DataCentred is moving its ARM-based OpenStack cloud into GA

It has been a big week for ARM in the cloud, with Manchester-based cloud services provider DataCentred announcing that its ARM AArch64-based OpenStack public cloud platform is moving into general availability. The move comes just days after OVH announced it would roll out an ARM-based cloud platform.

The company is running the platform on HP M400 ARM servers, and offering customers access to Intel and ARM architectures alongside one another within an OpenStack environment.

The platform, a product of its partnership with Codethink originally launched in March, comes in response to increasing demand for ARM-based workload support in the cloud according to DataCentre’s head of cloud services Mark Jarvis.

“The flexibility of OpenStack’s architecture has allowed us to make the integration with ARM seamless. When users request an ARM based OS image, it gets scheduled onto an ARM node and aside from this the experience is identical to requesting x86 resources.  Our early adopters have provided invaluable testing and feedback helping us to get to point where we’re confident about stability and support,” Jarvis explained.

“The platform is attracting businesses who are interested in taking advantage of the cost savings the lower-power chips offer as well as developers who are targeting ARM platforms. Developers are particularly interested because virtualised ARM is an incredibly cost-effective alternative to deploying physical ARM hardware on every developer’s desk,” he added.

The company said ARM architecture also offers environmental and space-saving benefits because they can be deployed in higher density and require less power than more conventional x86 chips to run.

Mike Kelly, founder and chief executive of DataCentred didn’t comment on customer numbers or revenue figures but stressed the move demonstrates the company has successfully commercialised OpenStack on ARM.

“The market currently lacks easy to use 64-bit ARM hardware and DataCentred’s innovation provides customers with large scale workloads across many cores. Open source software is the future of computing and the General Availability of DataCentred’s new development will make our services even more attractive to price-sensitive and environmentally-aware consumers,” Kelly said.

DataCentred isn’t alone in the belief that ARM has a strong future in the cloud. The move comes the same week French cloud and hosting provider OVH announced plans to add Cavium ARM-based processors to its public cloud platform by the end of next month.

The company, an early adopter of the Power architecture for cloud, said it will add Cavium’s flagship 48 core 64-bit ARMv8-A ThunderX workload-optimized processor to its RunAbove public cloud service.