Private-cloud infrastructure company Mirantis Inc. is switching its attention to the edge computing market with the launch of Mirantis Cloud Platform Edge, which is based on the open source Kubernetes container orchestration software.

Mirantis said the main target market for MCP Edge is telecommunications providers, which need an easy way to roll out 5G services at the network edge.

Edge infrastructure is different from the core cloud infrastructure that most telcos already run. Traditional cloud infrastructure is generally uniform and centralized, but it’s a different story at the edge, which consists of numerous geographically distributed points of presence and a heterogeneous architecture. Mirantis said this complexity means that running infrastructure at the edge in a cost-efficient manner demands a rethink of existing approaches to deployment and management.

MCP Edge provides a low-footprint, low-latency and high-throughput edge infrastructure that can be managed from a central location. Based on open-source standards, the software platform integrates Kubernetes, OpenStack and DriveTrain, which is Mirantis’ flexible infrastructure management platform. This combination will enable operators to deploy a mix of bare metal, container and virtual-machine points of presence, connected by a unified management plane, the company said.

The platform can also run Virtlet, which is an open-source software that allows operators to use Kubernetes to schedule virtual machines. Thus, operators can choose to run their virtual network functions on VMs or containers, with OpenContrail being used to network between them.

MCP Edge builds on the release of the Mirantis Cloud Platform last year, an infrastructure offering based on OpenStack and Kubernetes that’s used for building private clouds. MCP Edge will run alongside the core MCP Platform, Mirantis said.

“Edge footprints need to support a wide diversity of application use cases,” Adrian Ionel, chief executive officer of Mirantis, said in a statement. “Service providers are still in learning mode, gearing up for edge computing with the advent of new technologies like 5G, IOT and autonomous driving. Infrastructure agility at the edge will enable businesses to adapt and roll out new use cases quickly, with minimal cost.”

Mirantis noted that it will be important for telcos to virtualize the network edge as they roll out 5G. That’s because 5G networks will need to locate functions such as routing and video processing at the edge in order to achieve their full potential for performance and flexibility.

The same capabilities will also be useful for “internet of things” and network management, since these will need a remote location away from public clouds, said Holger Mueller, principal analyst at Constellation Research Inc.

“Mirantis wants a piece of this market, so announcing MCP is the right strategy to enable its customers to power the edge,” Mueller said. “Basing the platform on the super popular Kubernetes is a key quality, as Kubernetes has won the container platform war, at least for now. CxOs can now move Kubernetes-compatible code assets to the edge using MCP and [use this] power their next-generation applications.”

The MCP Edge platform is available now, priced at $500 per node. Mirantis is also offering a free demo version that can be downloaded as a virtual appliance.

Image: Mirantis