Kontron Launches Cost-Saving Cloud Platform For MSPs
Symkloud offers an app-ready, energy-efficient datacentre platform for cloud providers
Kontron has launched a cloud platform it claims will help managed service providers simplify the deployment of web-based, machine-to-machine (M2M), and mobile applications in cloud infrastructures.
The vendor said the platform is designed to fill the gap between commodity and cloud servers by minimising energy consumption, OpEx (operational expenditure) costs, and to be easy to scale and manage.
According to Kontron, the platform combines modular integration of switching, load balancing and processing into a low power and compact 2U, 21-inch deep design.
Saving energy
Kontron Symkloud requires four to eight times fewer fibre and copper cables because of its integrated switching infrastructure. The company said the platform’s power management adapts energy consumption to the actual workload, dynamically powering up or winding down processors independently for significant energy savings.
It said the platform’s overall modular approach makes the product processor agnostic and capable of running numerous applications across multiple independent low-power, high-performance processors.
Benoit Robert, Kontron executive director of product management, said the idea behind Symkloud was to design a server and platform “that made it incredibly easy to build out cloud-based networks”. He added that the cloud platform was “versatile, condensed with rack-level functionalities, and still attractively priced for a cloud computing market”.
Rob Bamforth, principal mobile industry analyst at Quocirca, said that for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) the delivery of subscription-based applications is becoming a main focus as it is beginning to affect end-user reputation.
“Without the correct infrastructure and server system, these operators will end up delivering unfulfilled tariff promises, making their charges unjustified,” he said.
“These MNOs will need to begin investing in a carrier platform that not only delivers a wide range of bandwidth hungry applications to their end-users, but also allow for cloud platforms that enable M2M and ‘Internet of all things’ communications to be their gateway to efficient data management and scalability.”