< PreviousThe energy impact of data centres is undeniable but so is the need for these facilities to handle the world’s ever- increasing data demands. What can’t be ignored is the energy efficiency trends that have developed in parallel. The IEA reports that although workloads and internet traffic have nearly tripled, data centre energy consumption has flatlined for the past three years. Here’s what can be done to improve data centre energy efficiency and sustainability: High-efficiency equipment The use of server virtualisation and ARM-based processors can help reduce the energy consumption of IT devices. This new technology is designed to perform fewer types of computer instructions, allowing them to operate at a higher speed and resulting in better performance at a fraction of the power. The servers of today are more powerful and efficient than ever before and the technology continues to improve. Renewable energy One of the best ways to match the rise in ICT workload energy is to ensure a corresponding increase in the usage of renewable energy sources. By moving part of their high-intensity computing hardware to alternative locations using renewable energy, companies can benefit from a more sustainable energy source while taking energy off the national grid. A location like Iceland boasts reliable, low-cost renewable energy. Big data centre operators such as Google are establishing solar generation plants to offset their data centre usage on the grid, using small panels coupled with battery storage to reduce non-critical functions such as engine heaters, office air-conditioning, fuel polishing and lighting. Intelligent power distribution management The key to better energy efficiency in data centres is managing power load and distribution. For example, reducing the number of servers needed during low traffic hours. Rather than leaving all servers idle, some servers can be turned off when not needed while others run at full throttle. Matching the server capacity to real-time demands is made possible through smart monitoring and management tools. It’s also important to remove “zombie servers” which are servers that have become redundant and are no longer in use, yet are still powered on and consuming energy. Research shows that 25% of physical servers are zombies, along with 30% of virtual servers. In general, these servers haven’t been shut down because operators don’t know what they contain or what they are used for. To deal with this problem proactively, every server and function must be documented and monitored appropriately using asset management software. Optimised cooling In conventional data centres, standard air conditioning uses a significant proportion of the centre’s energy bill. All IT equipment must remain at safe temperatures which is why proper ventilation and cooling is so important. Measures managers can take to optimise cooling include the following: • Proper insulation can help maintain temperatures within the room. • Strategic equipment layout and streamlined airflow can also improve cooling efficiencies. • A popular solution is to locate data centres in cool climates and use the outside air to cool the inside. This is known as “free cooling”. • Piped water is a good conductor of heat. Warm water can be used as a less energy-intensive way to cool data centres. • Cleaning up workloads and eliminating unnecessary equipment. • Replace older cooling systems with new technology to improve efficiencies. Machine learning and automation in data centres can also be used to optimise cooling system setpoints for variable outside conditions which provides a number of marginal energy gains. data centre energy drain www.networkseuropemagazine.com 70Heat transfer technology Using the heat coming off the servers is like taking advantage of a free resource. For example, an IBM data centre in Switzerland warms a nearby swimming pool with its waste heat. However, because heat doesn’t travel well, the use of waste heat is generally limited to data centres that can supply nearby customers or cities that already use piped hot water to heat homes. Energy offsets The information age is making buildings smarter and more energy efficient. With fairly simple automations such as occupancy sensors that turn off lights and HVAC when no one is in a room, along with informed decision-making as a result of access to real-time utility consumption data, building managers can use smart technology and building management systems to reduce their carbon footprints. This infrastructure is facilitated by data centres, so one could argue that some of the energy being used by data centres is offset by the lower consumption of the smart buildings they service. Policy making and planning Decision-makers need to be able to confidently and accurately evaluate future efficiency and mitigation options. Policymakers and energy planners need to be able to: • Monitor future data centre energy use trends • Understand key energy use drivers • Assess the effectiveness of various policy interventions In order to do this, data analysts need access to reliable data sources on the energy consumption characteristics of IT devices and cooling/power systems. Smart metering technology is just the start—along with the data from smart meters, energy managers need a platform with data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities in order to make the most of the data they are presented with. Data centre operations require a safe, efficient and dependable power supply. There’s no doubt that sustainability is going to be the overriding trend that will remain front and centre within the data centre industry for the foreseeable future. Fortunately, the very same smart technology