A few years ago, I flew from Minneapolis to Denver and as usual, rented a car to drive to a meeting. When my colleague Marc arrived from North Carolina, I asked how he got from the airport. He’d used a new company’s app and told me that people pick you up using their own vehicles and charge less than a taxi. I was dubious about this as a viable solution. I asked, “So you just hop in this car with a total stranger and they’ll drive you at a fraction of the usual cost?” He insisted that this was the future, but I still doubted that people would simply trust strangers to bring them safely from place to place. It was too far out of the box and forward-thinking at the time.

Although it took a leap of faith to begin, I now use the Uber app a lot because it saves time and money, as many of you know. Two taps and a swipe and I have car coming to get me (tip included). Ridesharing apps are now common in today’s world.

This type of redefining an industry is also happening with fiber. Connectorization with integrated slack storage makes plug-and-play networks a reality. You may feel like I did when Marc told me about that ridesharing app: doubting the reality of making your network easier to install, repair and upgrade. I wish I’d adopted ridesharing earlier because it would have made my life a lot easier.

Products like the Clearfield^® YOURx^™ Flex Box, FieldShield^® StrongFiber Drop Wheel and FieldShield StrongFiber Deploy Reel are like the rideshare apps I was afraid to try. They’re game changers that allow us to simplify the design and installation of our fiber networks. They work. Trust me. I’ve been on many installations that, because of these products, took a fraction of the usual time to design and install. Instead of having to define each drop cable length during the design phase, we can simplify the project by ordering standard length cables that allow us to pull off as much fiber as needed and leave the excess cable on the reel. Installation also takes less time because we can now eliminate the time-consuming process of setup, prep and fusion splicing.

We like to make life easier. When we adopt new technologies, it can be a little daunting. The good news is that many of these new things (like ridesharing and plug-and-play fiber) work and can assist in making our day-to-day activities more efficient.

Don’t be like me and wait too long to adopt this way of thinking. Consider what you could be missing. And if you need a little push to take this leap of faith, please contact us; we’re here to help.

By Tom Warren

Tom Warren has over 10 years of experience as an Application Engineer for Clearfield. Tom provides customer support across the United States, listening to the needs of customers and aiding in the design of fiber termination and optical component systems that will meet their network needs.

Tom also offers the Clearfield customer on-site training of fiber applications. His expertise includes in-depth knowledge of WDMs, FTTH and CATV Fiber Optic solutions, and he trains extensively on fiber management basics and best practices.