At the recent Open Compute Project conference in Amsterdam, a number of companies made announcements that further solidify Open Compute Project’s mission. OCP was founded in 2011 to encourage sharing and standardization among organizations that are users and builders of data centers, including hardware and software manufacturers across the globe.
Technology giant Huawei, a global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, announced that it is joining OCP as a platinum member. Among the benefits of that level of membership is the ability of the company to promote its “OCP Accepted” and “OCP Inspired” status on its products. For its part, Huawei wants to help get OCP standards accepted across its product portfolio, especially in China, its primary market.
Bill Carter, chief technology officer for OCP, said Huawei would be the fifth company from China to join the Open Compute Project.
“Being a leading provider in China’s domestic market, Huawei will play an important role in the adoption of open and efficient cloud hardware around the globe, and can help us build a collaborative community across China,” Carter remarked.
OPEN RACK SERVERS
Other conference announcements came from Inspur, which announced its OCP Standard Rack Server, following the OCP specification of racks that are 21”-wide, rather than the previous standard 19”, termed the “Open Rack” specification.
Inspur’s new rack server solution includes five new node configurations, three for compute, one for storage, and the final GPU node for AI applications to support hyperscaler needs in the data center.
In a statement released at the event, Inspur CTO John Hu said, “The core value of open computing is to reduce the technical cost and lower technical threshold, so as to have stronger competitiveness and vitality. The development of open computing is gradually changing the needs of data centers—from traditional standardization to open technology-based customization.”
Inspur, like Huawei, is China-based and is a leading provider of cloud computing and big data servers. In an interview with trade journal ServerWatch, Inspur CTO Hu added, “OCP is not only just the specification. We help build the ecosystem and contribute our solutions, our products, and our design. “
OPEN DATA CENTER EXPERIENCE
Concurrent with the OCP event in Amsterdam, a trio of European-based companies unveiled what they called an OCP Experience Center.
The OCP Experience Center allows potential users to get a taste of what OCP can provide, as well as a testbed for OCP certified data centers and telecommunications solutions. The three companies are :
- Circle B, an IT infrastructure company that has achieved OCP Solution Provider status
- Rittal, a manufacturer of racks and other server hardware and data center-focused infrastructure
- Switch Datacenters, a carrier-neutral data center operator, based in the Netherlands
The OCP Experience Center is located in the Netherlands close to Schipol Airport.
As the amount of data generated and stored grows, the Open Compute Project becomes more important because it allows data centers to grow as their needs dictate in the manner of the hyperscalers. OCP not only provides open standards for the industry but fosters an environment that encourages innovation in both hardware and software services.
The OCP’s global summit will take place in San Jose in March.
The development of open computing is gradually changing the needs of data centers—from traditional standardization to open technology-based customization. – John Hu, Inspur