that is necessitating the growth of data centres is also helping to make them more energy efficient and future-fit. n data centre energy drain www.networkseuropemagazine.com 71What business can now exist if they are offline? It might seem like an obvious point but the entire world now runs on connectivity. In the last few decades, the Internet has become the very lifeblood of the global economy. digital connections www.networkseuropemagazine.com 72The soft underbelly Ashley Stephenson CTO Corero Network Security Connection Digital connection has become even more central to our daily lives over the course of the global pandemic. As offices have emptied, business has moved deeper online. They’ve moved further into the cloud and towards remote working while everyday users have leaned on connected services to pass the time, entertain themselves and stay connected to their dispersed social circles. McKinsey has even noted that technology adoption rates have sped up, advancing by years over the course of the pandemic. Hackers have sensed an opportunity. Going offline can have crippling effects on a business. In 2019, one report showed, the cost of downtime for the average organisation was between $301,000 and $400,000 per hour. It’s this threat of downtime (and associated lost revenue) that makes ransomware an enduring success for hackers. It’s simply cheaper to pay a few bitcoin than it is to lose a few hours of productivity. As a result, average ransomware payments have risen by 33% since the third quarter of 2019. In 2021, CNA Financial reportedly paid one of the largest ransoms ever, handing over $40 million to attackers. In fact, some have predicted that in 2021, there would be a ransomware attack every 11 seconds. Businesses are terrified of downtime and hackers are reaping profits from that fear. It’s through this lens that we can understand much about the commonly overlooked threat of DDoS attacks. DDoS and our reliance on internet availability digital connections www.networkseuropemagazine.com 73Targets DDoS attackers are increasingly choosing their targets based on that sensitivity to downtime. DDoS gangs are taking aim at Internet Service Providers (ISP), Telecom companies, online games, cloud hosts and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. These kinds of industries not only rely on connectivity but also provide connectivity to their customers. Their ability to offer connectivity is linked to their primary sources of revenue and their very reason for being. A DDoS that can strike at that soft underbelly, denying service to them and their customers, is devastating. Online gaming Online gaming has always been rife with DDoS threats. Many of the top online games, including Apex Legends, Rainbow Six and Call of Duty Online, have all suffered from sustained DDoS attacks. Most recently the developers of online shooter Escape from Tarkov, and Blizzard, the makers of World of Warcraft, have both suffered sustained attacks resulting in service outages. Late last year, DDoS attacks rendered Titanfall 2, another popular online game, unplayable for many users. The nature of online gaming makes latency a particularly pressing issue. Esports are becoming a billion dollar industry and games can be won and lost in a second, so slowing a rival's connection speed can be a winning, if illicit move. This is more common, and easier, than many might think. While mainstream game services do not reveal the IP address of individual players, many gamers use private servers which do. That can open up an opportunity for a malicious player to hobble a rival. Furthermore, many DDoS attackers take advantage of DDoS services that are designed to feed off this competitive rivalry and can be rented for only a few dollars. The problem has gotten so widespread that gaming companies have banned thousands of players for employing this illicit tactic and even attempted to sue DDoS services for allowing the behaviour. The scope of DDoS in gaming extends further than inter-player rivalry to the servers and game companies themselves. DDoS attacks can be devastating for a gaming site operator. Given the fact that reliable network uptime is a core part of online gaming, operators that suffer from DDoS attacks and the latency they can introduce will likely result in lost customers and revenue. Internet service providers, cloud hosts and telecoms In early May 2021, chaos spread across Belgium. Government bodies, healthcare organisations, academic institutions and even the Belgian parliament suffered severe disruptions. The source of this disarray was traced back to a DDoS attack on BelNet, the national ISP which upheld much of the country’s online administrative infrastructure. While the country’s emergency cyber-defence team were activated and service eventually returned to the myriad of organisations which had suffered at the hands of this single DDoS, this case shows just how disruptive a well aimed DDoS attack can be. Amazon Web Services, one of the world’s leading cloud hosts, was hit with a 2.3 terabit DDoS attack in 2020, the largest ever recorded. While the hosting giant managed to mitigate the attack, it's not hard to see why it was chosen as a target. In April 2021, AWS reported that their business accounted for 32% of the global cloud market in the first quarter of the year. Their clients include NASA, Netflix and much of the international defence and intelligence community. Much like the institutions that depended on Belnet, millions of people depend on AWS to uphold the cloud infrastructures that drive global business. Had those attackers been successful, the consequences could have been much worse and spread much further than they did. VoiP services