Meet the Sponsors - Pharos Avantgard
Welcome to Meet the Sponsors, a new blog posts series in which you will learn about our sponsors and why they decide to support this great community. Today we will get to know Pharos Avantgard (Pty) Ltd. . Enjoy it!
Pharos Avantgard is a supplier of advanced telecommunications solutions with a clear mission: To constantly improve their customer’s ability to compete.
Pharos’ founder got exposed to Erlang through a brief engagement with one Swedish company back in 2001. By 2002, it became obvious that Erlang presents a considerable competitive advantage for people who knew how to use it.
After this, Pharos has based its home-grown technology almost exclusively on Erlang. They have developed numerous telco-grade products and frameworks using Erlang. This includes full MAP, CAMEL and DIAMETER protocol stacks, Time-Series Database (TSDB), as well as core GSM/LTE network elements such as EIR, GMLC, SMSC, USSD Gateway, Interworking systems (e.g. CAMEL to DIAMETER, MAP to DIAMETER), and IP Log management solutions, etc.
About sponsoring the foundation
For a long time, Pharos Avantgard has benefited from Erlang and they are grateful to have an opportunity to support a language and its environment that greatly contributed to their success.
They believe that Ericsson does an excellent job in keeping Erlang current and that the Foundation will remain true to this task by helping Ericsson support it in areas that might not be of interest to them (NOTE that they use the term Erlang instead of BEAM for they strongly believe that BEAM is best served with Erlang… Shaken, not stirred).
As for how the company plans to engage with our foundation, they have a strong desire (and some commercial projects) aimed at miniaturization of their frameworks and systems (e.g. embedding some of their systems to run as a part of Customer Premises Equipment, etc.). They are also considering the contribution of some of their commercial software (e.g. Time Series Database - TSDB etc.) should there be an interest in it.
Pharos would also like to see us focus specifically on Erlang, promoting it within the Elixir community.
A little more about Pharos Avantgard
The company was founded in 1997 (and reborn in Erlang 2002), and its people are based in South Africa, primarily in Johannesburg, but also scattered around their beautiful country.
Their software solutions span ready-for-market offerings as well as tailored services that are designed to complement existing infrastructure. They deliver real-time efficiencies and enhance their clients’ ability to generate revenue. All of their solutions walk the fine line between innovation and relevance.
At the present, they are hiring. So if you want to help them scale their systems, check out their Job board!
For more information, take a look at their website
Our foundation is supported by the funding of our sponsors, and it is what allows us to carry out projects, marketing initiatives, stipends programs, and accomplish the goals that we have established as an organization. So if you are interested in becoming a sponsor, contact us at sponsorship@erlef.org. We look forward to hearing from you!