Kaiam initiates ‘strategic’ transceiver reserve for data centre applications

News and Business

Kaiam, a manufacturer of advanced data centre optical transceivers, has initiated what it is calling “a strategic transceiver reserve program”. The strategic reserve is intended to protect US and European data centers from the effects of the incipient US-China trade war.

The company stated, “We aim to serve the Asian market, with a similar local source, through our partnership with Broadex. This dual strategy eliminates any potential supply issues on both sides of the globe.”

The Trump administration has recently enacted broad-based tariffs that could impede the importation of Chinese-made optical transceivers into the US. Because US Cloud data center companies are largely dependent on a supply of Chinese-made transceivers, they are highly vulnerable to collateral damage from the increasingly turbulent US-Chinese relationship, noted Kaiam

As one of the few remaining US optical transceiver companies, Kaiam believes it is immune to ill-effects of US-China trade tensions. So the company is building a strategic reserve of transceivers that its customers can draw down in response to a dwindling Chinese transceiver supply. The company will populate this reserve with units fabricated in its UK facility and welcomes partners to add to this reserve.

Underground storage
Jeremy Dietz, VP of Global Sales and Marketing at Kaiam, commented, “In today’s global economy, it’s easy to assume goods will flow seamlessly across borders indefinitely. We sometimes forget that the optical components that power Cloud companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and others are virtually all made in China and are thus susceptible to trade tensions.

He added, “As patriots, we believe a transceiver reserve is necessary for our domestic security. Our advanced technology and manufacturing process allows us to easily build a buffer to protect our nation in case of an embargo or even a natural disaster. We are currently exploring secure underground locations in states such as Utah and Nevada.”

CTO Rob Kalman added, “Our Constitution implicitly guarantees the fundamental right to engage in online activities ranging from the sublime to the abject on a 24/7 basis. We view it as our patriotic duty to protect these rights, for it is more true than ever that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”

Secure source
Bardia Pezeshki, President and CEO, said, “All humor aside, we are seeing the benefits of our $80m investment in the automated UK line, and have the capacity to serve a large fraction of the high-performance optical transceiver market. The MEMS-based micro-packaging technology, together with our recent massive investments in automation and infrastructure, provides our Western customers with a secure source, free of potential trade issues.

“As we announced in a recent press release, we aim to serve the Asian market, with a similar local source, through our partnership with Broadex. This dual strategy eliminates any potential supply issues on both sides of the globe.”

Headquartered in Newark, California, with large-scale manufacturing in Livingston, Scotland, Kaiam is a leading manufacturer of optical transceivers for hyperscale data centers. Founded in 2009 by leading technologists from the optical networking industry, the team has a record of delivering breakthrough products that change the rules of the marketplace. Current products include 100Gb/s LightScale® optical transceivers optimised for data centers and a range of planar lightwave circuits.

For more information, visit www.kaiam.com