Slim Device Software with systemd Targets and nspawn: Axis at All Systems Go! 2025
2025-11-12
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Earlier this October, we had the pleasure of presenting at All Systems Go! 2025 in Berlin — one of the most technically engaging conferences in the Linux® ecosystem. What makes this event special is that it’s by engineers, for engineers: speakers share not just results, but the challenges and trade-offs that shaped them.
It has been ten years since Axis Communications presented at the systemd conference. Back then, we showed how porting our platform to systemd helped us improve product quality, stability, and boot performance. A decade later, our focus has shifted toward keeping resource usage and startup times under control as our software stack continues to evolve.
In our session, “Slim device software with systemd targets and nspawn”, we shared how we took a bottom-up approach to slicing our device software, leading to a more modular and maintainable platform. This effort also inspired the creation of virtual versions of our hardware products, which we can now deploy and cluster using systemd’s nspawn containers — enabling scalable testing and development environments.
At Axis, open source plays a central role in everything we do. We use it, we contribute to it, and we learn from it. Participating in events like All Systems Go! is an effective way to interact and contribute to the community — sharing our experiences, solutions, and the engineering stories behind our products, while getting valuable feedback from other engineers.
Watch the full 25-minute presentation here:
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