Kontron joins OpenStack, takes open source cloud to telcos

Embedded computing developer Kontron has joined the OpenStack foundation as a sponsor and is working to integrate its cloud-based application infrastructure with the open source cloud provisioning and orchestration platform. Kontron said the move is a “significant milestone” in its long-term strategy in the software defined infrastructure space, an area telcos, cloud service providers and vendors are paying more attention to as of late.

“Our goal is to make sure cloud providers, along with mobile and cable operators, can maximize the high density design of the Symkloud platform to easily scale their workloads as required,” said Benoit Robert, strategy director at Kontron.

“Creating multiple on-demand instances with OpenStack is truly seamless,” he added.

Kontron, which produces content delivery and web application infrastructure, said the company has already collaborated extensively with other independent software vendors to enable their bare-metal applications to work on top of OpenStack including content delivery applications, multiscreen subscriber services (primarily for telcos) and a range of M2M applications.

“We are pleased to see Kontron helping telcos and cloud service providers leverage OpenStack to meet their unique business and technical requirements,” said Jonathan Bryce, executive director of the OpenStack Foundation.

“OpenStack ecosystem members like Kontron are key to expanding the global footprint of OpenStack clouds,” he added.

OpenStack has already gained plenty of fame in the hosting-cum-cloud space but as telcos look to assess the next generation of infrastructure that will power their (predominately IP-based) networks, software defined networking and software defined infrastructure, both areas OpenStack delivers and indeed drives technical standards, are key areas of interest.

With carriers like Deutsche Telekom (an OpenStack backer) singing the praises of open source software, it’s only natural telco vendors like Kontron and Ericsson have been keen to get in front of the trend and deliver carrier-grade OpenStack distributions and integration.