Networking manufacture Lanner, well known for its universal consumer premises equipment (uCPE) and white box appliances, is the latest industry partner to join the Open Compute Project (OCP).

The company plans to leverage its experience with network disaggregation, white box economics, open-source software, and software-defined standards in support of several OCP projects. This will target white box appliances for edge data centers and next-generation 5G applications.

"The OCP is well positioned to catalyze the transformation of the networking industry with its newly established strategic plan. We are very excited to contribute to OCP and develop next-generation networking platform for SD-WAN, MEC [multi-access edge computing], and HCI-ready solutions for the community," said Jeans Tseng, GM and VP of Lanner Telecom Applications Business Unit, in a statement.

Lanner is the latest manufacturer to join forces with the OCP. In March, Wiwynn announced a new edge platform for telecommunications operators based on the OCP's OpenEdge hardware specifications. The Edge Platform 100 (EP100) portfolio is built for 5G applications requiring low latency and huge data-processing capabilities at edge sites. The vendor also said it would contribute an open firmware development kit to the Nokia-led OCP project.

Nokia launched its AirFrame open edge technology in April 2018, and donated the specifications to the OCP in March. OCP OpenEdge was one of five projects announced at the most recent OCP Global Summit.

“Wiwynn’s contribution to OCP OpenEdge is an important step forward in the creation of a healthy ecosystem and providing far edge data center equipment consumers with multi-source procurement options to avoid vendor lock-in,” said Hannu Nikurautio, head of cloud RAN product management of Nokia, in a statement.

The new edge platform comes as telecommunications companies are increasingly adopting OCP gear.

According to a recent IHS Markit report released in August, OCP certified storage equipment is set to double in the next four years from $2.5 billion this year, to $5.4 billion in 2023.

The report also predicts that total server external data center storage revenues will grow at a 9.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from $40 billion in 2018, to $63 billion in 2023.