Scale Computing, APC partner to offer micro data center in a box

Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) vendor Scale Computing and power management specialist APC (formerly American Power Conversion, now owned by Schneider Electric) have partnered to offer a range of turnkey micro data centers for the North American market.

The platform combines Scale’s hyperconverged software, HC3 HyperCore, running on top of its own hardware and built on APC’s ready-to-deploy racks for a micro data center. Micro will sell the platform as a single SKU.

The pre-packaged platform is entirely turnkey, with automated virtualization, power management resources, and built-in redundancy. This makes it well-suited for remote edge locations, such as cell phone towers, where staff is not immediately available to maintain the equipment.

The servers are managed by the HyperCore software, which continuously monitors all hardware, software, and virtual machines to detect and repair common infrastructure problems and maintain software uptime.

The APC edge computing modules are the typical shipping container-sized enclosures capable of supporting from 250kW to 2mW of compute, plus they come with the power management hardware APC is known for.

“One of the biggest challenges faced by businesses today is how to simplify edge IT environments, where resources and staffing are often quite different,” said Jeff Ready, CEO of Scale Computing, in a statement.

“This fully integrated solution saves time, money and resources, which will be a game changer for these edge and remote environments, and for those channel partners and MSPs who serve them across the world.”

Edge computing market grows

The market for edge computing is getting crowded. Vapor IO just scored a big financing deal and is planning a significant U.S. expansion, while HCI vendor Nutanix recently signed a $20 million deal with the U.S. Department of Defense to operate 15 remote sites running two different networks.

According to 451 Research, micro data centers on the edge of the network are growing in popularity with a compound annual growth rate of 42 percent over the past three years.