Data centers shifting toward the suburbs

The move to the suburbs does come with its own barriers, says InformationWeek. Connecting satellite data centers to central servers requires companies to transfer data over public optical networks. Some companies choose to streamline the transfer of data between satellite and central data center by networking through an additional terminal facility. Other firms move their most important hardware infrastructure to their suburban centers to localize their key servers and simplify maintenance. Thankfully, the prevalence of fiber-to-Ethernet connections makes this process easy. Data centers that utilize loud cooling fans may also need to develop noise pollution solutions to comply with local city codes.

Coast to coast projects
Portland's suburbs have long been home to data centers for industry titans like Google and Amazon, according to The Oregonian. Mid-sized data centers have also begun to populate the area. Just last year saw Colorado company ViaWest expand their data center operations to Hillsboro with a 20,000-square-foot data center. The small-town vibe of the Portland neighborhood was a great fit for ViaWest's modest data center needs.

The suburbs of Chicago have proven to be 2014's hotspot for new data center projects. Data Center Knowledge reports that ByteGrid has recently invested in an existing 70,000-square-foot center in Aurora. Another firm, Latisys, announced the construction of a 24,600-square-foot facility in Oak Brook. This satellite will support the company's main 148,000-square-foot facility in central Chicago, says the company website.

Perle has an extensive range of Managed and Unmanaged Fiber Media Converters to extended copper-based Ethernet equipment over a fiber optic link, multimode to multimode and multimode to single mode fiber up to 160 km.