having some prior knowledge might be advantageous.

Objectives

• To help the student look afresh at data center infrastructure design and how all aspects involved will affect the end result.
• Understand how changing data center technology and architecture is increasing the density required with integrated and more efficient equipment.
• Look at copper pre-terminated solutions and how its use can affect installation times and moves adds and changes
• Look at fiber pre-terminated solutions and how polarity and future migration capabilities impact system selection
• Ensure that the student understands fiber losses, how to calculate correctly and how these can be minimized.
• To show how correctly designed data center infrastructure has long term benefits especially in regard to upgrade paths to faster communication speeds.
• Discuss cable routing designs especially when using HVAC cooling in relation to hot and cold aisles
• Investigate the solutions for emerging higher speed technologies
• Understand the emergence of ULL ultra low loss solutions and where this will fit in to Data Centers
• See how the standards are anticipating higher fiber speeds and using the different properties of fiber more effectively
• Look at cable containment options and routing for both copper and fiber cable.
• Discuss rack/cabinet cross connect and interconnect layouts with examples
• Look at advantages and disadvantages of cross connect and inter-connect designs
• Provide examples of actual data center cabling and how and why they were designed that way

Key Topics

• Data center technology - What's in data center? Processors, switches and storage
• Terminology - SANS, LANS, DAS, NAS's and WANS - Storage servers- SCSI - iSCSI - FC- FCoE - UPS
• Tiers and Levels of reliability - Power Architecture - Global Green Initiatives
• Racks - Cabinets - False Floors - Temperature - CRAC - Plenum - Cable routing- Hot Aisles - Cold Aisles
• Cabling containment architecture - Raceways - Ladder racks - underfloor cabling
• Security - Lighting - Thermal management - Fire regulations
• Key standards - Topologies - Naming Conventions - Applications over copper and fiber cables - 100G - 400G - 800G Migration
• Uptime Institute - Data Center Design - MDA - HDA - EDA
• Switching Architectures - Leaf / Spine Design
• Cable Installation - Containment - Pathways - Capacity - FiberGuide
• Power Separation & Segregation - Grounding and Bonding
• Copper Cable types and Categories - Pre-terminated Copper Cu
• Fiber Types - Multimode - Single-mode - Wideband Multimode Fiber - Armored- Fiber Design
• Fiber Interfaces and Applications - Fiber Calculations - Loss Budgets
• Fiber Duplex Administration and Polarity - Fiber Installation- Array Connectivity - Parallel Transmission - 40GE and 100GE Fiber Design - Ultra High Density Shelves and Patching
• Data Center Trends – Standardization, Modernization and virtualization -  Network Convergence - Ethernet Fabrics
• Evolving Standards – 25G, 40G, 100G and 400G Ethernet. WBMMF. SWDM. MPO-12 & MPO-24. Utilization of existing pre-terminated fiber- Array connectivity.
• Modular Fiber Connectivity – Path - polarity and pinning of connectors.
• Backbone Trends – Single-mode - Multimode OM5 - Fiber Performance Calculator - Link Calculations
• Pre-terminated Fiber Solutions – ULL (Ultra Low Loss Fiber) - Polarity Methods – Propel, HD, UD Fiber Panels
• High Density Solutions – Fiber Bend Radius- Fiber Routing – FiberGuide Raceway, Optical Distribution Frames
• Data Center Architectures - Cabling Schemes - ToR Architecture - Distributed LAN - Zone Distribution Architecture - Access layer Network Segregation
• Actual Data Center Plan Samples - Cabinet Layouts - Cable containment routing

How will I learn?

You will study this course online in a self-paced format. The course is made up of a number of webcast lessons and online multiple choice assessments giving immediate feedback. The course content is supplemented by some PDF support material. It is highly recommended that the student augment their learning with real world design and installation experience, preferably with the help experienced colleagues or mentors.

Successful completion will require

Any level of pass in the accumulative overall assessment score.

Is this the right course for me?

If you have an interest in Data Center cabling design maintenance and or installation and need to get a better understanding all the components involved, then this course is for you. The course does look at some advanced topics related to Data Centers, so having a reasonably sound understanding of this medium might be helpful.

Upon successful completion you will

Receive a course certificate that may be self-printed.

"Effective July19th 2023, BICSI recognizes SP8850 - Pre-Terminated Data Center Solutions training for BICSI continuing Education Credits (CECs).

Course information:

BICSI CECs: 8 Event ID: OV-COMM-OC-0723-1

Certificate valid for 4 years

Estimated study time: 10 hours 30 minutes

Webcast duration: 8 hours