Voice-over-internet-Protocol (VoiP) services are yet another core component of modern business. They provide internet-based voice call services to businesses as well as to institutions and emergency services. Attackers have not ignored that fact. The last quarter of 2021, saw a rash of DDoS attacks against VoIP operators. VoIP.ms, Voip Unlimited, Voipfone and US-based Bandwidth all suffered sustained DDoS attacks of between 100 and 450 gigabits per second. These attacks left many customers without the fundamental voice capability of their business. From that point of view, we can see the value of attacking a VoIP operator. They provide downstream communication services and an attack here can shut down voice services for potentially hundreds of thousands of clients. Exploiting sensitivity These examples all have something in common. They sell reliable connections to keep hundreds, digital connections www.networkseuropemagazine.com 74 Downtime can crush an online business. Ransomware gangs know that, DDoSers know that, businesses know that and organisations that provide connectivity to customers need to take it seriously. thousands or even millions of different customers online. If they get taken offline - then their customers would be paralysed. Downtime for the target means downtime for all of their customers - thus piling on the pressure to restore availability. It’s all about hitting with minimum effort and maximum impact. Hemmed in on one side by attackers and on the other with unhappy customers, victims like these are in a particularly sensitive area. Increasingly, it's at that moment when their attackers offer them a lifeline - a ransom. The attacks can also take the form of a combined assault of both DDoS and Ransomware. Often ransomware gangs will bolster their attacks with the added threat of a DDoS attack. The Avaddon Ransomware gang have been notable users of this tactic. Once they’ve attacked a victim with ransomware, they’ll follow up their attacks with a DDoS attack as a coup de grace to force them to the negotiating table. Ransom DDoS has returned with a vengeance in recent years. A cybercriminal will issue a warning, launch an attack against a target, cripple their operations, and then demand a payment - usually in bitcoin - to halt the attacks. These tactics are seeing increasing use against the aforementioned industries. In late 2020, a 400gigabit DDoS attack was launched at Norwegian telecom company and ISP, Telenor. The attackers demanded a 20 bitcoin ransom (roughly €200,000) to stop the attack. Fortunately, Telenor managed to mitigate the attack without paying the ransom In 2021, Ireland’s major ISPs were hit with a series of DDoS attacks and asked to pay bitcoin ransoms to stop them. The providers of VoIP services that were paralysed with DDoS attacks late last year were also extorted with “colossal ransom demands”, according to one victim. Meanwhile, ransom DDoS has been used against gaming services for years. These are just some of the few examples that have been publicly revealed, and there are certainly many more such cases that have not yet been reported. Defending from downtime Downtime can crush an online business. Ransomware gangs know that, DDoSers know that, businesses know that and organisations that provide connectivity to customers need to take it seriously. Given our ever increasing reliance on connectivity, pressure will likely mount to maintain that “essential” service. Service Licence Agreements (SLAs) will contain stricter guarantees, and for many critical services - such as telecoms - governments may legislate to reinforce those guarantees. One report by Omdia, entitled Connecting the Dots: Key Strategic Opportunities in a Post-Covid-19 World, predicts that “Governments will continue to reluctantly step in to further democratise spectrum and to guarantee access and minimum SLAs for citizens and businesses.” These challenges can be met with a judicious consideration of available DDoS protection approaches. Some strategies offer cloud-based mitigation. This solution diverts the flood of traffic caused by a DDoS attack into a cloud resource, thus taking pressure off of the victim network and allowing them to maintain uptime. These are good for dealing with less frequent, larger attacks that seek to overwhelm the victim’s internet bandwidth. On-premises mitigations offer a more bread-and-butter solution. These provide effective local protection for the kinds of DDoS attacks that an organisation is likely to experience from day to day and pose significant risks to individual parts of their network and customers. A best of both worlds always-on solution that accommodates both cloud and on-premises protection is perhaps the ideal option for organisations that need to ensure real-time availability, connectivity and uptime to their customers. n digital connections www.networkseuropemagazine.com 75However, developments in wireless technology have a marked effect on in-building networks, including hardware and cabling. What’s more, traditional LANs and Fibre To The Office (FTTO) networks are affected in different ways. Let’s first take a look at the differences between these networks. In a traditional LAN infrastructure, copper is used for horizontal cabling (up to 90m), connected to a floor distributor. From here, access switches are used to provide data connections to the end users. At least a minimum of security, power and air conditioning is required. In a fully fibre-based FTTO environment, there are no floor distributors. Fibre runs from a central distribution area up to each end user’s desk, where a compact switch is installed. This converts the fibre signal to an electrical signal and also delivers Power over Ethernet (PoE) to end devices. Layer 2 full managed FTTO switches, based on Gigabit Ethernet technology, are the key component in this type of network. Installation is easy, using typical ducts, communication pillars or floor boxes. Latest generations Now, let’s take a look at developments in wireless. WiFi 6 - the latest generation of WiFi technology – has been developed especially for crowded areas. It has been designed to work at 2.4 and 5GHz and, with the latest extension WiFi 6E, at 6GHz too. Bandwidth has increased using higher modulation rates (1024-QAM) – which in Jan Middeldorf Senior Product Manager Nexans In offices and workplaces, wireless LAN is no longer just ‘nice to have’. It has become an essential platform for offering all of the (cloud-based, real-time) services and features people have come to expect. Keeping up with in wireless wireless technology www.networkseuropemagazine.com 76turn requires better radio signal quality. This is generally achieved by decreasing radio cell reach by some 30%. That means you need more access points to cover the same area, compared to earlier WiFi versions. With the new generation of WiFi, it has become relatively easy to achieve bandwidth in excess of 1 Gigabit, resulting in the recommendation to use multi-gigabit uplinks. All of these technology advances require more power, so using PoE++ (IEEE 802.3bt) makes perfect sense. Looking at WIFI 7 - which we expect to see become available in about three years - we see a significant increase in modulation, which will quadruple to 4k QAM and a doubling of the number of spatial streams, from 8 to 16. Once again, this will increase power consumption, and require even greater cell density to maintain quality of service. What does all of this mean for wired network bandwidth? Obviously, the step up from 1 Gigabit to 10 Gigabit is enormous. The IEEE 802.3ab standard from 1998 specified a frequency of 100MHz and CAT5e cabling for a distance of 100m to deliver 1 Gigabit. CAT 5e also supported 2.5 Gigabit (IEEE 802.3bz which appeared in 2016). 5 Gigabit – included in the same two-part standard – operated at 200MHz over 100m and required Cat 6. The 10 Gigabit standard (IEEE 802.2an, 2002) operated at 400MHz over 100m and required Cat 6A. Power of Ethernet The latest Power over Ethernet standard (IEEE 802.3 BT / PoE++ type 4) was ratified in 2018 and uses all four cable pairs to provide up to 71.3W to powered devices – the original PoE standard from 2003 provided less than 13W... This means 90W needs to be provided at the Port Side. PoE ++ is compatible with earlier standards and supports 10GBase-T. PoE++ can power the latest generations of Access Points, as well as applications such as digital signage and IP cameras. Currently available Access Points often feature multiple uplink ports and can require almost 40W. Because multigigabit and PoE ++ technology are not (yet) widely installed in the field, manufacturers are including additional ports to meet power and bandwidth requirements through aggregation. In the traditional LAN, you can enlarge the number of Access Points by adding cabling to the floor distributor which results in additional cable bundles in the ceiling. Also, new active ports providing multigigabit and PoE++ need to be added to the floor distributor. Finally, this could result in an update of the power and cooling concept. But what is the situation in FTTO networks? In an FTTH network, no floor distributors are available… And what is the easiest way to connect new Wireless Access Points with their higher data and power demands along with an increasing number of other devices, such as sensors and actuators for IoT and Smart Building applications? Digital ceiling A digital ceiling solution provides an answer and makes it possible to extend existing FTTO concepts. New technology can serve WiFi applications with the latest power and data requirements, based on new compact switches optimised for ceiling installation. The Digital Ceiling can connect and power hardware in the ceiling to applications throughout the office and offer seamless digital integration with existing FTTO networks. Redundancy is a hot topic for many customers currently using an FTTO topology. Ideally, you would be able to create a ring topology using ring protocols, or you can double the uplink using Link Aggregation, with LACP, for example. Power level redundancy could be realised with a centralised power concept. A large central supply for the building, or on each floor would allow users to connect multiple devices with redundant power. Next to WiFi Access Points, more and more devices need to be connected to the IP infrastructure, which is a challenge for existing network infrastructure. Extension of FTTO through the digital ceiling offers a fast and flexible provisioning of data and services exactly where they are needed and meets current and future network requirements for WiFi and Smart Building applications. n with developments technology wireless technology www.networkseuropemagazine.com 77Centiel strengthens sales engineering team Centiel UK has welcomed Tim Ng as Sales Engineer for hardware, to the company’s expanding team. Louis McGarry Sales and Marketing Director, Centiel UK, confirmed: “Tim has a huge amount of experience specifying, installing and commissioning a wide range of UPS systems. This knowledge will benefit both our existing and new clients, enabling Tim to provide trusted advice as an engineer in the optimal design and delivery of critical power applications for a variety of facilities. “Tim has specified and delivered critical power equipment for offshore installations for oil, gas and nuclear industries. He has also worked with National Defence contracts