Equus Compute Solutions: Enabling Flexible Software-defined Infrastructures

At the breakfast table during one of his global CDN customer’s vendor meetings, Costa Hasapopoulos, the president at Equus Compute Solutions, is asked by his client’s to introduce his company to the assembled group. Equus has been building content delivery platforms for this client since 2005 and has shipped them over 35,000 servers. Confidently, Hasapopoulos stands up and introduces his firm as a white-box server manufacturer, focused on software-defined applications and cloud enablement. He explains that he has been one of the firms primary hardware partners. To Hasapopoulos’ amusement, the CTO interrupts him just as he begins his introduction, and starts praising Equus for the extra mile that they go while delivering their CDN platforms! He comments, “Indeed, they are our hardware providers, but they are way more than just that; they are our engineering partner, and they also offer RMA logistics and configurations support inclusive of even provisioning IP addresses. The engineering abilities that they exhibit and the nimbleness and agility they show in their operations are prime factors contributing to our business success.”

As a leading custom server and storage system manufacturer specializing in personalized configurations, what enable Equus to steer ahead of the competition is their people and the services that they wrap around their product. “In the market today, most companies see Equus as a product company. While that is true, our engineering, solutions, and service staff are one of a kind in the white-box arena,” adds Hasapopoulos.

Traditionally, content delivery network service providers want to create their own custom configurations and manufacture their hardware equipment on demand to reduce their server costs while configuring them for optimal performance. By designing and building customer-specific platforms, Equusenables CDN service providers to meet their price and performance needs. The team begins by surveying vendors for options to identify the ideal solution. Once in place, they manage the entire lifecycle of all their clients’ server components. “By leveraging our direct partner relationships, we collaborate with our customers to maintain inventory levels that in-turn minimizes surprises,” informs Hasapopoulos.