Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1219491
April/May/June 2020 I 39 MASS GROWTH OF THE CONNECTOR The Infrastructure Spend Following is an in-depth look at the connector market, starting with typi- cal data center infrastructure invest- ment by several of the largest tech companies. Figure 1 shows the break- down of cost by category. Connected infrastructure com- ponents—optical fiber and copper cabling, cabling infrastructure includ- ing cable trays, racks, and patch pan- els—and installation labor comprise 65 percent of total data center spend- ing. It typically costs $300 to $400 million to build one data center. As some campuses are home to five or more data center buildings, the total investment required from tech companies is staggering. The Market Forecast Demand for connected infrastructure continues to grow. Figure 2 shows FIGURE 1: Data reflects typical tech companies' spend on data center infrastructure, including both greenfield and colo/leased locations. Source: Proprietary data collected, researched, and analyzed by the author. FIGURE 2: The market for connected infrastructure is expected to grow to at least $17 billion by 2022. Note the trend of optical fiber cabling's continued growth while copper flattens. Source: Data and graph derived from Market Research Future, Structured Cabling Market Research Report-Global Forecast to 2022 (January, 2018) and Markets and Markets (https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ PressReleases/structured-cabling.asp). DATA CENTER INFRASTRUCTURE SPEND Building Infrastructure 35% • Data Center Construction • Colo/POP Lease • Utilities • Facilities Operations • Maintenance Installation & Testing Labor 20% • Tray & Rack Installation • Cable Pull & Dressing • Termination & Splicing • Cable Testing & QC/QA • Breakfix & MAC Copper Cabling 5% • Cat 5 & Cat 6, Cables & Connectors Cabling Infrastructure 10% • Cable Tray & Racks • Splice Cabinets & Patch Frames • Patch Panels & Cassettes Optical Fiber Cabling 30% • Singlemode & Multimode • OSP & ISP Cabling • HD & Structured Cabling • Jumpers & Connectors • Splicers & Testers That is a whopping 65 PERCENT of data center spend attributed to connected infrastructure! the market forecast that includes optical fiber and copper cabling, as well as cabling infrastructure components. In 2014, the market was valued at $7.72 billion. It is expected to reach $13.13 billion by 2020. That is a growth rate of 9.0 percent between 2015 and 2020, reaching more than $17 billion by 2022. 1 Compound Annual Growth Rate of 9% 2012 2013 Fiber Cabling 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 $7B $13B $17B Cabling Infrastructure Copper Cabling