Make Room For A New OS

The InQuent Operating System (IQOS) is three-tiered provisioning and hosting management software that runs on blade servers. Designed specifically for carriers and service providers, the new technology features XML and is the brainchild of InQuent Technologies, Toronto.

Since the OS debuted last month, U.S. solution providers have rolled it into a variety of larger hosting packages. The technology enables solution providers to manage Internet, e-mail and e-commerce traffic more cheaply and with one all-encompassing tool, said Kelly Hagen, CEO of the company.

"The software was written in such a way to be open and [to] handle any number of different applications," Hagen said. "Combining the rigor of IQOS with blade servers also lowers costs, allowing our service provider customers to stay competitive in a fast-moving market."

IQOS achieves such far-reaching capabilities with the help of an engine written almost entirely in XML, Hagen said. This programming language works with just about every application on the market today, allowing InQuent partners to integrate the product with all existing customer systems, including billing and ordering.

On the back end, this functionality syncs up easily with InQuent's hardware platform, which combines blade servers from Hewlett-Packard with file servers from Network Appliance. The hardware is designed to maximize scalability. Using IQOS and InQuent's prebuilt images, additional blade servers can be brought online in minutes, providing additional capacity when solution providers need it most.

"We're looking for a robust platform and something end users can get into and manage their own environments as much as possible," said Geoff Davenport, vice president of sales at Radiant Communications, an InQuent reseller in Vancouver, Wash. "This platform allows that and, at the same time, gives customers confidence that we'll make sure their Web sites stay up."

Davenport hailed IQOS' three-tiered design for additional benefits. Because all intelligence and business logic rests in the product's middle tier, Davenport said Radiant can easily add new features and functionality without impacting existing services. And the system's Leveraged Asset model enables Radiant's customers to run IQOS off their own networks.

IQOS is available to channel partners now. Pricing generally starts at less than $20 per user per month but varies by implementation.