OpenStack planning ARM-based cloud

RackSpace, Hewlett-Packard, Canonical and other OpenStack members are combining forces to build what they say will be the first-ever ARM processor-based cloud, Venture Beat writes.

The goal is to build an extremely efficient, powerful but inexpensive cloud with low power consumption.

According to EE Times, ARM server SoC designer Calxeda worked with open software specialist Canonical and HP 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.

“While we are currently standing up a separate OpenStack cluster for this new ARM zone, we have every intention of working with the TryStack volunteers to merge these into a single large, heterogeneous cluster,” Tech Week Europe quotes John Mao, director of product marketing at Calxeda, as writing in the OpenStack blog.

“We want to use OpenStack as the first example of what a multi-architecture cloud could look like and the opportunities it presents to both service providers (different pricing models) and enterprises (workload targeted job scheduling) alike.”