Ocado Technology's Kubermesh frees factories from datacentres

Ocado Technologies, an offshoot of the online-only supermarket, has unveiled its Kubermesh Kubernetes-based container architecture, designed to help factories scrap the datacentre and move to using an on-premise, private cloud-style model.

The company's new architecture makes use of a mesh network of nodes, distributing datacentre functionality so businesses can easily configure any computer to become a node or act as a storage facility usually performed by a high-performance server in a datacentre.

The way the Kubermesh package performs means it can stand up to the data demands of a smart factory, for example, where automation and machine learning is key, the firm said.

"This is a bold idea that has the potential to revolutionise the way companies approach on-site data center architectures," said Chris Dabrowski, general manager of infrastructure, operations and site reliability engineering at Ocado Technology.

"Thanks to the power of open source software such as Kubernetes, our platform automation team was able to quickly design a working prototype and develop it further based on advanced simulations of our future warehouse automation requirements."

In addition to being able to process vast amounts of data, Kubermesh also has the potential to reduce operational costs because businesses don't have to implement their own datacentre to store and analyse information. It will also offer significant energy savings for the more green-minded organisations.

"We're very excited to continue unlocking the potential of container technology at Ocado and hope that the open source community uses Kubermesh in new and exciting ways," Dabrowski added.

The next stage in Ocado Technology's plan is to build a multiplayer online game (MMO) to teach secondary school students the principles of AI using its Kubermesh infrastructure.