This represents a major commitment by Kontron to radically simplify the evaluating, buying and deploying of production-grade OpenStack platforms. For communication service providers, cloud and hosting providers, and enterprises who build private clouds, this fulfils many market expectations of an integrated OpenStack platform that is — deployable in hours not days, priced at a reasonable entry point, and is maintained as a truly open source platform without vendor lock-in.
The hardware-software integration story
The entire solution is pre-validated and Canonical-approved using the SYMKLOUD MS29xx Series of converged infrastructure platforms. This high-density and modular platform reduces the typical space required to provision OpenStack controllers — from a total of 9U, down to a single 2U footprint that still incorporates redundant configurations of Ubuntu plus selected Canonical tools such as Juju, MAAS, and Landscape.
The quickest path to NFVi for CSPs to rapidly deploy ‘Open Services’
Telco service providers who seek the freedom to run single or multiple concurrent 3rd party VNFs on the same platform can accelerate their trials and service roll-outs using the SYMKLOUD OpenStack platform deployed across carrier clouds and network functions virtualization (NFV) infrastructure.
Canonical’s tools, including Juju Charms, quickly configure and combine all the elements of a complex SDN or NFV infrastructure. This includes ensuring the highest virtual machine performance using DPDK, which Kontron has accomplished by validating the 6WIND Virtual Accelerator, deployed through Juju, with the SYMKLOUD OpenStack Platform. The Virtual Accelerator features low latency and high networking throughput to offload virtual switching from OpenStack Neutron and to relieve the bottleneck burden at the hypervisor layer.
Overall, operators can rapidly deploy a private OpenStack environment and add compute and storage resources as required. Kontron complements the SYMKLOUD OpenStack Infrastructure Platform with its ‘From-Top-to-Bottom’ portfolio of high performance, price-sensitive rack level products. This includes 1U ToR 100G and 25G spine-leaf switches, 2U servers for HDD and SSD storage arrays, and appliances, all derived from a strategic alliance with its partner Ennoconn (Foxconn).
“Canonical and 6WIND are invaluable partners to Kontron to help kick-start this new venture,” said Benoit Robert, head of strategy and marketing, Kontron, Communications. “More than half of the world’s OpenStack clouds run on Ubuntu, a truly rock-solid open source operating system. We’re excited to see the results of a perfectly integrated hardware and software solution that will be the bedrock for many future OpenStack environments to come.”
“Kontron has taken platform integration to a new level, making ready-to-deploy OpenStack incredibly accessible for companies deploying OpenStack and NFV,” said John Zannos, Vice President of Cloud Platform , Canonical. “Building clouds on the SYMKLOUD OpenStack platform with Ubuntu OpenStack and Juju eliminates complexity and is a compelling option for numerous market segments including video and CDN, finance, and telco operators who are ready to deploy services on carrier clouds via NFV and SDN.”
“The SYMKLOUD hardware platform is designed with a high density of VMs in such a small form factor, making the 6WIND VA Charm a key component to accelerated packet processing for virtual networking,” said Kelly LeBlanc, VP of Marketing, 6WIND. “Already pre-validated and integrated, the Kontron solution will be instrumental to help CSPs make the transition more readily from legacy- to virtual-built services.”
