3M pushes further into data centers with fiber management partnership

3M will sell FiberZone Networks’ Automated Fiber Management (AFM) systems to the data center market.

The firm will add the solution to its copper, fiber and active optical cabling solutions portfolio.
AFM allows data center operators to manage fiber connectivity based on load requirements and customer needs such as managed cage and expedited cross-connect services, the supplier said.

It is based on Latched Optical Coupling (LOC) technology which creates a secure, physical optical fiber connection within the system which can be changed to a different port configuration on-demand through a software interface or programmed automatically. The fibers can be re-arranged in a NxN, non-blocking manner.

Multi-tenant data center operators, and tenants in these facilities are a key target market. 

 “The FiberZone Networks AFM system uniquely addresses an emerging issue in data center infrastructure management and is a perfect complement to our own growing portfolio of solutions for data centers,” said Gordon Wiegand, 3M Communication Markets Division business development manager.

Gady Rosenfeld, vice president of Business Development and Marketing at FiberZone Networks. “3M’s scale and global reach will allow us to offer our AFM system to more customers and in new markets around the world.”
Push On

Separately 3M launched its its ‘plug and play’ Multi-Fibre Push-On (MPO) solution for fibre cabling connections.
Features of the 3M solution include the 'highest fibre cable density available on the market' – up to 96 connections on a single 1U rack unit – and a broad range of options, including OM3, OM4 and OS2 fibre standards.

Up to 12 fibre cable terminations can be supported in any one 3M MPO connector accommodating MPO-to-LC and MPO-to-MPO connections, .

Rosemary McGlashon, European Product Manager at 3M said, “We’ve invested time and resources into developing one of the most comprehensive MPO ranges available, with an emphasis on ease of installation, flexibility and unrivalled fibre cable density.  We believe that the system is also attractively priced compared to the nearest competition.”