Insure for the Best

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A CEO and his team in India have to present their company's latest innovative solution to a potential, big customer in a faraway place in the US within a fortnight. The D-day arrives. The potential customer is eagerly waiting at the other end. Rolling up their sleeves, the team starts making presentations.

Alas, the videoconferencing system is dead slow! Everything seems to be all right-no malfunction in hardware setup, no virus attack, no trojans, and the structured cabling has recently been upgraded to support data-intensive applications. The CTO of the company and his team later identify that the culprit was improper installation of the structured cabling solution, which affect data transmission speed and the performance capability of the cabling.

SA Mohan, regional sales director, India and ASEAN region, subscribes to this: “It is increasingly important to strictly observe best practices as the performance levels of cabling increase; the higher the performance level required from the cabling, the lower the margin for error in terms of installation practice”, he says.

The concept of best practice is sine quo non to obtain optimum performance from every standard-based product and structured cabling too is not an exception to this fundamental principle. Unlike the ordinary electric wires, structured cabling products and solutions require enormous attention during the installation process. And each and every category of cables-from copper cables to fiber optics-require unique techniques and skills for optimum performance.

Sathya Narayanan MS, country manager, India, Hubbell Wiring Systems says, “Quality of installation gives both peace of mind and longevity for the transportation system. Best practices always help to improve the quality of installation and thereby help deliver a robust, stable, and high performance data transportation system.” It further helps reduce the risk of down time, increasing reliability and scalability. The adverse impacts due to lack of observing best practices are return loss, alien cross talk, near-end cross talk, etc.

Be Choosy
Selecting good quality of products as per the requirement of an organization is a prerequisite. James Bundey, marketing manager, Asia Pacific, Molex Premise Networks says, “One of the most pressing issue in the industry from the end-users perspective is ensuring that they are confident about selecting the right solution for their business. The important thing is that they have spoken to a company that they trust and that the company recommends a suitable solution for their requirements, not just the latest and greatest.”

India is an early adopter of new technologies

Radhakrishna KV, manager, Projects and Business Development, Tyco Electronics' AMP NetConnect Division

What is the latest trend in structured cabling in terms of technology, new category of cables, etc?
Technologies in India are evolving extremely rapidly, and we find that India is an early adopter of new technologies. Our network installations are at par with any network installation abroad. While, STP is the dominant technology abroad, especially in Europe, in India unshielded copper cabling still rules networks, especially when it comes to regular office networks. With almost 70% installations on Cat 6, it is almost ready to edge out the enhanced Cat 5 technology. Also, for high speed, high bandwidth networks, especially data center and disaster recovery centers or 10G applications, we find Cat6 A STP gaining momentum. Fiber installations have also gone up but their use is still mainly limited to backbone cabling. It is interesting to note that while fiber cabling is only a little more expensive than copper cabling systems, the cost of active components for fiber networks makes the entire network extremely expensive.

What is the rate and level of 10G and PoE adoption, and why?
10G is preferred for data centers because of high bandwidth required in this set ups. PoE, on the other hand is adopted in enterprise segments and software development centers because of the use of IP phones, wireless networks, and other IP devices where powering on the devices such as surveillance cameras or WAPs may not be easy.

Do you have any pricing strategy for your cabling solutions to beat the rising copper prices?
The price of copper indeed has been a major cause for concern in the last couple of years. We have had to adjust our pricing a few times this year; it has been quite a task to keep up with this volatile state of the copper market. We have taken the consultant approach to end-customers, and by doing this we have been very successful in avoiding the price war.

Shajan M George, technical manager, Reichle & De-Massari India (R&M), expresses similar view: “Today the challenge is to ensure that the quality of product and design, implementation, testing, and documentation is up to the standards.” Hundred percent testing of each and every individual component and quality stamp for each of the sub-systems at the manufacturer's end is very important in order to offer quality products to customers.

We are the second largest SCS manufacturer in the country today

Milind Tamhane, VP, Manufacturing, D-Link India

What is the latest trend in structured cabling in terms of technology and new category of cables, etc?
On copper media we have Cat 6A cables which are suitable to transmit 10 Gbps signals upto 50-100 mts. There cables have improved material for insulation, and jacketing suitable for exacting safety requirements and also for a greener environment. On the fiber front as well there is some excitement over a new breed of bend insensitive fibers suitable for drop cable application in FTTH.