for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Defence Infrastructure Organisations (DIO) in locations around the world. These types of installations adhere to strict compliance, tight system tolerances and high levels of security. Tim’s familiarity with these projects will offer added value for those clients in the oil, gas and nuclear industries but also any organisation looking to protect critical loads with the highest levels of safety in mind.” Ng explained: “Working for other vendors you see lots of different kit as an engineer. However, sometimes you are too late into the project to influence the optimal design of a power protection solution. I’m now excited to join Centiel because the products are on another level in terms of the quality of design and components. Moving over to the sales side, means I can now ensure that clients have the highest quality UPS solution to match their needs, supported by technical advice from an engineer.” Ng joins Centiel from Dale Power Solutions where he spent several years in the servicing department completing turnkey projects. He also worked at Paul Anton Ltd as a UPS Field Service Engineer. n Movers and Shakers Senior changes at Panduit: Board names Shannon McDaniel as CEO Panduit has announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Shannon McDaniel as its next Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President effective 1 January 2022. McDaniel, who currently serves as the company’s Chief Financial Officer, will succeed current CEO and President, Dennis Renaud who retired at the end of 2021. “As a results-focused leader, Shannon brings his collaborative mindset to the role, drawing from his commercial and financial background while leveraging the power of Panduit to move the company forward,” said Panduit Executive Chair, Andrew Caveney. “Shannon has also built the trust of our employees and the Board is confident that he will apply his deep industry knowledge and keen business acumen to lead Panduit.” Caveney added that McDaniel is taking over the role of CEO at an ideal time. “Our long-term investment horizon, outstanding employees and agile business processes have allowed us to build business momentum through the downturn,” he explained. “The digital economy, the drive for zero carbon emissions and electrification trends are having a profound impact on our markets. Panduit is well-positioned to apply our problem-solving mindset to solve technical challenges as new technologies transform our data centre, enterprise and industrial businesses.” “I am thrilled for the opportunity to serve as Panduit’s CEO and lead the company into its next phase of growth,” said McDaniel. “We have a great strategy, an incredibly talented and dedicated workforce and an innovative culture that is continually looking to create value for our customers. I am very excited about our future and the opportunities in front of us.” n Marc Naese promoted to Chief Commercial Officer Panduit Corp has announced the promotion of Marc Naese to Chief Commercial Officer. A long-time company executive, Naese most recently served as Senior Vice President of the company’s Network Infrastructure business unit. In this newly created position, he will report directly to Panduit President & CEO, Shannon McDaniel. “Now more than ever, organisations across industries and geographies are looking to us for strategies and solutions to support digital transformation, overcome disruption brought on by the pandemic, achieve sustainability commitments, and more. Marc has both the vision and expertise required to position our customers and our company for continued growth and success,” said McDaniel. Throughout his 16 years at Panduit, Naese has played a critical role in shaping the company’s technology strategy and has been a driving force behind the global alignment of its commercial strategy. In this new role, Naese will lead global go-to-market strategy including sales and product development. He also will focus on ensuring that Panduit continues to deliver a best-in-class experience for employees, partners, and customers. “I am excited by this opportunity and look forward to continued collaboration across the business to bring to market the solutions and products that enable our customers and partners to achieve their business goals,” said Naese. n www.networkseuropemagazine.com MOVERS AND SHAKERS 78 DataQube (Global) has expanded its commercial presence through the appointment of Franck Turquet as VP of Sales to meet growing demand primarily in EMEA and the Americas for localised HPC infrastructure. This is the company’s first major hire since securing €26 million from French investment management company RGREEN INVEST in December. With 15 years plus track record in international telecoms, IT cloud and systems integration industries in South America and EMEA, Turquet will be pivotal to the commercialisation of this breakthrough edge data centre system. He will strengthen DataQube’s position by setting up a network of strategic channel partners, systems integrators, resellers and distributors to fulfil customer requirements for high-power, low latency edge computing infrastructure. Before joining DataQube, Turquet was the Sales Director at Amphenol Antenna Solutions where he was instrumental to transforming the company into a multi-million Euro business by selling base station antennas and RF site materials to Mobile Networks Operators (MNO)s. He has also held senior commercial roles at multiple other Fortune 500 firms including Huawei Enterprise and Thales. Exponential growth in digitisation, accelerated by the pandemic, has revealed major shortcomings in existing edge computing frameworks, and facilities robust enough