The Israeli Defense Force is using Combatica’s VR services to train its soldiers, and ionir Kubernetes data storage is part of the product offer.
Combatica is an Israeli startup that supplies XR (extended reality) training through Oculus-style virtual reality headsets allowing soldiers to simulate combat missions in virtual reality while actually moving around inside a big room. The headsets are fitted with sensors and not tethered to host systems, so trainees can move freely with the Combatica software synchronizing their positions relative to their colleagues and terrorist avatars.
Erel Herzog, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Combatica, explained in a statement: “The Combatica-ionir partnership is a powerful combination. ionir’s specialization in transferring massive amounts of data will be crucial to efficiently manage our technology’s seamless and rapid deployment.”
Because trainees wear sensor-fitted headsets, there is no need for the training room to have sensors installed on its walls – enabling ordinary buildings to be used.
The ionir Kubernetes data services software, from the company formerly known as Reduxio, provides storage for stateful container apps, along with data protection, mobility, and deduplication services. It claims data can be transferred between Kubernetes clusters in the same or remote locations in 40 seconds or so, regardless of capacity or distance. The destination system user applications have virtually instant access to a fully functional read/write capable copy of the source volume.
The cloud and data services provided by ionir will enable Combatica to simulate any urban environment worldwide – accurately – and will help scale up its systems.
Jacob Cherian, CEO of Ionir, gushed: “We’re excited to showcase ionir’s Kubernetes solution with Combatica, which will allow Combatica to parallelize data management, to scale deployments seamlessly, and support multiple customer environments across public and private clouds with one integrated solution stack.”
Private equity firm C5 Capital is an investor in ionir, along with Jerusalem Venture Partners and others. C5 founder and CEO Andre Pienaar noted: “C5 Capital supports and invests in Israel’s technology sector for the long term. We are excited to help form new partnerships that will save the lives of soldiers and law enforcement officers combatting the threat of extremist terrorists and ensuring the safe return of the victims of terrorism worldwide.”
Bootnote
Combatica documentation says trainees can freely move around the virtual space – walking, running, or performing actions like they do in real life. The system allows for large teams to train together in the same scenario. The firm has developed its own system that allows users to operate their own service weapons in a safe manner, including recoil.
The instructor can easily control the scenario – changing the synthetic environment, the time of day or the weather, enemy behavior and more. A variety of scenarios and intelligent AI enemies are available. The system tracks the user’s actions, and ionir’s analytics tools deliver meaningful insights on the trainee’s or squad’s performance.
