Major telcos join Facebook's open hardware push

Big telcos including Verizon and AT&T have joined a Facebook-led project to build low-cost computing hardware, posing a fresh challenge for network vendors like Cisco and Juniper.

The telcos have signed onto the Open Compute Project (OCP), a non-profit set up by Facebook in which end-user companies get together and design their own, no-frills hardware including servers, network and storage gear.

The OCP members can include just the capabilities they need in a product, free of the "gratuitous differentiation" that bumps up prices in equipment from traditional vendors. They enlist low-cost manufacturers in Asia to produce the equipment.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here