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For Immediate Release
Sumitomo’s FutureFLEX Air-blown Fiber Assists National Library of Medicine (National Institutes of Health) to Meet Green Federal Building, Fiscal Responsibility, and Network Growth Objectives National Library of Medicine Deploys FutureFLEX as a Sustainable and Cost Effective Infrastructure for its Data Center Expansion
Research Triangle Park, NC, March 10, 2009 — Sumitomo Electric Lightwave today announced the deployment of its FutureFLEX® Air-Blown Fiber® system ( www.futureflex.com ) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world’s largest medical library and the information and research arm of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in all areas of biomedicine and health care.A growing collection of over 16 million MEDLINE articles and millions of other resources accessed through the web at www.nlm.nih.gov by approximately 900 million searches per year by health professionals, scientists, librarians, and the public, has necessitated NLM to expand its 2 data centers and storage capacity. The NLM data centers also support the ongoing research and development of the National Center for Biomedical Communications and the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which utilize high-bandwidth video and virtual reality to projects including telemedicine, The Visible Human Project and other initiatives, resulting in a large digital image library. Other areas supported by the data centers are the Grant Programs division and the Toxicology and Environmental Health Program.The expansion of the data centers and support of the growing bandwidth needs of researchers requirea reliable, immediately scalable, non-obtrusive, and cost effective fiber optic backbone infrastructure. Unlike conventional fiber optic infrastructures where fiber optic cables are pulled to provide sufficient bandwidth and capacity for network moves, adds, and changes, FutureFLEX Air-blown Fiber allows NLM to blow any type and amount of fiber in and out of the IT network quickly and easily between and within buildings on an as needed basis. This eliminates the need and expense of dark fiber and allows NLM to respond to bandwidth requirements and any network changes in real-time. NLM can also turnaround network projects in 70 to 90 % less time and expense once the tube infrastructure is in place.
“I recommended blown fiber technology because it’s a good infrastructure investment and it allows us to respond faster to the needs of the health community, researchers, and publics that NLM serves,” says Vic Previll, Computer Science Corporation engineer. “It is also easy and fast to install, provides minimum or no network downtime, and eliminates disruption to the Library building, visitors, and researchers since network adds, moves and changes are completed behind the scenes, unlike conventional cabling systems that require re-entering ceilings and walls.”
The FutureFLEX Air-blown Fiber system is RoHS compliant and encompasses other green attributes. Unlike conventional fiber optic cable, fiber bundles can be blown out of the fiber pathway undamaged and may be immediately recycled and reused in the network, creating a continuously renewable and sustainable network infrastructure with no end to its life cycle. Network upgrades, expansions, and reconfigurations require no construction work, thereby eliminating waste and debris, as well as hazardous abandoned cable, unused dark fiber, and other environmentally compromising materials. Moreover, a blown fiber infrastructure takes up less building space and provides greater capacity, thereby allowing HVAC and other energy systems to operate with unobstructed air flow.
“With the Obama administration’s emphasis on green technology for federal buildings, the Air-blown Fiber system provides a means to continue further our commitment to environmental responsibility,” comments Wesley Russell, section head of engineering at NLM. “We can also budget project to project with Air-Blown Fiber and save significant costs with network changes, thereby allowing us to be fiscally responsible, as well.”
The targeted completion date for the data centers’ expansion and upgrade, as well as the new Air-blown Fiber backbone infrastructure, is June - July 2009.
About the United States National Library of Medicine:
The National Library of Medicine (NLM), on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, is the world's largest medical library. The Library collects materials in all areas of biomedicine and health care, as well as works on biomedical aspects of technology, the humanities, and the physical, life, and social sciences. The collections stand at more than 9 million items--books, journals, technical reports, manuscripts, microfilms, photographs and images. NLM is a national resource for all U.S. health science libraries through a National Network of Libraries of Medicine®. For more information about NLM, please visit: www.nlm.nih.gov .
About Sumitomo Electric Lightwave and FutureFLEX® Air-Blown Fiber® System:Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, located in Research Triangle Park, NC, is a leader in the development and manufacturing of optical fiber cable, interconnect assemblies, fusion splicers, and FTTx solutions. Sumitomo was the first to introduce Air-blown Fiber technology to North America. Representative FutureFLEX adopters include: the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security, DISA, DOD – all branches of military, and many other US government agencies and projects. Commercial users of FutureFLEX include ESPN, CNN, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins University, Arizona Cardinals’ University of Phoenix Stadium, and others. For additional information, please visit: www.futureflex.com and www.sumitomoelectric.com .
About Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC): CSC is a leading global consulting, systems integration and outsourcing company, CSC's mission is to provide customers in industry and government with solutions crafted to meet their strategic goals and enable them to profit from the advanced use of technology. CSC offers IT consulting, systems integration, and outsourcing with commercial and government client in 15 countries. For more information, visit: www.csc.com .
Technical Contact: Editorial Contact: Kurt Templeman Alexandra Manning Product Manager, Enterprise Networks Marketing Communications Manager Sumitomo Electric Lightwave Sumitomo Electric Lightwave Phone: 919-541-8100 Phone: 919-541-8383 Email: ktempleman@sumitomoelectric.com Email: amanning@sumitomoelectric.com 275 Sumitomo’s FutureFLEX Air-blown Fiber Assists National Library of Medicine (National Institutes of Health) (3/10/09)
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