StackMAX by SMX.IQ

Own your platform again.

StackMAX converges compute, storage, and networking into one open, KVM-based private-cloud platform — enterprise capability under a flat, perpetual license, with no license fee and nothing recurring to keep it running.

~/ deploy stackmax

# converge compute, storage, and networking
$ stackmax deploy --nodes 6 --cores 192

✓ KVM hypervisor initialized on 6 nodes
✓ Ceph storage pool converged — no SAN required
✓ SDN + firewall layer online
✓ Kubernetes control plane attached

# unlimited VMs, one flat cost — no per-core licensing
$ stackmax license status
→ perpetual · flat per-server · unlimited VMs

Recurring license fee

One-time, flat cost per server — perpetual license, unlimited VMs, first year of support included

Same cost

16-core node or 128-core node

Per-server pricing doesn't rise with core count, unlike per-core licensed platforms

15+ yrs

In production across Europe

Deployed at scale across telecom, research, aerospace, and media environments

The scale-inversion problem

Per-core pricing punishes exactly the growth you're supposed to want.

Modern CPUs keep getting denser, so every hardware refresh raises the license bill before a single new workload runs — precisely backwards from what most IT budgets can absorb. Proprietary virtualization platforms bundle storage and networking convergence into the enterprise edition and price it per core, so a sixteen-core edge server and a hundred-and-twenty-eight-core datacenter node end up on very different bills for the same software.

StackMAX was engineered around a simpler idea: convergence — compute, storage, and networking in one stack — shouldn't get more expensive as your hardware gets better. One flat, perpetual, per-server cost, set once at deployment, independent of core count, RAM, or storage. Open formats and a full transfer of configurations, scripts, and documentation mean the platform stays yours, not rented.

Cost efficiency

A one-time, flat cost per server — with unlimited VMs and nothing tied to CPU, RAM, or storage. The license is perpetual, with no subscription and nothing recurring to keep it running.

No license fee — you own the platform outright
Flat per-server pricing, regardless of core density
First year of support included; managed support optional

Openness, not lock-in

Open formats plus a full transfer of configurations, scripts, and documentation — with training — so exit cost stays low and the leverage stays with your team.

Runs on commodity x86-64 hardware you already own
No certified-appliance list, no forced refresh
Converged Ceph storage removes the need for a dedicated SAN

Reliability at scale

HCI and high availability, software-defined networking, Kubernetes, and VDI are part of the base platform — not paywalled behind a higher edition — and security inherits from the mainline Linux kernel rather than a single vendor's patch cycle.

SSO/MFA, RBAC, and optional GxP governance
24x7 security monitoring
Direct GPU allocation for AI and GPU-dense workloads

The math

What flat, perpetual licensing actually saves

Illustrative 6-server / 192-core cluster, 5-year cost

Per-core licensed platform

StackMAX

5-year software + 24x7 support

Per-core platform

$240K–$528K

StackMAX

$108K flat

License cost as core density rises (indexed)

16-core · per-core

1×

16-core · StackMAX

flat

128-core · per-core

8×

128-core · StackMAX

flat

Left chart: illustrative example only — scope your own estate for an exact quote. Right chart: indices are illustrative — per-core licensed platforms price roughly in proportion to core count, while StackMAX's flat, per-server cost does not change with core density.

Proven in production

15+ years running some of Europe's most demanding infrastructure.

StackMAX's architecture has been in production across telecom, research, aerospace, and media environments for over a decade and a half — proof that a converged, open platform holds up far beyond a single rack.

Telecom Italia / TIM Vodafone Fastweb OVHcloud CERN INFN Italian Space Agency Leonardo Mediaset Ducati Corse

Eliminating recurring licensing — without replacing hardware

A U.S. community college needed an alternative to a proprietary virtualization platform that would materially cut licensing and subscription spend. The migration moved roughly 700 virtual machines onto StackMAX and eliminated that recurring annual licensing cost entirely — on the hardware footprint they already owned.

~700

Virtual machines migrated

~$75K/yr

Recurring licensing cost eliminated

Recurring license spend going forward

Under the hood

One converged stack, not a shopping list of parts to integrate.

KVM at the coreKernel-integrated hypervisor — the same class of virtualization that runs Amazon EC2 and Google Compute Engine — with performance and security inherited from mainline Linux.
Converged Ceph storageSoftware-defined, distributed storage built into the platform — no dedicated SAN, high availability included.
SDN and Kubernetes, one control planeSoftware-defined networking with an integrated firewall framework, plus Kubernetes for container workloads — VMs and containers side by side.
Open, no lock-inConfigurations, scripts, and documentation transfer to your team with training — the exit plan is built in from day one, not bolted on.

web-tier.template

# define a VM template once, deploy anywhere in the cluster
NAME   = web-tier
CPU    = 4
MEMORY = 8192
DISK   = [ IMAGE = "ubuntu-24.04", SIZE = 40960 ]
NIC    = [ NETWORK = "sdn-prod" ]
GRAPHICS = [ TYPE = "VNC" ]

$ stackmax vm instantiate web-tier --count 12
✓ 12 instances scheduled across the Ceph-backed pool
✓ SDN network attached, firewall policy applied

Flat

Per-server license cost — same at 16 cores or 128

24x7

Security monitoring included

GPU-ready

Direct GPU allocation for AI workloads

See it in action

VMware to StackMAX: migration overview