Bare-metal server infrastructure company Packet Hosting Inc. today said it’s forging a partnership with a networking company called Netronome Systems Inc. on a hardware platform designed to power cloud-native workloads at the network edge.

Packet is an interesting startup that’s gaining attention with enterprises for its developer-friendly hosting service that provides highly customizable infrastructure for running bare-metal servers in the cloud.

The company’s cloud for developers is currently available in 18 locations across the globe and can support up to 60,000 bare-metal installations each month. Essentially what the Packet does is automate data center hardware and networks, enabling developers to consume physical infrastructure at scale.

Packet is also seeking to address a growing demand from developers and enterprises for more compute power close to the network edge. So-called “edge computing” refers to the idea of data produced by “internet of things” devices being processed closer to where it is created instead of sending it across long routes to data centers or clouds. Packet doesn’t operate at the “far edge,” where the devices are located, but as close to the edge as is practically possible.

In a previous interview with SiliconANGLE, Jacob Smith, Packet’s senior vice president of engagement, said there are actually several “edges” of a computer network, including the “far edge,” where the devices and sensors are physically located, as well as various other “rings” leading towards the core network. It’s these outer rings that Packet wants to target with its new cloud-native appliance.

The appliance is actually a kind of microserver that Packet plans to deploy in all of its edge sites, which include both data center facilities and cell towers, located as close to its customers as possible. These microservers are specifically optimized for cloud-native workloads, which have stringent requirements around cost, power and latency, the company said.

Netronome’s role is to provide the technology for the microservers through its integrated SmartNIC platform. The software enables the high throughput cloud-native applications demand, while also providing built-in network security policies to help secure those workloads. As a result, Packet can deploy less complex, lower-power and more cost-effective top-of-rack switch solutions for developers, it said.

“New edge-based technologies and applications such as autonomous vehicles, AI, and augmented reality are heavily latency dependent and require the strongest of security without sacrificing performance,” Niel Viljoen, Netronome’s chief executive officer and founder, said in a statement. “Packet’s new Netronome SmartNIC-accelerated, low-latency Edge cloud infrastructure will enable developers to effectively utilize the massive amounts of collectible data on the edge to build and test highly secure, real-time applications.”

Photo: Packet Hosting