Abstract: A rack-based system for carrying information technology equipment has a rack for mounting the equipment. The rack includes multiple uniform bays each sized to receive a server sled. The system includes an optical network having optical interconnect attachment points at a rear of each bay and fiber-optic cabling extending from the optical interconnect attachment points to preselected switching elements. Multiple server sleds including compute sleds and storage sleds are slidable into corresponding bays so as to connect to the optical network using blind mate connectors at a rear of each server sled.