New high-density fiber solution supports up to 2,304 fibers in 2RU and dramatically reduces installation time as AI infrastructure drives greater fiber density and faster network speeds

Clearfield, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLFD), a leader in fiber connectivity solutions for telecom, data center, and network infrastructure environments, today announced the NOVA™ Velocity Panel, a high-density fiber management solution. This panel is designed to help data center operators and installers significantly accelerate fiber deployment in cable prep and splicing operations in space-constrained AI data center environments, while maintaining the low-loss performance required for next-generation networks.

As AI drives unprecedented investment in data center infrastructure, operators are being challenged to deploy more compute, bandwidth, and fiber in increasingly dense environments. Dell’Oro Group forecasts worldwide data center capital expenditures will surpass $3 trillion by 2030, with AI-optimized infrastructure expected to remain the primary driver of spending growth. Those investments are increasing pressure on operators to maximize rack space, maintain optical performance, and accelerate fiber deployment.

Clearfield developed the NOVA Velocity Panel after a major hyperscale customer and data center installer approached the company's fiber management experts with a real-world challenge. Both were encountering the same problem: traditional approaches required technicians to distribute large fiber counts across multiple panels and spend hours preparing, routing, managing, and splicing fiber at each rack.

Within hyperscale data centers, that challenge multiplies quickly. Preparing, routing, managing and splicing large fiber counts can require up to four hours per panel translating into thousands of technician hours across a large-scale data center deployment. The NOVA Velocity Panel streamlines that workflow, allowing technicians to move quickly and significantly increase deployment productivity.

The NOVA Velocity Panel provides a high-density splicing environment capable of supporting up to 2,304 fibers in just 2RU. The solution enables installers to transition and manage large volumes of fiber at the top of the rack without distributing fibers across multiple panels, helping preserve valuable rack space for compute infrastructure.

"AI infrastructure is changing both the scale and speed at which fiber needs to be deployed inside the data center," said Fabio Baldo, Director of Market Development at Clearfield. "The NOVA Velocity Panel applies Clearfield’s decades of fiber management expertise to the demands of high-density AI infrastructure, giving customers a way to deploy extremely high fiber counts in very limited space while maintaining the performance these networks demand."

Southern FiberLink Solutions brought additional real-world perspective to the development of the NOVA Velocity Panel after experiencing firsthand the time and labor required to manage and splice high fiber counts across thousands of racks. Its experience supporting hyperscale data center deployments helped inform a patent-pending solution designed to simplify installation and address the practical challenges installers face at scale.

"When you multiply several hours of fiber preparation, routing, and splicing across thousands of racks, installation time becomes a major constraint on how quickly these facilities can come online. The NOVA Velocity Panel addresses a problem installers deal with every day and gives us a much faster, more efficient way to manage extremely high fiber counts in these environments," said Robert Queen, CEO and Co-Founder of Southern FiberLink Solutions.

The modular NOVA Velocity Panel architecture gives operators flexibility to deploy the solution as part of a complete system or incorporate individual panels incrementally as infrastructure requirements evolve.

The NOVA Velocity Panel complements Clearfield’s expanding portfolio of connectivity options for high-density data center environments. Built on Clearfield’s modular approach to fiber management, the platform is designed to help installers organize, route, and access high fiber counts more efficiently while protecting fiber and simplifying installation and maintenance. Clearfield supports traditional MPO, LC, and SC connectors, as well as Very Small Form Factor (VSFF) connector options including MMC, MDC, EBO, SN, and SN-MT. This wide range of options gives customers greater flexibility to select connectivity based on density, architecture, and application requirements.

The NOVA Velocity Panel will be featured during Yotta 2026 at Booth 408B. For more information on Clearfield and its innovative fiber solutions, visit www.SeeClearfield.com.

About Clearfield, Inc.

Clearfield, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLFD) designs, manufactures, and distributes fiber optic management, protection, and delivery solutions that enable high-performance connectivity across a wide range of markets, helping to close the digital divide. Clearfield’s labor lite, craft-friendly platform is leveraged by community broadband providers, MSOs, incumbent service providers, ISPs, data centers, wireless providers, IoT networks, the military, municipalities, and cooperatives to connect homes, businesses, and critical infrastructure faster and more efficiently. Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, Clearfield deploys more than a million fiber ports each year. For more information, visit www.SeeClearfield.com.

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Media Contact:

Christy Barbaran

Connect2 Communications

clearfield@connect2comm.com