The Arm race in the data center

The Big Story

Arm race

There was at least one thing that wasn't very complicated about the last 10 years of enterprise computing; whatever you built, wherever it ran, it was going to run on a chip made by Intel.

The next 10 years promise to be different. Intel is scrambling to regain its footing, AMD continues to crank out high-performance server chips and momentum is building behind chips like AWS's Arm-based Graviton2.

• This week Arm unveiled the plan for the next generation of its chip designs.
• The emphasis was on security and flexibility for customers like AWS, Apple and Ampere that take those designs and turn them into processors.

Enterprise computing is changing, and so are the chips. Arm's new designs — its "first major architectural change in a decade," according to VentureBeat — assume that machine learning and edge computing will become more widely used.

• Arm's plan for the new generation of its core designs promises to boost performance by 30% compared to the current generation, but the days of one general-purpose server processor assuming the bulk of the load are dwindling.
• That's why cloud providers and data center operators are starting to see more value in designing special chips for unique workloads, like machine learning or networking.
• That trend is largely responsible for Nvidia's surge over the past few years, as its GPU chips became necessary companions to Intel's CPUs in the cloud and in data centers.
• With this new generation, however, ARM wants to provide blueprints for server processors that can accommodate those unique, special processor types on a single chip, which also improves performance.

The vast majority of enterprise workloads still run on Intel chips. But AWS has seen some early success with its Graviton2 processors. The new Arm generation promises to address any security concerns about moving into its orbit.

• Arm plans to add Confidential Computing features to its new designs, duplicating a big push from Intel, AMD and cloud providers over the last few years.
• These features create secure partitions on the chip (Arm calls them Realms) that are totally separate from other parts of the chip. They can't even be seen by the operating system or hypervisor while running.
• The Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities from a few years ago scared everybody straight about hardware security threats. Those were traditionally seen as far more difficult to execute against than software flaws.
• Arm plans to release implementation details this year, but once that technology makes its way into production chips, its partners will be able to cross a potential objection off customers' lists.

There are two big caveats. Software compatibility and Nvidia's takeover proposal are two speed bumps on the road to Arm's enterprise future.

• During the internet era, an enormous amount of enterprise software was written for the x86 instruction set used by Intel and AMD's chips. While overhauling that software to run on Arm has gotten easier, no one would say it's easy.
• But if the price-performance benefits of Arm inside AWS continue to hold steady, startups on a budget could start from scratch on Arm. If that becomes a real trend, Microsoft and Google will follow suit.
• We still don't know exactly what's going to happen with Nvidia's proposed $40 billion takeover of Arm, which is subject to review by several different regulatory bodies.
• Nvidia and Arm executives have said all the right things about preserving Arm's licensing independence, but as Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is about to find out, competing with your customers can be tricky.

It has been a long journey for Arm in the enterprise. Arm took the mobile world by storm. The data center won't be as easy.

• Still, enterprise tech is about to have more choices when it comes to one of the most fundamental pieces of the technology stack.
• That's good for everybody but Intel.

A MESSAGE FROM INTEL

"We're moving faster now than we've ever moved, and we'll never move this slow again." ICYMI, catch a glimpse of what the future looks like for developers in this Protocol interview with Stacey Shulman, VP and General Manager in Intel's Internet of Things Group for Health, Life Sciences, and Emerging Technologies.

Watch now

This Week On Protocol

Fool me once: Richard Stallman is a divisive figure in free and open-source software communities, held up as one of great geniuses of the computer age by a dwindling number of people willing to overlook decades of his offensive and abusive behavior. His return to the Free Software Foundation threatens to derail a movement that might otherwise have made a bigger impact on software had he not driven countless numbers of people away from the organization.

Sick daze: Most office buildings were notorious vehicles for colds and flus in the Before Times. Now that companies are starting to plan for a return to work as vaccines roll out, Protocol's Issie Lapowsky reports that half of tech workers said they'd consider quitting their jobs if their companies don't require their fellow co-workers to get vaccinated.

Send the wire: We talk a lot about how old companies have lots of obstacles to overcome when modernizing their tech infrastructure, and just think about what that's like for a cowboy-era company like Western Union. Protocol's Ben Pimentel spoke with Western Union CFO Raj Agrawal about how one of the oldest money-transfer services around is moving into fintech.

Five Questions For...

Joshua Feast, CEO, Cogito

What was your first tech job?

My first tech job was working as a software developer at the New Zealand department of Child, Youth and Family. In my role, I helped build a system to support social workers dealing with family issues involving custody, mental health, abuse and more.

What was the first computer that made you realize the power of computing and connectivity?

The Commodore Amiga! One of the most popular at-home computers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I often played games on it and even tried to build a few of my own.

What was the biggest reason for the success of cloud computing over the past decade?

The lower total cost of ownership. Furthermore, it empowers teams to focus more on the core business instead of managing software. In the contact center space specifically, cloud-based technology is fundamentally changing the way large enterprise organizations approach and scale customer interaction support.

What is one book that changed your professional mindset?

It may not be very well known, but the first thing that comes to mind is "The Beermat Entrepreneur: Turn Your Good Idea into a Great Business," by authors Mike Southon and Chris West. They discuss entrepreneurship in a way that is straightforward, simple and accessible.

Who do you look to as a mentor?

My needs for mentorship have evolved, especially in the past year. Now I look to peers that are at a similar stage of life, run similar-size companies and are experiencing similar challenges. Previously, I sought advice from those who have "been there, done that," but the problems we are facing are so specific to right now. I mean who else has dealt with remote work during a pandemic? Nobody.

Around the Enterprise

• AWS has chip ambitions outside of Graviton, according to The Information, which reported that the company's Annapurna Labs division is working on a new networking chip.
• AWS and the rest of Amazon are run more separately than it might appear from the outside, but Duckbill Group's Corey Quinn reminded us that shenanigans on Amazon's part can cause blowback for AWS.
• Spring cleaning is taking on new urgency at OVH, which is literally scrubbing servers affected by the fire at its Strasbourg data-center complex earlier this month.
• It's the year of supply-chain hacks: A code-versioning server used by the team that maintains PHP, an older but widely-used server scripting language, was infected with malicious code.
• After Ubiquiti initially tried to blame its cloud provider for a data leak, an insider at the connected-device maker told Brian Krebs that the company actually managed to lose control of its credentials.
• Microsoft's Gavriella Schuster is stepping down after 25 years at the company. She oversaw Microsoft's crucial partner sales group.
• HashiCorp is likely to be one of the next big enterprise tech IPOs. CEO Dave McJannet told Business Insider that business for its easy cloud-onramp tools soared during the pandemic.
• VMware joined several other enterprise vendors in betting that hybrid and multicloud customers want to use a single branded console to access computing resources across different environments.
• If you haven't checked in on China's cloud market in a little bit, this overview from Chinese Characteristics will get you caught up.
• This year's Turing Award winners have been selected: Jeffrey Ullman and Alfred Aho have been awarded the prestigious prize for their work on compilers, the technology that makes computers much easier to program.

A MESSAGE FROM INTEL

"We're moving faster now than we've ever moved, and we'll never move this slow again." ICYMI, catch a glimpse of what the future looks like for developers in this Protocol interview with Stacey Shulman, VP and General Manager in Intel's Internet of Things Group for Health, Life Sciences, and Emerging Technologies.

Watch now