We've become increasingly aware that many of our customers, new and old, aren't familiar with the varying types of work we do and how our employee owned culture sets us apart from others.

Our bad.

So, we went back to the drawing board, and reconsidered our message. A comprehensive rebrand, led by professional consultants, would allow us to propel ourselves into a new era for DVL. We have grown in our abilities and our national footprint. By rebranding, we aren't changing who we are or what we do, but rather how we talk about ourselves.

With that being said, please allow us to reintroduce ourselves...

DVL is your product sales and solution expert for your critical environment in the Greater Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Denver, Albuquerque, and Salt Lake City markets. We work beyond just selling great products—we evaluate your need, create the solution, apply the right product, and service it for the entire life cycle. Learn more.

In case you haven't heard, DVL is putting on a great all-day event on Wednesday, Oct. 16th. Stay all day or for whatever your schedule allows. Our customers will be running the show! They’ll share their challenges, how they solved them, and how DVL goes beyond the product.

Product Exhibits, Educational Seminars, Giveaways, Food, Entertainment, and Oktoberfest-style happy hour!  Register or find out more about this FREE event.

Every so often we experience a large change in our infrastructure.  Whether it’s the construction of our interstate system, building nuclear reactors, or opening a new hospital, these large projects ultimately make life better.  In 2020, we expect the number of connected devices to increase by 776 million in the U.S. With more connected devices than ever before, it’s even more apparent how critical it will be to have high speed internet with low latency times and overall less congestion.  Some of these new connected devices will be able to connect to a new 5G network, but what does that mean?

“5G” is the Fifth Generation of Wireless Networks. It uses the same wavelength technology originally used for satellites and radar systems. Due to 5G’s wavelength, which has difficulties traveling through walls, and other obstacles. “Small Cell” towers are required to be placed every 250 meters (820 ft), consequently, due to the nature of the “Small Cell” towers placement, local government approval is required in order for an area to support 5G. 

Verizon estimates that half of the U.S. will have access to 5G by 2020, arriving first in larger cities.  Verizon is currently the only internet service provider that has rolled out 5G in select U.S. Cities, thus far.  The estimated total cost to build the 5G infrastructure is $2.7 trillion. Verizon’s CEO, Hans Vestberg, said, “5G has the potential to be one of the most transformative technologies we’ve seen in a long time.” 

The availability of 5G is currently limited to a handful of cities in the U.S. The list consists of Denver, CO, Providence, RI, St. Paul, MN, Atlanta, GA, Detroit, MI, Indianapolis, IN, and Washington D.C.  Additionally, Verizon plans on expanding 5G coverage to at least 30 U.S. cities by the end of 2019. These other cities would include Salt Lake City, UT, Columbus, OH, Boston, MA, Houston, TX, Memphis, TN, and San Diego, CA.  However, 5G will not be available in suburbs or rural areas for years to come.

You may be asking yourself, “well, this seems like a lot of work, it costs a lot of money, and it seems a little inconvenient due to the placement of the Small Cell towers, as well as the requirement for government approval, is it really worth it?" The answer to that question is a resounding “yes.” 

Let’s move onto the technical specifications of 5G’s speed and latency capabilities.  5G has a maximum speed of 10gbps (gigabytes per second), whereas 4G had a maximum speed of only 100mbps (megabytes per second).  To put that into perspective, 5G is capable of being 100x faster than 4G. 

Moving onto latency times, the maximum amount of time you would have to wait for a page to load, 5G has a maximum latency time of 4 milliseconds, whereas 4G has a maximum latency time of 20 milliseconds.  The difference in those times is quick versus instantaneous.  According to the Consumer Technology Association, the time it would take you to download a two-hour movie using each current generation of networks goes as follows.  3G would take 26 hours, 4G would take 6 minutes, and 5G would take 3.6 seconds.  5G is even faster than any cable or fiber-optic connection that you would use in your home or business.  5G is 4x faster than the fastest cable and most fiber-optic internet connections that are currently available.

