Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson AB is not the first vendor that comes to mind when thinking about the hyperscale movement, but that may change in the coming years if its push into the data center market succeeds. The company kicked its effort into high gear today with the acquisition of NodePrime Inc., a low-key infrastructure management startup that operates out of San Francisco.

Its namesake platform provides the ability to get a newly-installed server up and running with minimal human input, which can save a lot time across the upwards of thousands of machines that are added to the average hyperscale environment every quarter. And from there onwards, NodePrime also eliminates much of the manual work historically involved in keeping so many nodes operating smoothly by automating patch management and a number of common troubleshooting tasks. The startup says that the resulting productivity boost makes it considerably easier, and therefore faster, to scale a data center as user requirements grow.

The speed improvement becomes even bigger when taking into account the time savings that NodePrime promises to provide with the expansion planning component of its platform. Virtual Data Center, as the tool is called, makes it possible to simulate how the addition of new hardware might impact a hyperscale environment to identify any issues that could crop up during the implementation stage. It’s also useful for testing smaller changes like configuration tweaks that likewise require thorough evaluation before they can be applied in a production environment. After all, even the smaller modification carries a chance of causing a major disruption.

Ericsson has been shipping the software with its Datacenter System 8000 systems for several months prior to the acquisition. Absorbing NodePrime’s team and intellectual property will enable the company to customize the platform according to its specific requirements from here on out, which should help its equipment stand out better from the crowd. The deal also removes the inherent risk that comes with sourcing a key component of a product from an external vendor, especially a fledgling startup competing in a market as fierce as the data center hardware industry.

Ericsson didn’t say how much it’s paid for NodePrime, but the fact that the outfit has raised $8.5 million from investors and boasts a production-ready product suggests that the transaction is valued at least in the high-six figures. And in the likely event that the startup managed to secure a few of customers since launching three years ago, that estimate can be increased to the low seven figures.

Image via Wikimedia