Open19, a community and open standard for enterprise and edge datacenter innovation, today released an update and forward-looking strategy as part of the project’s five-year anniversary. In 2021, Open19 joined the Linux Foundation, bringing its community of hardware and datacenter innovators to the world’s largest open-source ecosystem.

The innovation that powers our data-driven economy requires datacenter solutions that are customizable, flexible, and economical to deploy and manage. Enterprises, clouds, and service providers are looking to radically improve the sustainability outcomes of the datacenter technologies their businesses have come to rely on.

Open19 meets that need by developing and driving adoption of standardized in-rack physical form factor specifications with collaboration from a diverse set of constituents. This approach ensures innovations can be adopted and commercialized across the industry by single and multi-tenant datacenter operators, service providers, ODM’s, OEMs, power and cooling technology vendors, supply chain component manufacturers and end-users.    

Open19 was founded in 2016 to create an open standard that can fit any 19” rack for server, storage, and networking. Differentiated from projects that focus on large hyperscale datacenter needs, Open19 enables digital leaders of any size to use hardware from a diverse set of vendors efficiently and sustainably in any datacenter environment.

“This is an exciting time to be building the underlying scaffolding of the internet,” said Zac Smith, Chair of the Open19 Project and Managing Director of Equinix Metal. “As the role of datacenter technologies in our world increases and technology innovations dramatically change the power and cooling requirements of the hardware that powers our digital world, the need to introduce sustainable, powerful and cost-effective rack-level datacenter technologies is becoming critical.”

“Open19 is committed to tackling these challenges in a community-driven way that benefits large and small players across the entire supply chain. The movement to sustainable datacenters is one of our industry’s biggest challenges and Open19 serves a vital role in bringing game-changing open-source datacenter technology to market,” added Smith.

The Open19 platform is the best solution to rapidly deploy and service custom cloud and edge datacenter technologies — providing a standardized form factor that enhances existing datacenter investments in 19” racks and server designs. V1 of the platform has allowed for highly flexible rack deployments per customer or rack-by-rack while retaining the efficiency and cost benefits of an integrated hyperscale solution.

With the movement to more power-hungry silicon designs, modern datacenters will need enhanced capabilities to accommodate servers that require significantly more resources to power and cool - while simultaneously moving to decarbonize the datacenter. Open19 is at the forefront of developing standards to meet the increasing needs of these technologies while reducing the carbon footprint related to technology deployment and use.

Later this year, Open19 will introduce V2 of its platform specification, already in active testing via Joint Innovation labs of Open19 member companies, that includes a pluggable liquid cooling standard, a 48V native power solution and the ability to support the next generation of rack-level power requirements. The new specification will maintain its modular, cost-effective form factor that works with existing server design supply chains. New Open19 members have an opportunity to participate and benefit from this collaboration and the adoption momentum of the Open19 standard.

“Open19 V2 will build upon the success of our shared form factor in a variety of server and storage solutions with significant innovations including more efficient conversion and distribution,” said Sean McKilroy, Program Manager at the Linux Foundation. “We are also working on a pluggable liquid cooling standard for rack-mounted servers that will help OEM’s and Datacenter operators make the necessary investments to bring disruptive cooling technologies to the broader market. There is a lot of runway ahead for new Open19 members to be a part of this innovation in a business-friendly and open community.”

Open19 has grown over the years and continues to operate as a business-friendly, open-source community with unique IP sharing rules and opportunities to help shape the structure of the community and drive Open19 technology innovation. The community currently includes Premier Members Cisco and Equinix. General Members include Supermicro, Asus Cloud, Cachengo, Schneider Electric, CPC, Delta, Vertiv, Inspur, Zutacore, VPS, and ASRock Rack.

For more information about the Open19 community and technology and the benefits of becoming a member at various levels, visit: https://www.open19.org/membership/.

About Open19 The Open19 Project is the world’s leading community for the innovation of the modern datacenter, with a focus on environmental sustainability, globally efficient cloud-to-edge deployment models, and a diverse network of supply chain partners. Open19’s unique focus on physical form factor standards allows OEMs and ODMs, as well as end-users, to develop new hardware solutions that comply with the Open19 form factor specification while retaining control and commercial capabilities. The Open19 Foundation was founded in 2016 by infrastructure innovators who were looking for a community-based way to solve cost, efficiency, and operational challenges of datacenter deployments. In 2021, The Open19 Foundation joined the Linux Foundation, bringing its community of hardware and datacenter innovators to the world’s largest open-source ecosystem. For more information, visit http://www.open19.org.

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