to handle large volumes of real time data are in short supply. DataQube overcomes this shortfall by eliminating the need for “rip and replace” strategies through its ability to take on multiple shape and configuration formats. “I am very proud to be joining such a talented team driving change in the edge computing space right now,” says Turquete. “DataQube is the only Edge Data Centre solution globally that can provide such levels of miniaturisation, flexibility and scalability, while guaranteeing the highest level of technical and economical performances. With some of the lowest PUE levels (1.05) combined with a compelling price point and short deployment times, it is little wonder that this exciting company is making waves in the data centre industry right now.” n DataQube (Global) strengthens its commercial presence through the appointment of experienced VP of Sales Telia Carrier rebrands as Arelion Telia Carrier has unveiled its new brand, Arelion, reinforcing its goal to provide premium global connectivity services to the world's largest operators, content providers and enterprises. Arelion is the world's best-connected network spanning Europe, North America and Asia, with more than 70,000km of optical fibre and 1,700MPLS endpoints, connecting customers in 125 countries. Enterprises from gaming to finance depend on the operator’s business-critical services, including Global Internet Transit, Wavelengths, Ethernet, Mobile Data, and Wholesale Voice Termination. Arelion stands for world-class customer care and premium global connectivity. Over the past 30 years as Telia Carrier, Arelion built the number 1 Internet backbone, AS1299, which today powers nearly 65% of all internet routes. Arelion leverages an award-winning legacy and relentless focus on customer excellence made possible by a unique culture from an experienced executive team, technical experts and global service managers that care about every customer service interaction. In 2021, Arelion commissioned a strategic transformation consultancy to survey top wholesale operators and enterprise customers about their key business drivers that impact connectivity partner selection. The results found that key decision-makers at large enterprises and service providers rated high quality, prestige and trustworthiness as the most important buying criteria. Wholesale and enterprise customers ranked the operator highest in these three categories, and way ahead of its competitors. After conducting rigorous internal and external research, the new brand was created. “We live in the age of connectivity where people and businesses interact in real-time, all the time – wherever they are. As we move forward as Arelion, one thing that won't change is the core of our business: the people, our customers and partners that bring us together," said Staffan Göjeryd, CEO of Arelion. "Arelion will continue to support the mission that has resulted in 30 plus years of success and will continue to execute on our mission to connect the world to a brighter future and deliver the highest quality of services to our customers. That's all possible thanks to our investors at Polhem Infra, who share the same focus and vision for us." As a new independent company backed by Polhem Infra, an investment company jointly owned by some of the largest Swedish Pension Funds, Arelion is poised to keep the world connected for a brighter and more sustainable future. Arelion will continue to expand its global network to provide the network connectivity that people and businesses rely on more than ever to keep societies moving forward. The goal for the future is to remain focused on growth through market enablement, cost and speed. Arelion will continue to capitalise on the shift to buying Wavelength and Ethernet services, enabling service providers and large enterprises to take full advantage of the company’s high- speed network infrastructure. Customers can rely on Arelion’s network diversity, resiliency, scalability and security with native DDoS protection and state-of-the-art routing security to connect everything that matters. n Emtelle appoints Sales Director for the UK & I Emtelle has announced the appointment of Mark Van De Velde as Sales Director to serve the UK & Ireland. In his role, he will be responsible for developing sales strategies, creating new business opportunities and providing greater support for the existing Emtelle team and clients in the UK and Ireland. Speaking of the appointment, David Parsons, Chief Commercial Officer, said, “The UK & Ireland telecoms and power markets have been key to Emtelle’s growth in recent years. We are delighted to welcome Mark to the organisation and I am confident that his enthusiasm, passion and leadership will help us achieve our significant growth plans in this region in the coming years.” With an impressive track record in sales, Van De Velde has previously held positions at TE Connectivity and Corning Optical Communications and accumulated over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. He brings a wealth of knowledge in various commercial roles within global fibre connectivity manufacturers. He has built relationships with commercial and technical teams, with operators across the UK and Ireland. Van De Velde said of the appointment, “I am very pleased to be joining Emtelle, a company that I have admired for many years for its willingness to work with customers to develop cutting edge solutions. I look forward to working closely with the sales team to drive further growth, whilst delivering high-quality, best-value solutions in these exceptionally exciting times for the industry.” n MOVERS AND SHAKERS www.networkseuropemagazine.comwww.networkseuropemagazine.com 79Next >