“First of all, the basis of a network needs to have the right dimensions and level of reliability in order to cope with the wide-ranging applications of the future,” says Andreas Rüsseler. He adds that, given the high expectations for the age of the digitized economy, it is easy to forget that network installations are just as necessary as apps, computers, data centers, and the billions of things that are connected to the internet – the Internet of Things. Rüsseler even believes that the trend toward digitalization is even making the economy fully dependent on tight-knit, fast, interruption-free network infrastructures. A market study conducted by IT consultancy company Capgemini confirms this trend, revealing that digitalization is the topic currently at the top of the agenda of more than half of all CIOs. And it looks set to stay there for the foreseeable future.
R&M is now increasingly recommending that planners, investors, and network operators include the physical level of a network, i.e., the cabling, in the digitalization process from the outset. By this, R&M proposes that a full virtual profile should be stored for each network. The type, function, and status of every connector and cable should be recorded digitally and managed centrally, with control being fully automated via a web application. According to R&M, if this is not the case, it will become impossible to manage the increasing volume of network information and increasing number of network connections brought about by the ubiquitous Internet of Things, cloud services, and the growing demand for bandwidth.
R&M’s main market – the structured cabling market – alone is growing by about three percent every year. Hardware manufacturer Cisco estimates that 50 billion sensors will be connected to the Internet of Things by 2020, while chip manufacturer Intel predicts that, by 2030, some 200 billion items, appliances, devices, machines, and buildings will have an internet connection. “Someone is going to have to manage all of these connections and devices,” says Andreas Rüsseler. On this basis, R&M is expecting to see growing demand for integrated network solutions based on comprehensive planning that include the technology and software for digitalization, monitoring, and management, as well as cabling systems.
