Acquisition International - Issue 6 2022 25 SoftIron manufactures a range of storage hardware products, known as the ‘HyperDrive’ series, for use in data centre infrastructure. Most computer hardware manufacturers outsource their hardware manufacturing process to third parties, but SoftIron uniquely builds all products from the component level up, enabling a completely auditable, verifiable process from start to finish. Acquisition International has recognised this and sees the company as the worthy winner of 2022’s Leaders in Enterprise Storage Solutions – UK award. Join us as we learn more about what it offers clients. Apr22288 hrough end-to-end integration and intuitive user interfaces, SoftIron enables traditional enterprise IT operators to embrace the benefits of open source infrastructure without the pain of complexity, specialised skillsets, and lack of support traditionally associated with open source projects. It delivers an integrated endto-end enterprise class experience but without vendor lock-in. SoftIron’s services are provided to customers across a broad variety of private industries, including media and entertainment, banking, and IT services, in addition to government agencies and research institutions. Its ability to provide an avenue to building ‘zero trust’ infrastructure is a large draw for security-focused clients, giving them greater control over the security of their solution. Companies that require vast amounts of storage for their data, often with varying levels of performance required within the same architecture – whether that be to support a high performance computing installation, backup and retrieval, or anything in between – choose SoftIron for its ability to deliver an efficient, performant, open, and resilient solution. SoftIron uses a task-specific approach to design and manufacturing which means it has engineered its hardware, software, firmware, platform, and manufacturing with the singular purpose of optimising specific open source software for the task at hand, delivering breakthroughs in performance, efficiency, and user experience. Underlying this approach are the following four foundational pillars. Designed, not assembled SoftIron designs its products from the ground up, not from generic hardware sub-assemblies and/or pre-compiled code. Its products are optimised for the specific task for which they are designed, and for the way that they will be manufactured. Secure provenance Uniquely, SoftIron makes its product design, hardware, software, and realisation process transparent for audit, enabling customers to assert their own risk on deploying its products in their mission-critical infrastructure. Edge manufacturing SoftIron’s mission is to build and optimise a manufacturing capability that can act globally when needed, but can manufacture and deliver complete products close to its customers. This shortens both the company and its customers’ supply chain processes, and makes them visible and more resilient. Globally distributed, locally embedded SoftIron builds out its teams in any location, in any function. T Embedding these teams in the economies it operates within benefits its employees, its customers, and the wider community that it serves. These four principles are what make SoftIron stand out, showing customers that they no longer have to put up with the way traditional IT hardware vendors provide their products – ultimately delivering not only truly differentiated and compelling products, but all in a way that adds significant customer value. Each pillar contributes not only to putting the power back into an organisation’s hands to implement security principles like zero trust, but also to avoid some of the risks associated with the global supply chain. This is particularly true when it comes to its ‘globally distributed, locally embedded’ pillar. Professionals in computer networking environments are all too familiar with the concept of avoiding a ‘single point of failure’ in a system – say, a single connection to a data centre’s power source, which, if severed, means the entire data centre becomes unavailable. SoftIron’s approach prioritises removing the ‘single point of failure’ not only within hardware infrastructure but in how it manufactures, how it works, and how it operates as a whole. SoftIron has been built on these ideas from very early on, though they’ve evolved in their nuance over time. The first two principles its value offering were built on were ‘designed, not assembled’ and ‘secure provenance’ – the second two evolved as a natural result of achieving the first. The company’s early years were all about refining its approach, and it has now built a solid foundation that will support it going forward into the future. And just like the open source software it uses, it is prioritising its capacity to flexibly respond to challenges and scale as needed to match the increasing demand of its products. The global pandemic has illustrated just how powerful these could be in delivering a robust and resilient business at SoftIron’s meteoric growth has been unencumbered by regional and global lockdowns and restrictions. Indeed, SoftIron is poised for the future and is set to grow considerably this year, both in term of increasing its locally embedded, globally connected manufacturing facilities, and in its staffing. It has plans in place to grow the footprint of its factory in North America and is opening a new factory in Sydney, Australia, in addition to further plans to increase its presence in Asia and Europe. Company: SoftIron Email: info@softiron.com Website: www.softiron.com Leading Enterprise Storage Solutions
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