There was a time, not all that long ago, when all computing based solutions were
built from the ground up using raw components. No matter which industry or segment one looked at, each had their tiering of manufacturers who believed the only way to sustain or increase their market share was to design and build everything themselves. Times have changed, and while the purchase and integration of higher level sub components such as boards etc. is not new, the adoption and use of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) subsystems is growing rapidly. The complexity and capabilities of base technologies are increasing while staffing levels of most application system builders are decreasing. The use of pre-integrated and embedded computing products is now distinctly advantageous and necessary to keep pace with both user demands and ever increasingly aggressive competitive landscape. This trend was seen extensively in communications industries, and other sectors such as aerospace and defense are rapidly following suit.

The introduction and commoditization of standards based computing systems has rapidly increased the choice and capability of such open COTS products. Networking and Internet developments have accelerated and enhanced the adoption of such strategies, not least of which because of the single most pervasive standard for “gluing” together disjoint computing and network elements – Ethernet.