A Next-Generation DCIM for Hyperconverged Environments

The Karios Ecosystem’s Brain

Karios Atlas, our integrated fork of NetBox, the next-generation Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) platform, is the foundation of Karios’ zero-touch provisioning approach.
Atlas is integrated into the Karios hypervisor natively, acting as the single source of truth for all physical and virtual assets in your datacenter or edge environment, in contrast to conventional DCIM tools that function as external add-ons.

What is NetBox?

Originally an open-source project, NetBox is regarded as the industry standard for IP Address Management (IPAM) and infrastructure resource modeling.By doing away with spreadsheets, manual tracking, and configuration drift, it enables businesses to record racks, devices, connections, IP space, and logical groupings.

Karios Atlas:
The “Brain” Behind Karios Core

Despite its strength, NetBox was not intended for the next generation of datacenter intelligence, which includes IoT asset integration, zero-touch provisioning, and sustainability. Karios developed a re-engineered fork with sophisticated improvements under the Apache 2.0 license and integrated it straight into the hypervisor operating system.

Key Enhancements

🧠 Comprehensive Asset Coverage

Racks, nodes, NICs, IPAM, CPUs, drives, add-on cards, network paths, power chains, and IoT infrastructure such as cooling, sensors, and Powerlink devices are all modeled by Atlas.
Open standards allow for the tracking, visualization, and integration of each component with the hypervisor.

⚙️ Custom Fields for Zero-Touch Provisioning

To make sure there are no missing data during provisioning, extend the schema with BIOS, firmware, RAID, and thermal configurations.
With a few clicks, add custom fields to impact provisioning logic.

🔄 Integrated with Zero-Touch Provisioning

Beyond inventory, Karios Atlas powers the entire lifecycle, including decommissioning, firmware management, provisioning, and discovery.

🌐 Native Protocol Support

Unconventional orchestration through:

  • Redfish (hardware RESTful API)
  • Intel vPro (SFF management/remote desktop)
  • Open-source out-of-band management, or PiKVM

Even in the absence of BMCs, provision servers, laptops, desktops, and edge devices.

🔗 Support for Existing Deployments

Do you currently use NetBox? Karios can easily integrate with current configurations, extending them into a hypervisor-driven automation framework while safeguarding previous investments.

Why It Matters

Karios converts DCIM from a passive database into an operational intelligence layer by directly integrating Atlas into the hypervisor.

  • 01 ⚡ Zero-Touch Provisioning: Without human input, automatically find, register, and provision new hardware and Internet of Things devices.
  • 02 🤖 Complete Automation: Based on real-time power, cooling, and capacity data, intelligent orchestration is made possible by the actionability of each asset fact.
  • 03 🌱 Sustainability & Compliance: Monitor ESG metrics, carbon emissions, and cooling efficiency at the infrastructure level without outside intervention.
  • 03 🔮 Future-Proof Operations: In both data center and edge environments, universal device integration is guaranteed by API-driven architecture.

Enterprises gain a new edge lowering carbon footprint, accelerating green certification, and unlocking new revenue opportunities through automation.

Competitive Advantage

No other hypervisor vendor not VMware, Nutanix, or Proxmox offers a natively embedded DCIM/DCAM solution.
 Karios leads with:

Embedded DCIM within the hypervisor

Zero-touch provisioning for BMC & non-BMC devices

Full lifecycle management from discovery to decommission

Native Redfish, vPro, DASH & PiKVM support

Integration with existing NetBox environments

Result: Karios holds a two-year lead over competitors in DCIM-driven automation.

The Bottom Line

Karios Atlas is the core of our intelligent infrastructure operating system, not an add-on.
Karios provides the first end-to-end zero-touch provisioning framework in the industry by integrating DCIM, IPAM, lifecycle automation, and bare-metal management all inside the hypervisor.

If a device speaks an API — Karios can see it, control it, and orchestrate it.

Karios vs VMware, Nutanix, and Proxmox

  • Karios
  • VMware
  • Nutanix
  • Proxmox
Feature / Capability
Karios
VMware
Nutanix
Proxmox
Zero-Touch Provisioning✅ Universal provisioning (Redfish, vPro, DASH, PiKVM). Works on servers, laptops, and SFF computer.❌ Server-only, external PXE tools❌ Certified servers only❌ Manual PXE/scripts
Integrated DCIM / NetBox✅ Embedded fork covering racks, CPUs, drives, power, IoT, carbon tracking❌ 3rd-party required❌ No native DCIM❌ None
Existing NetBox Support✅ Hybrid integration supported❌❌❌
Single Source of Truth✅ Hypervisor-embedded inventory❌❌❌
Lifecycle Management✅ BIOS, firmware, storage⚠️ Partial⚠️ Partial❌
Integrated Security✅ OpenSCAP-certified scanner❌❌❌
Included with License✅ Yes❌❌❌
Power Monitoring✅ Inline AC/DC PowerLink tracking❌❌❌
Kubernetes Integration✅ Native OpenShift, Sidero, Anthos, Azure HCI⚠️ Tanzu (extra)⚠️ Karbon (limited)⚠️ Add-ons
IoT & Edge Devices✅ Native API/DCIM support❌❌❌
API Extensibility✅ Full Open API Gateway⚠️ OEM-limited⚠️ OEM-limited⚠️ Community
Out-of-Band Management✅ Redfish, vPro, DASH, PiKVM❌ Vendor-only❌❌
Sustainability (Cooling/Carbon)✅ Native tracking❌❌❌
Efficiency & Density✅ FreeBSD + bhyve (lightweight)⚠️ Heavy⚠️ Heavy⚠️ Lighter but limited
Cost / Licensing✅ All-in-one license💸 High💸 High⚠️ Free core, limited features

Key Differentiators

  • The only hypervisor with provisioning and automation powered by embedded DCIM/DCAM.
  • The only platform with DASH device management, PiKVM, and native vPro.
  • The only hypervisor with inline power and carbon auditing (PowerLink).
  • PowerLink is the only hypervisor that offers carbon auditing and inline power.
  • The only platform with hypervisor security certified by OpenSCAP.
  • a two-year innovation advantage over Proxmox, VMware, and Nutanix.