Since it is new, there are a couple of common misconceptions about 5G, some of which are easily clarified, others are a bit more deceitful.  For one, earlier this year AT&T began replacing the 4G symbol in the top corner of some of their subscribers phones with a “5GE” symbol, in an attempt to trick you into thinking you were somehow upgraded to 5G. Your phone most likely isn’t capable of supporting 5G, and it may not even be available in your area yet. “5GE” is not 5G, the “E” in “5GE” stands for Evolution, but an evolution of what exactly?  AT&T’s existing 4G network that they have attempted to make faster. 

The other common misconception about 5G is Wi-Fi related.  There are two different wavelengths that your dual-band router at your home or business supports.  2.4GHZ and 5GHZ.  When 5GHZ was introduced a few years ago, before talks of 5G internet were brewing, people began calling 5GHZ Wi-Fi “5G” for short.  This meant nothing then, but now, with talks of actual 5G internet speeds, it can misleading.

5G Hotspots, which are available now, have the potential to replace traditional cable and fiber-optic internet options in homes and small businesses.  As discussed, 5G is 4x faster than the fastest cable and most fiber-optic network options, there is no installation required, there are no messy cables, there isn’t any professional set up required, and you can bring it anywhere you would like, as long as wherever you’re going has a 5G connection.  5G hotspots will compete directly with traditional home and small business broadband network options.

With each coming day, 5G technology expands to somewhere new and becomes more reliable and usable than the next.  It’s not every day that we experience an increase in our infrastructure of this magnitude.  We can surely expect there to be an impact on not only our internet speeds and our connected device’s capabilities, but our economy, and the ways that businesses from all different industries operate every day.

After finishing up another long day at work, you come home completely exhausted and immediately collapse onto your bed, like an anvil. You're out like a light. A few hours go by and then an alarm blares into your ear. What now?? You grab your phone, and squint your eyes to see what it is. Your read, “High temperature detected in your Data Center.” It's 3 a.m. It’s the middle of the night, what are you supposed to do?  What repercussions is this going to have for your business? How much downtime are we talking here?

This scenario is especially likely in summer months, as your A/C system is working as hard as it can, and the possibility for failure is at its highest. Even with routine maintenance, major failures can still occur. It’s essential to keep your company's equipment at its ideal temperatures in order for it to operate at its peak efficiency. So, what are you supposed to do when your A/C system fails? The downtime can be devastating to your business, whether it’s from a routine or emergency maintenance shutdown.

Commercial portable A/C rentals are the most effective and convenient temporary cooling system option for emergency downtime. DVL can help you and your company with immediate delivery, and you can rent by the week or the month. If this is a solution you need, or you don’t want to be stuck without a solution if you’re ever in this jam, read about our variety of different sizes for a number of supplemental cooling applications.

Network Closets have become key assets in any organization's ability to connect to the internet and the cloud. As more and more applications are deployed at the edge of network, and the rapid increase of IoT devices expand, these spaces are truly vital to the functionality and efficiency of an organization. Many of these spaces were originally janitor closets or small electrical rooms that included a punch down block for a phone system, that have since been converted into mission critical pieces of your network.

Today, these IDF (intermediate distribution frame) IT network closets include dedicated cooling, backup power, power distribution, fire protection, racks, routers, patch panels, network switches, servers and storage, fiber and Ethernet, security, PA systems, VoIP phones, cameras, remote monitoring, cell phone boosters, and Wireless Access Points (WAP). Also, since most equipment will need to be replaced every seven years, developing a plan that will keep all your equipment maintained and upgraded on a continual basis is paramount.

Since network closets are the primary place where Edge of Network applications take place and your company connects to the internet, fortifying your network closet to support these Edge of Network applications and Internet of Things (IoT) devices is a challenge that IT managers and Facility Managers confront on a daily basis. At DVL, our Data Center Engineers can assist your company to ensure Network Closets, IT Closets, and IDF rooms are built and maintained to support your technology. Contact your DVL Engineer to perform a review, an evaluation, or to develop a plan to keep your network closet reliable and efficient to support today's ever-changing IT environment.