Bringing modern virtualization in the Arm-powered Datacenter

News Mar 21, 2024

We are thrilled to announce the start of a technical collaboration project between Vates, the creator of the innovative open-source virtualization stack XCP-ng & Xen Orchestra, and Ampere Computing, pioneer in energy-efficient & high performance arm-based processors.

This effort marks a significant step forward in our mission to deliver more versatile, powerful and energy-efficient virtualization solutions to our users and the broader computing industry. For Vates, having access to Ampere hardware helps a lot to prepare the needed work to make it real, while also having the capability to discuss directly with their team to overcome quickly any blocker and even bringing feedback to make it efficient and turnkey as possible.

The spirit of our collaboration

The surge in AI workloads among ever growing request for more compute power within data center infrastructure have increased computing demand for more density, efficiency, and environmental sustainability than ever.

By leveraging Ampere Computing's cutting-edge Cloud Native Processor technology and Vates' expertise in virtualization software, we aim to create a robust platform that not only meets the current needs of our customers but also sets new standards for performance, density and efficiency in the industry. Ampere’s inherent design choices like maximum core counts, deliver highly predictable performance and provide added security needed to build modern virtualization platforms.

XCP-ng is at the forefront of open-source virtualization, recognized as one of the leading innovative virtualization platform by Gartner in 2022 and 2023. Offering a powerful and flexible platform that caters to a wide array of computing requirements. The transition to Arm64 architecture represents a transformative leap for XCP-ng, opening up new possibilities for deployment in environments where energy efficiency, density and processing power are paramount.

Ampere’s Cloud Native Processor is renowned for its energy efficiency, compute density and performance, making it an ideal choice for everything from cloud computing to edge deployments. By working on adapting XCP-ng for Arm64, we're not just expanding our platform's reach: we're also providing our users with more choices and greater flexibility to tailor their virtualization environments to their specific needs.

A vision for the future

Together, through this collaboration, Vates and Ampere Computing are committed to driving innovation, pushing the boundaries of what's possible, and creating a more sustainable and efficient computing world.

We are deeply convinced that working together on both hardware and software is the most efficient way to make the best products.

This also serves as further proof of the growing diversity within datacenters in terms of both software and hardware. This is particularly evident when considering the developments with Broadcom and VMware, moving away from the traditional x86/VMware combination.

Finally, as this journey progresses, we look forward to keep our community updated on our progress all along the way. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to develop and refine XCP-ng on arm64, and thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm for our projects. Together, we are setting a new standard for virtualization excellence.

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Olivier Lambert

Along with Marc-André Pezin

I've been working with free software projects since 2005, deploying Xen since 2008. I'm also the creator of Xen Orchestra in 2009 and XCP-ng in 2018. Also CEO and co-founder of Vates.