Market-Leading Solution Designed to Reduce Operating Costs, Eliminate Downtime and Enable New Cloud Services
AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, 3M announced a strategic business alliance with FiberZone Networks, the leading provider of Automated Fiber Management (AFM) solutions, to bring its AFM system to the data center market.
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.
More information on Automated Fiber Management from 3M and FiberZone Networks is available at http://www.3M.com/AFM.
About 3M Communication Markets Division
For more than 50 years, products from 3M have formed the backbone of the telecommunications industry. Global customers have come to rely on 3M quality to connect and protect their infrastructure. As a network of networks, the 3M Communication Markets Division connects smart grids to smart phones, wind farms to server farms, greenfield to brownfield and wireline to wireless. Today, 3M is taking fiber further, moving mobility forward and maximizing networks – from xDSL and FTTN to the enterprise. Find out more.
A recognized leader in research and development, 3M produces thousands of innovative products for dozens of diverse markets. More information about 3M Company is available online.
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3MJane Kovacs, 3M512-984-6747jkovacs@mmm.comon Twitter @3MJaneorFiberZoneGady Rosenfeld877-236-0313, ext. 261gadyr@fiberzone-networks.comorFor all other 3M inquiries:http://www.3m.com/MediaContact
