Crystal Group CMS-01171 VMware-validated substation server

Crystal Group recently announced its first VMware-validated configuration of virtualisation-enabled servers. As part of the Crystal Group Energy Series product line, the CMS-01171 is the company’s first iteration of the ES373S17 substation server. This software-agnostic, hyperconverged system is designed to combine real-time automation, remote management, cybersecurity, auto failover and zero-trust security features for utilities as they pursue power grid modernisation efforts.

In collaboration with Intel and VMware, Crystal Group developed its VMware Validated Solution to consolidate the work of multiple discrete hardware solutions into a single, hyperconverged system. Virtualisation greatly reduces the overall substation control footprint and infrastructure requirements while maximising both physical and cyber protections.

Combining Crystal Group’s rugged hardware with the VMware Edge Compute Stack is aimed at establishing a rugged, reliable and secure hyperconverged edge platform capable of supporting real-time virtual machines and containers.

Equipped with a VMware Edge Compute Stack and single or dual 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with hardware-enhanced security technologies, this IEC 61850-3-certified server includes critical cyber protections, including data-at-rest encryption, total memory encryption, software guard extensions and software-defined networking. Intrusion detection services and stateful packet inspection firewalls monitor traffic between virtual servers to identify and prevent cyber attacks. In the event of a failed server, VMware Edge Compute Stack automatically migrates the workload of that server over to other servers without disruption.