ADC Krone is one of the fastest growing vendors in the structured cabling
industry, with an array of solutions in its portfolio. With its R&D centers in
Bangalore and across the globe, the structured cabling major has also developed
a solution that contributes to the acceptance of Cat 6A on UTP for 10G over UTP
solution for 100 mt connections. In an interview, Dileep Kumar, director,
Enterprise and Carrier Product Development, ADC Krone, shares with VOICE&DATA
his vision, general industry trends, green possibilities in the industry, the
company's expansion plan, etc. Excerpts
While the world is attempting to go green in every space, are green
initiatives taking place in the structured cabling industry as well?
The perception is that the structured cabling industry is a passive cabling
industry because cabling does not emit any heat as no electronics are involved.
But in all honesty, a lot of things can be done to support green initiatives.
For example, in a data center or a populated rack area, the hanging patch cords
block the airflow to a considerable extent. So, we designed a very innovative
cable management solution to solve this problem. We have also introduced a patch
panel with rotating modules. These put together will avoid the patch cords' mess
on the front, facilitating proper airflow, which will obviate the need to use
energy for the cooling process.
How do you view the current role played by Indian distributors and system
integrators in this industry?
Until a decade ago system integrators did both supply and installation. But
of late these capabilities have been separated from their offerings due to
various reasons. Today, our market needs more system integrators who can offer
design, consultancy, network planning, implementation, technical capabilities,
etc. Customers seek value addition and consolidation of capabilities and
services, and perhaps even a one-stop arrangement.
How has the Indian market responded to 10G cabling solutions?
10G Ethernet is possible over single mode fiber, multimode fiber, and Cat 7
STP solution. But Cat 7 STP is a fully shielded solution and its installation is
much more difficult than the UTP solution. Hence, as Cat 7 remained an
unaccepted technology for a long time, we tried to develop 10G Ethernet over UTP,
and developed our niche solution-Cat 6A on UTP for 10G over UTP solution for
100-mts connections. We demonstrated this to the IEEE and in the beginning of
this year the standard was ratified. Though, until now, the demand for UTP
cabling has only been from data centers and backbone cabling. With the standard
having been ratified, in the coming days, the take off for 10G is expected to be
faster.
What is the status of PoE adoption in India?
The power over Ethernet market is not very popular in India but is
definitely in a growth phase. The reason is that with Indian power conditions
being less than satisfactory, PoE can provide clean power to sensitive equipment
attached to the network. PoE allows users to utilize spare pairs in the existing
data cable to transmit power required for devices like VoIP, WLAN, etc. And as
the popularity of such devices grows PoE will also ramp up accordingly.
Your revenue in FY 2007-08 was Rs 52.4 crore, a 46% growth over FY
2006-07. How did you achieve this impressive growth and how are you poised to
take your business to the next level?
When we entered the market we focused on the mid-segment; we were not
available to top-level customers. But in the last two years we have entered
premium solutions with 10 Gb over Ethernet UTP solutions, intelligent cabling
solutions called TrueNet PLM solutions, and data center solutions. These helped
us exhibit about 50% higher growth than we had achieved previously. From last
year we also started executing big projects including the TCS project at
Siruseri in Chennai, which will be the biggest IT facility in India once
completed. Also, for the last one year we have been adding value to our products
sale by creating a group of technical resources to offer design and consultancy
services for customers.
Kannan K
kannan@cybermedia.co.in
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