The cloud, IoT and hyper-converged infrastructure need a robust network to relay the information to and from the datacentre to which they are connected. Old legacy networks can severely hamper this and lead to downtime and sub-standard connections.
With this in mind, Netshield South Africa says it is offering businesses a media converter range as an alternative to ripping and replacing ageing and unstable networks at huge expense.
Media converters are small and inexpensive devices that when installed in the network, upgrade the existing (often copper) network ports to SFP (small form-factor pluggable) ports for fibre connectivity.
These fibre options increase the available bandwidth and distance that higher speed connections can reach. The Netshield range is made up of a series of small form factor devices, with two media-dependant interfaces and include both Multi-Port and Power over Ethernet converters.
Inus Dreckmeyr, CEO at Netshield South Africa, says: “For IoT installations and cloud applications to perform at their best, a stable, quality network is required. While many businesses have already transformed parts of their networks to fibre, there are some areas, such as the factory floor, old office buildings, warehouses or even gatehouses, that still play host to old copper infrastructure.”
He says replacing these networks isn’t cheap, but without them, IoT sensors and cloud apps won’t function properly. “This leads to frustration and the perception that the application itself is sub-standard, when the network is really the problem.”
When installed, he says a media converter will transparently change the signal of the network from copper to fibre without having to lay additional cabling or make any other changes to the network, which is useful in creating the last optical mile.
Working at the physical layer of the network, the process is seamless, and requires very little intervention and no specialised skills to roll them out, he adds.
In IoT installations that need IP network connectivity, the converters link copper to fibre that then link these devices, which now behave as if they are on a fibre network, to a control room or data centre.
The applications are vast and include CCTV cameras, IoT sensors in industrial or mining environments, VoIP phones and even wireless access points, he concludes.
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