What is the rate and level of 10G and PoE adoption in India?
If one sells 1,000 boxes of copper cables, about 25 boxes would be of 10G performance, essentially used in data center applications. And on the PoE front, PoE patch panels and PoE enabled physical layer products have earned their niche customer base for products such as security/Internet cameras, VoIP phones, etc.

What's your presence in the Indian market, and what is your expansion plan?
We are the second largest SCS manufacturer in the country today, in terms of volume, and third largest in value (turnover). We are expanding our base to accommodate products catering to residential cabling in FTTH segment. And in addition, we have steady growth in out export market.

Do you have a pricing strategy for your cabling solutions to beat the rising copper prices?
We are the only SCS manufacturer to have complete control on component manufacturing. While we now need to spend higher value for the same cable box compared to the past, due to increase in copper price, as well as plastic raw material prices, we have fair control on overall manufacturing costs. And in nutshell, we are presently trying our best to protect our loyal customers.

In terms of innovation, what are the new products in the pipeline?
While we have a range of products in copper (Digilink P500, P800 series) with enhanced performance and value for money, we also have high density interference free patch panels, and cable management accessories. In fiber we now have tactical cable solutions, pre-terminated fiber cable harnesses, and fiber distribution boxes.

Open Sesame
If practice makes a man perfect, training perfects him to learn best practices, which is the key to structured cabling installation. Installing the solution by a group of well-trained technicians is the foremost important factor. According to Pramod Srivastava, head, Marketing, Passive Solutions, Sterlite Technologies, “For 90% problems, it is improper installation that affects performance capabilities, instead of improper cabling choice. If ordinary electricians turn to be structured cabling installers, then quality of installation cannot be up to the mark.”

The copper price fluctuation is a major problem particularly in India

SA Mohan, regional sales director, India & Asean Region, Molex

What is the latest trend in the structured cabling industry?
On technology front, we are witnessing a number of trends. Firstly, the uptake of Category 6A cabling is increasing as enterprises strive to future-proof their networks in anticipation of 10G networking requirements. We also see an increase in the use of shielded solutions, outside of the previously typical geographies for shielding. Many companies have elected to use shielded solutions to support their 10G requirements as it offers a number of advantages over UTP cabling, namely in the elimination of alien NEXT, smaller cable diameters, and therefore less issues regarding communications room design and cable containment. On the fiber optic cable front, we have seen an increase in the uptake of plug and play solutions, and a heightened level of interest in the next generation of fiber cabling solution.

How do you foresee the 10G and PoE adoption?
The uptake of 10G systems is on the increase, generally by larger enterprises that are looking to implement the latest cabling technology to ensure its longevity. There is a higher uptake in the financial vertical. But, PoE still has limited uptake. This could be due to the limited capacity of the currently ratified standards. PoE is used for security applications, but hasn't been widely adopted across large enterprises due to its currently limited capability. Although, the advent of new standards should enable more widespread adoption of PoE across a broader range of applications.

What will be the growth of fiber optic cables in India?
Fiber optic cables will continue to grow in the Indian market, as enterprises demand greater performance and bandwidth from their infrastructures. The increase in 10G fiber application for MAN's and WAN's will also fuel this growth. We can also see an increase in the adoption of fiber plug and play solutions in applications where users need a guaranteed level of performance from their cabling. These plug and play solutions offer swift implementation, factory tested fiber terminations, and minimum losses.

What is your expansion plan in the Indian market?
We have a well-established position in the Indian structured cabling market. Market surveys from various sources indicate that we stand at probably the fourth in terms of market share. And speaking ahead, we have ambitious plans to increase our revenue and market share in the current fiscal.

What do you have to say about tackling the rising copper prices in the industry?
The copper price fluctuation is a global issue and is a major problem particularly in India. At present there is a greater variability in the price than there was about three years ago.

In terms of innovation, what are the new products in your pipeline?
We have some exciting new products planned for release around September/October. We will have a high performing copper RJ45 solution, a copper plug and play solution, and an enhanced IIM solution.

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