“After many years at Inocybe, I am excited by the huge potential of this acquisition,” said Mathieu Lemay, founder of Inocybe and CSO of Kontron communications business. “By leveraging Kontron and S&T's significant hardware portfolio with Inocybe's activities across Open Networking Projects, this acquisition will help accelerate market adoption by providing the expected customer experience and quality.”
Inocybe are experts in open source networking software and software-defined networks (SDN) from the datacentre to the edge and adds open networking and OpenDaylight SDN controller expertise to Kontron’s SYMKLOUD portfolio of white box hardware and integrated open source solutions.
“The go-to-market opportunities are enormous,” said Robert Courteau, general manager of Kontron’s communications business. “The open source software on open hardware strategy is rapidly gaining adoption among a broad base of service providers and private cloud operators – for both compute and networking. With Inocybe, we can now cater to both scenarios. We are certainly excited about how this will unlock our customers’ potential to freely choose what, when and how they deploy new and revenue-rich services.”
The acquisition aligns itself with Kontron’s two strategic objectives. The first is that it bolsters its NFV and SDN offerings for telecoms, cable and communications service providers (CSPs). Secondly it expands the customer base of IT network operators from which enterprises, the internet of things IoT) and smart cities to name a few, deploy open networking and hybrid cloud infrastructure.
“The reality of 5G, IoT and cloud is driving tremendous momentum toward modernised networks that can respond to surging network demands and process data at the edge,” said John Zannos, general manager of Inocybe. “Open software, like SDN, and open hardware are bringing the speed and flexibility needed for these next-generation networks to service providers and enterprise. Together, Inocybe and Kontron can enable networks to be open and automated, and the impact is transformative, reducing cost and creating new value through new services and better user experience.”
Inocybe uses a SaaS-subscription approach to its Open Networking Platform (ONP) to create solutions for ‘consumable’ networks. These include SDN Contollers based on OpenDaylight (ODL) and Open Networking solutions created using other open source projects such as OpenSwitch, PNDA, and ONAP.
“Open Source Networking projects are becoming fundamental building blocks for automated and disaggregated networks. We are excited to see innovators in the areas of open software and hardware join forces to create end-to-end solutions,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager of networking & orchestration at The Linux Foundation. “As a Gold Member of LF Networking, Inocybe has been very active in the community in several projects and we are looking forward to even more participation after joining forces with Kontron.”
Kontron’s SYMKLOUD portfolio has a range of rack-level converged hardware platforms as well as white box solutions well placed to be one of the first open network operating system (NOS) switches managed by an ODL SDN controller.
“As someone who has had the privilege to be an integral part of Inocybe’s growth and ultimate transformation, I couldn’t be more thrilled by today’s acquisition,” said Kyle McDonald, Inocybe chairman. “The two companies share a strong common vision, and together bring a significant competitive advantage that will solidify Kontron as a leader in the SDN marketplace.”
