Startup Vendor IO announced on Wednesday the general availability of its open source platform, which is designed to modernize data center management tools.
The Open Data Center Runtime Environment (DCRE) is the brainchild of Vapor IO co-founder and CEO Cole Crawford. Crawford is a former director of Facebook’s Open Compute Project (OCP) and a co-founder of OpenStack. Vapor IO released Open DCRE for download as an open source alternative to proprietary interfaces and custom silicon.
In an effort similar to the Open Compute Project’s work, Vapor IO is working on simplifying and modernizing data center infrastructure communication, which currently relies on dated technologies, such as Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI).
Open DCRE is a new API that can perform the same functions as IPMI, but without the need for complex programming or dated command-line tools. Open DCRE can be used for any type of data center environment, from hyperscale environments to the enterprise, as well as the edge. It can be deployed in single-tenant environments, such as private clouds or managed hosting environments, or in multi-tenant environments, such as co-location facilities and public clouds.
Open DCRE is designed to support traditional data center environments as well as Hewlett Packard Enterprise‘s Cloudline and other OCP platforms. In the right environment, Open DCRE can replace the need for baseboard management controllers, out-of-band management switches, and overhead cabling.
Other features for Open DCRE include SSL support and analog sensor and power control, all of which communicate over a RESTful API.
Future Facilities, a London-based company that provides engineering simulations for the data center industry, and cloud-based data center architect Romonet, which is also in London, are announced partners of Vapor IO. The Austin-based company is looking for additional partners and users to contribute to the feature set of Open DCRE.