Senko Newsroom

From always-on movies to data storage in the cloud to corporate and consumer digital archives, managing the data infrastructure has become a critical discipline for today’s enterprises. A single outage can affect thousands of customers and significantly impact the revenue of network and cloud providers.

The AFM system from FiberZone Networks enables remote provisioning of a data center’s fiber network, avoiding the operational costs and downtime associated with manual operation of traditional patch panels. This allows data center operators to dynamically manage fiber connectivity based on load requirements and customer needs, enabling on-demand services and new service offerings – such as managed cage and expedited cross-connect services – along with the reliability, flexibility, fault tolerance and management for the fiber infrastructure that manual patching cannot offer.

Key to the AFM product reliability and stable performance is the patented Latched Optical Coupling (LOC™) technology. This technology 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, can optimize their operational expenditures and revenue using AFM from FiberZone Networks to minimize downtime and increase service offerings.

3M has entered into a strategic business alliance with FiberZone Networks to offer the Automated Fiber Management with Latched Optical Coupling to the data center market as an authorized sales representative.

“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. “3M’s global reach, combined with FiberZone Networks’ industry-first fiber management system will help data center operators worldwide facilitate the transition to cloud data management while delivering operational efficiencies.”

“3M is one of the world’s most reputable companies and we’re proud to sell our solution alongside their market-leading products to the data center market,” said 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.”

3M already offers a broad and rapidly growing portfolio of solutions for data centers, including high-speed copper, fiber and active optical cabling solutions which utilize leading-edge technologies to provide flexibility, high-performance and value. Additional products from 3M for data centers include next generation, sustainable fire protection fluid; static control products and services; medium voltage cable assemblies used for data center construction and biometric security systems.

Founded in 2003, FiberZone Networks is a privately-held corporation with offices in the United States and Israel. The company is backed by international, communications-industry focused venture capital firms Novak Biddle Venture Partners and the S-Group.

FiberZone Networks’ AFM system has been deployed by leading data center and network operators in the United States, Asia and Europe. The AFM system won the prestigious Red Herring Top-100 North American award for innovative ideas and most recently was selected as one of the Top-100 Red Herring Global award winners.

January 17, 2011

Fiber Connections Inc., a supplier of custom active and passive optical connectivity and conversion solutions, announced today that it received a US patent on its GatorLink media converters. Patent #7,837,397, officially received on Nov. 23, 2010, highlights the company’s commitment to connectivity innovation. GatorLink products provide a robust, modular option for taking optical fiber and power to a remote location for media conversion and distribution to up to 6 devices such as security cameras, wireless access points, VoIP phones and much more.

Larry Fingler, Fiber Connections President says, “Our GatorLink was based on our already successful Gator Patch products, which we patented in 1999. The rise in demand for small, flexible PoE extensions, drove us to develop the GatorLink and our entire Chameleon network solution.”

“The award of the GatorLink patent brings us to a total of 4 unique, patented products.” said Geoff Laycock, VP Sales and Marketing. “This is one more thing that confirms our commitment to technical excellence and innovation in fiber optic products.”

The GatorLink product is currently sold as either a stand-alone unit as part of a Chameleon network installation and offers a wide range of features including custom connector options and network monitoring via the Fiber Connections “Net-Map” system.

The patent statement indicates that the GatorLink is a “Digital Signal Media Conversion Panel” and the summary reads, in part:

‘A multi-port patch panel that comprises a housing, a multi-fiber optical cable input arrangement at least partially received in the housing, a plurality of media converters within the housing with each media converter having a fiber optic transceiver attached to fibers of the multi-fiber optic cable input arrangement and a plurality of connectors secured in the housing for connecting equipment to the patch panel using a conventional electrical signal connection. Each of the connectors is in communication with one of the media converters. The patch panel includes a separate power supply, connectable with the housing for providing power to the media converters.’

Fiber Connections Inc. designs and manufactures a wide range of optical connectivity, distribution and media conversion hardware. Corporate headquarters is in Schomberg, Ontario Canada with a manufacturing facility in Prince Edward Island, Canada, a US office in Manassas, VA and an EMEA office in the Netherlands.

Media Contact:

Lee Kellett

Fiber Connections

508-728-5599

800-353-1127

Lee.kellett@fiberc.com