MacStadium Secures Two Patents to ‘Expand Innovation Across Apple Enterprise Cloud Deployments’ : Tech Live Trends
MacStadium, a Mac private cloud and software-as-a-service provider enabling macOS workloads — has secured two patents: one for retrofitting current racking designs with KVM devices (aka, helmets) to offer local and remote keyboard, video, and mouse access to Mac servers, and one to offer a new rack shelving architecture and design aimed at optimizing server density
MacStadium’s helmets, which sit atop a Mac mini or Mac Studio, are specifically designed to retrofit the company’s current shelving offering. While the helmets remain compatible with former shelving solutions, the new shelf design offers six times the server density of older Mac Pro racks and 50% more server density than existing Mac mini racks, according to Paul Benati, MacStadium’s Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
Additionally, each Mac server is provisioned with an Apple-focused keyboard, video, and mouse (KVM) device providing significant capabilities and advantages while slashing rack shelving costs by 50% or more.
MacStadium’s proprietary helmet – which is currently in production – houses a temperature probe, LED light, OLED display, and a servo, which allows for granular remote control of Apple devices’ power button. These KVM devices can remotely control the Apple devices to which they are connected, eliminating the need for customers to request server control and for IT teams to physically go to data centers to correct issues, says Benati.
With these remote control and self-service features, customers unlock new capabilities, including the ability to dynamically define the purpose of the Apple device, access to network storage, and the long-awaited ability to run FileVault. The KVM system is securely accessed via SSL, SSO integration, and authentication and authorization via lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP).
The shelving system, which will soon begin production, is designed to hold 24 Mac minis and 24 Apple-focused KVM devices, increasing the capacity of a standard rack to 144 Mac minis. In addition to increased operational efficiencies and secure server access from anywhere in the world, Benati says the shelving design offers tremendous cost savings due to its injection molded manufacturing.
Not only is this manufacturing offered globally by a multitude of vendors, but it also allows for reduced shipping costs and more server density per square foot due to the product’s reduced bulk and weight.
The patents come after MacStadium announced Orka Workspace with Pulse, designed to enable high-definition audio and visual streaming on virtual Mac desktops via any HTML5-supported browser. In addition, the company recently made public its Orka Small Teams edition, a self-service purchase option, giving MacDevOps teams immediate access to the industry’s leading enterprise-grade macOS virtualization and orchestration tool.
