Q&A with Data Center POST’s Contributing Editor, Kathy Xu
Recently, Brother Mobile Solutions’ (BMS) Director of Industrial Labeling and RCDD, Craig Robinson, who manages growth strategy, channel and business development initiatives, spoke with Data Center POST about their participation at Data Center World, taking place April 3-6 in Los Angeles at the LA Convention Center. At the event, BMS plans to showcase its LabelLink™ solution, engineered with Fluke Networks. Mr. Craig also discussed what has made the company successful, how the data center industry is evolving, as well as new developments, including comprehensive technologies created to address infrastructure challenges.
Data Center POST, Kathy Xu (DCP-KX) Question: Tell our readers about your company. What do you do and what problems are you attempting to solve?
Brother Mobile Solutions, Craig Robinson (Brother Mobile Solutions – CR) Answer: Brother Mobile Solutions is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Brother International Corporation and premier provider of mobile printing and industrial labeling solutions for a host of industries.
Key industry sectors include electrical contractors who design and install the communications infrastructures required to support large enterprise networks and data centers. Brother’s award-winning industrial labeling tools are used by field technicians to accurately label the wires, cables and components supporting these mission-critical data transmission and communication systems. With a portfolio of best-in-class, smart industrial labeling solutions, our goal is to streamline and simplify the physical layer installation of large and complex data networks.
DCP-KX Q: To what do you attribute your company’s success?
Brother Mobile Solutions-CR A: In late 2016, Brother Mobile Solutions announced it had charted record revenue growth for the year. This can be attributed in large part to surging market demand for advanced mobile printing and labeling solutions, spurred by the rapid expansion of mobile technology across diverse business sectors, including data center construction, IT infrastructure, retail, transportation, healthcare and public safety. According to research conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC), this expansion is expected to continue, and IDC predicts the U.S. mobile worker population will grow to an estimated 105.4 million by 2020.
Brother Mobile Solutions’ agile, vertically integrated business model is also a significant success driver. We design, engineer and manufacture our own products, which speeds development time, holds down materials and logistics costs, and allows us to offer world-class products at attractive prices backed by a best-in-class warranty and services program.
DCP-KX Q: How do you see the data center industry evolving? What do you think is the greatest challenge in the data center industry?
Brother Mobile Solutions-CR A: Over the past few years, Big Data, mobile wireless Internet use, and cloud computing have been burgeoning. According to the Cisco Global Cloud Index, overall global data center IP traffic will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25 percent through 2019. The Cisco GCI report covers network data centers worldwide that are operated by service providers as well as private enterprises. As more banks, financial institutions, commercial enterprises, healthcare facilities and government agencies are building their own supersize data centers ‒ and some enterprises continue to expand capacity within co-location data centers ‒ new business opportunities abound for infrastructure contractors. But these new opportunities also bring new challenges.
Cabling installation complexity, ID labeling and testing are challenges facing system designers, contractors and installers. Challenges are exacerbated when installing and operating large, complex, standards-based infrastructures required to support expansive networks and data centers.
Clear and accurate labeling of wires, cables and components is essential to efficient network infrastructure. Audit compliance and certifications demand precise system documentation. Increasingly, project specifications incorporate ANSU/TIA labeling, testing and certification. Infrastructure data must be rigorously documented and readily accessed by technicians and work crews.
DCP-KX Q: What new developments are on the horizon for your company?
Brother Mobile Solutions-CR A: Brother Mobile Solutions has developed comprehensive technologies engineered to address infrastructure challenges by minimizing cabling complexity, marking and testing. By streamlining system documentation, we work to help operators improve uptime and data security.
Recent developments have focused on bridging the gap between a project manager’s office where data for testing cables and printing labels originates, and a jobsite where actual testing and labeling tools are used. Recognizing the potential of combining wireless mobile printing and cloud-based technologies, we partnered to develop industry’s first cloud-based solution for integrating and storing cable labeling and testing data in a single, accessible data source.
DCP-KX Q: What would you like to accomplish at Data Center World?
Brother Mobile Solutions-CR A: Brother Mobile Solutions will showcase the LabelLink™ solution engineered in conjunction with Fluke Networks. This cloud-based service provides a centralized project repository where data for each installation is available to testing supervisors, technicians and other authorized users. LabelLink™ hardware components include Fluke’s market leading testing and certification tool in tandem with Brother’s advanced industrial-grade label printer to quickly generate cable and component ID labels. The third hardware component of the mobile wireless solution is one’s own smartphone, which most onsite project managers and team leaders routinely carry, combined with a free app to facilitate speedy download of job-specific cable identifier codes for sending label data to the mobile thermal printer.
LabelLink™ Solution gives data center operators the tools to overcome challenges of accurately marking and documenting cables and components.
DCP-KX: Thank you for your time and best of luck at Data Center World. Readers, if you are interested to learn more about Brother Mobile Solutions, please visit http://www.brother-usa.com/mobile/.
If you would like to attend Data Center World, please register at here. Follow all things Data Center World on Twitter with the hashtag #DataCenterWorld.
