ARM rides open cloud computing testbed

SAN JOSE – A handful of vendors have created a trial version for ARM-based servers of the OpenStack cloud computing software now available for testing online. The open source offering fills in another small piece of software puzzle for the low power architecture working its way into the data center.

ARM server SoC designer Calxeda worked with open software specialist Canonical and Hewlett-Packard to create a version of the TryStack for ARM hosted by Core NAP. Dell, Equinix, NTT and Rackspace Hosting also supported the work which is based on the Essex release of OpenStack.

TryStack is a community-run cloud for testing OpenStack software, one of several open cloud-computing offerings. “This will help to accelerate and extend an innovative server ecosystem based on the ARM architecture,” said Ian Ferguson, director of server systems and ecosystems at ARM, speaking in a press release.

“Incorporating HP’s [Calxeda-based] Redstone Development Platform with OpenStack will allow a broader set of service providers to achieve space, cost and energy savings needed to deliver the benefits of cloud computing,” said Glenn Keels, a server marketing director at HP, also speaking in the release.

Proponents of ARM-based servers say the systems face several hurdles. They include support for ARM of the wealth of existing server software.