Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1386104
18 I ICT TODAY Today's Digital Transformation Calls for Enhanced Data Center Fiber Testing Strategy By Mark Mullins With everything digital and the amount of information and applications continuing to grow at a rapid pace, data centers are expanding in capacity and functionality via hyperconverged infrastructure, server virtualization, software-defined networking, and automated load balancing. At the same time, emerging 5G/6G, internet of things (IoT), industrial internet of things (IIoT) technologies and evolving applications like artificial intelligence (AI), virtual and augmented reality, and machine learning are requiring higher bandwidth than ever before and low-latency (i.e., non-blocking) data transmission. As businesses strive to digitally transform and compete in a data-driven world, optical fiber with its greater bandwidth capability is rapidly outpacing copper within data center cabling infrastructures. For optical fiber testing in the data center, specifi- cations call out either Tier-1 certification testing that measures total insertion loss using an optical loss test set (OLTS) or extended Tier-2 testing that also characterizes a link using an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR). However, digital transformation creates new fiber testing considerations that call for an enhanced data center testing strategy. Data centers are at the heart of every aspect of ICT and the digital world. Whether it is an enterprise busi- ness function, streaming a movie, purchasing items online, attending a virtual meeting, booking a ride, or posting to a social media platform, virtually everything people do today as businesses and consumers relies on data centers that enable the transmission, access, and storage of all information. While the shift to "every- thing digital" has been happening for several years, the global Covid-19 pandemic has actually sped up the adoption of digital technologies, putting an end to any doubt among enterprise businesses about the need for digital transformation and the value of the data center.