Fiber or Copper?

Question: Are fiber optics the standard media in data centers or does copper still have a large market share in this type of application? How important is the ratio: price versus future proofing, bandwidth, and reliability? In the latter topic (reliability), are crosstalk and other copper-related issues a big problem in data centers?

Answer: Both copper and optical share data center market share. I would guess that copper is still more dominant (maybe 67 percent). The big reason why someone would use optical is for bandwidth and distance but it comes at a high cost. The problems stated about copper (crosstalk etc.) aren't really issues because of good shielding and insulation.

Jon Oltsik, senior analyst, information security,Enterprise Strategy Group