Open Compute Project becoming ‘de facto’ data center standard
Ericsson is partnering with data center players Quanta and Amazon Web Services to extend the reach of its HDS8000 product; the telecom equipment vendor also joined the Open Compute Project, which provides a collaborative framework for data center hardware research and development.
Ericsson launched its cloud and IP business unit last year with the Hyperscale Datacenter System.
Anders Lindblad, Ericsson head of Business Unit Cloud & IP, said the goal is to “disrupt in the data center space,” adding the HDS8000 “has really proven to work. We have a tremendous, also, feedback from the customers,” including FarEasTone, Millicom and SKT.
“We need to be very cost competitive,” Lindblad said. “We need to be able to scale this up in a tremendous way to be able to be relevant in the data center infrastructure.”
The partnership with Taiwanese hardware manufacturer Quanta is meant to help Ericsson scale up the design, development and manufacturing of its data center products.
Mike Yang, SVP and GM of Quanta, said, “Ericsson has a proven delivery record, with both the technology and the services needed to succeed at scale. They’ve built one of the world’s largest distributed infrastructures, accompanied by a global reach into more than 180 countries. Together, we are bringing open, agile and proven solutions to the market via the HDS 8000 platform and Open Compute standards.”
The Open Compute Project is a nonprofit founded in 2011, with the goal of re-imaging the design of server, storage and other data center hardware with the goal of driving scalable computing through sharing of information and technical specifications.
“We believe that openly sharing ideas, specifications and other intellectual property is the key to maximizing innovation and reducing operational complexity in the scalable computing space,” the organization notes. “The Open Compute Project Foundation provides a structure in which individuals and organizations can share their intellectual property.”
With Amazon Web Services, Ericsson is working to bring that firm’s expertise in data centers to the service provider market.
Terry Wise, AWS VP of Worldwide Partner Ecosystem, said the partnership would “implement innovation centers,” the first of which is in process with Telstra in Australia.
