Kam Patel, CommScope, Part 2: No data center slowdown; Data center fiber reach

In this 2-part episode of the Cabling Podcast, Cabling Installation & Maintenance senior editor Matt Vincent chats with Kam Patel, director of hyperscale and service provider data center solutions for CommScope. Patel has been with CommScope for more than 20 years in a variety of business development, engineering, marketing, operations, product management and strategy roles, and is the author of numerous articles, white papers, and presentations on the design of telecommunications and data networks. He holds more than 20 patents for network equipment.

Part 2 of the podcast kicks off with the following question for Patel from CI&M:

"The world is arriving at what we might call a post-pandemic reality. Every week we hear about technology companies that overstaffed and are now scaling back their workforces as they figure out what their right size is. And even though this is happening in places, we don’t get a sense that the flow of information—through entertainment, commerce, gaming, or business communication—is letting up. So while we hear about a big-tech slowdown, I’m betting there’s no slowing down within the data centers of large-scale tech providers. Is that a correct assessment?"

In response, Patel expands upon how A.I. is driving the expansion of data centers on several fronts, along with other factors that he said should keep the data center deployment market moving. 

CI&M also inquires if and how Industry 4.0 is expected to accelerate design cycles, and how the technology will be used to transform businesses.

Another question from CI&M posed to Patel in Part Two is as follows:

"People may not intuitively connect the United States’ rural broadband access initiatives to data centers. But CI&M believes data centers will play an essential role in rural connectivity over the next several years. Can you paint a picture for us of how data centers fit into the country’s ambitious plans to provide broadband to so many of its homes?" 

In response to this and other questions, Part Two concludes with a discussion about factors driving the need for increased fiber density in the data center, and what user types—hyperscales, telcos, or others—are most likely to need such high-density connections.