The rise of hyperscale data centers has upended computing and networking equipment business models over the past several years. The pluggable optics industry is no exception and has been impacted significantly. In Episode 25, Ron Horan, Cisco Senior Director of Product Management returns and we start a new conversation based on his experience in this space. We begin by defining the word hyperscale and implications on fiber cable infrastructure. – Pat Chou, Cisco Optics Product Manager Ron attended The University of Texas at San Antonio for both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. His Master’s thesis topic entitled “Synthetic Vision Landing Aids System” was patented as the first GPS-based aircraft landing aid. From 1994 to 1999, while at Compaq, he earned 15 patent awards. In 2001, he joined Broadcom Corporation where he managed Field Applications Engineering for the Compute Segment team, ran Program Management in the Networking BU, and was a Sr. Director of Sales and Strategic Account Manager covering the Hewlett Packard worldwide account. In 2011 Ron moved to Luxtera where he worked as Vice President of Sales before moving into the role as Vice President of Marketing. Luxtera was eventually acquired by Cisco in 2019 where Ron now runs Product Management for the Cisco Client Optics Group. Related links Cisco Optics-to-Device Compatibility Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/ Cisco Optics-to-Optics Interoperability Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/iop Cisco Optics Product Information: https://copi.cisco.com/ Additional resources Cisco Optics Podcast: https://blogs.cisco.com/tag/ciscoopticspodcast Cisco Optics blogs: https://blogs.cisco.com/tag/ciscoopticsblog (subscribe at https://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=CiscoOpticsBlog ) Cisco Optics YouTube playlist: http://cs.co/9008BlQen Cisco Optics landing page: cisco.com/go/optics Timestamps 2:45 What is hyperscale 5:40 Cloud vs. hyperscale vs. webscale 7:39 What's important (power, cooling, fiber) 9:42 MMF vs SMF 13:54 All SMF cable infrastructure Music credits Sunny Morning by FSM Team | https://www.free-stock-music.com/artist.fsm-team.html Upbeat by Mixaund | https://mixaund.bandcamp.com