Huawei to build Public Cloud Data Centers using OCP Open Rack and its own IT Equipment; Google Cloud and OCP?
Huawei:
On March 14th at the OCP 2019 Summit in San Jose, CA, Huawei Technologies (the world’s number one telecom/network equipment supplier) announced plans to adopt OCP Open Rack in its new public cloud data centers worldwide. The move is designed to enhance the environmental sustainability of Huawei’s new public cloud data centers by using less energy for servers, while driving operational efficiency by reducing the time it takes to install and maintain racks of IT equipment. In addition to Huawei’s adoption of Open Rack in its cloud data centers, the company is also expanding its work with the OCP Community to extend the design of the standard and further improve time-to-market, and high serviceability and reduce TCO. In an answer to this author’s question, Jinshui Liu CTO, IT Hardware Domain said the company would make its own OCP compliant compute servers and storage equipment (in addition to network switches) that would be used in its public cloud data centers. All that IT equipment will ALSO sold to its customers building cloud resident data centers.
The Open Rack initiative introduced by the Open Compute Project (OCP) in 2013, seeks to redefine the data center rack and is one of the most promising developments in the scale computing environment. It is the first rack standard that is designed for data centers, integrating the rack into the data center infrastructure. Open Rack integrating the rack into the data center infrastructure as part of the Open Compute Project’s “grid to gates” philosophy, a holistic design process that considers the interdependence of everything from the power grid to the gates in the chips on each motherboard.
“Huawei’s engineering and business leaders recognized the efficiency and flexibility that Open Rack offers, and the support that is available from a global supplier base. Providing cloud services to a global customer base creates certain challenges. The flexibility of the Open Rack specification and the ability to adapt for liquid cooling allows Huawei to service new geographies. Huawei’s decision to choose Open Rack is a great endorsement!” stated Bill Carter, Chief Technology Officer for the Open Compute Project Foundation.
OCP specified Open Rack v2:
Last year Huawei became an OCP Platinum Member. This year, Huawei continues investment in and commitment to OCP and the open source community. Huawei’s active involvement within the OCP Community includes on-going participation and contributions for various OCP projects such as Rack and Power, System Management and Server projects with underlying contributions to the upcoming specs for OCP accelerator Module, Advanced Cooling Solutions and OpenRMC.
“Huawei’s strategic investment and commitment to OCP is a win-win,” said Mr. Kenneth Zhang, General Manager of FusionServer, Huawei Intelligent Computing Business Department. “Combining Huawei’s extensive experience in Telco and Cloud deployments together with the knowledge of the vast OCP community will help Huawei to provide cutting edge, flexible and open solutions to its global customers. In turn, Huawei can leverage its market leadership and global data center infrastructure to help introduce OCP to new geographies and new market segments worldwide.”
During a keynote address at OCP Global Summit, Huawei shared more information about its Open Rack adoption plans as well as overall OCP strategy. Huawei also showcased some of the building blocks of these solutions in its booth, including OCP-based compute module, Huawei Kunpeng 920 ARM CPU, Huawei Ascend 310 AI processor and other Huawei intelligent Compute products.
Huawei’s Booth at OCP 2019 Summit
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
In summary, Huawei has developed an optimized rack scale design that will become the foundation of its cloud and IT infrastructure roll out. This extends the company’s product portfolio from telecom/networking to cloud computing and storage as well as an ODM for compute and storage equipment. Hence, Huawei will now compete with Microsoft Azure as well as China CSPs Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent in using OCP compliant IT equipment in their cloud resident data centers,. Unlike the other aforementioned OCP Platinum members, Huawei will design and build its own IT equipment (the other CSPs buy OCP equipment from ODMs).
There are now 124 OCP certified products available with over 60 more in the pipeline. Most of the OCP ODMs are in Taiwan.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Google:
While Google has been an OCP Platinum member since 2015, they maintained a very low profile at this year’s OCP Summit, so it’s not clear how much OCP compliant equipment they use in Google Cloud or in any of their cloud resident data centers. Google did present 2 tech sessions at the conference:
“Google’s 48V Rack Adaptation and Onboard Power Technology Update” at the OCP 2019 Summit early Friday morning March 15th. Google said that significant progress has been made in three specific applications:
1. Multi-phase 48V-to-12V voltage regulators adopting the latest hybrid switched-capacitor-buck topologies for traditional 12V workloads such as PCIEs and OTS servers;
2. Very high efficiency high density fixed ratio bus converters for 2-stage 48V-to-PoL power conversions;
3. High frequency high density voltage regulators for extremely power hungry AI accelerators.
Google and ONF provided an update on Stratum — a next generation, thin switch OS that provides silicon and hardware independence, which was first introduced at the 2018 OCP Summit. Stratum was said to enable the next generation of SDN. It adds new SDN-ready interfaces from the P4 and OpenConfig communities to ONL (Open Network Linux) that enable programmable switching chips (ASICs, FPGAs, etc.) and traditional switching ASICs alike. The talk described how the open source community has generalized Google’s seed OVP contribution for additional whitebox targets, and demonstrate Stratum on a fabric of OCP devices controlled by an open source control plane.
I believe Google is still designing all their own IT hardware (compute servers, storage equipment, switch/routers, Data Center Interconnect gear other than the PHY layer transponders). They announced design of many AI processor chips that presumably go into their IT equipment which they use internally but don’t sell to anyone else (just like Amazon AWS).
Google Cloud Next 2019 conference will be April 9-11, 2019 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
References:
https://www.huawei.com/en/press-events/news/2019/3/huawei-ocp-open-rack-public-cloud-datacenters
6 thoughts on “Huawei to build Public Cloud Data Centers using OCP Open Rack and its own IT Equipment; Google Cloud and OCP?”
Comments are closed.
Here are some 2019 OCP Summit videos from IHS-Markit:
IHS Markit 2019 Market Impact Assessment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9111zvjJ-c
………………………………and telco/network related:
AT&T Open Programmable PON OLT Spec: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An2RUUwpmL8
OCP Adoption in Telco Ecosystem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1Os-NwhGAQ&feature=youtu.be
Cost effective approach for Telco Network Analysis of 5G, by SK Telecom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNzuiNayatU
Networking: Software – ONIE Project Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk4sb30z0zk
Telco & openEDGE – Telco & openEDGE Validation of CORD SEBA Reference Design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyJ6OEPv0jA
Networking: Software Defined Fabric for OCP Leaf & Spine Switches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWE9G5kk5qQ
Networking: Hardware – Real Examples of Telecom Services Built Using White Boxes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxg7PbS3GGY
Networking: Hardware – CIG OCP Switch
https://www._Hardware -youtube.com/watch?v=jiNEQjS369U
SONiC – SONIC SAI Support in Juniper DC Switches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfARmLC5gLw
cRPD – Cloud Grade Routing as a Micro Service for Open Networking Platform
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYyLYr0rNg0
telco & openEDGE – Open Edge Deployments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kZHKVz97Eg
SONiC Deployments Powered by Programmable Dataplane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7pW-XZX2M8
SONiC – Unlocking SONiCs Potential for Intent Based Data Centers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiXdIj0Rb5w
SONiC + ONL (Open Network Linux) Open Source NOS with Broader Platform Support
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDxt3U7z9NE
SONIC SAI Support in Juniper DC Switches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfARmLC5gLw
SONiC – cRPD – Cloud Grade Routing as a Micro Service for Open Networking Platform
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYyLYr0rNg0
telco & openEDGE – Open Edge Deployments (Nokia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kZHKVz97Eg
telco & openEDGE Ecosystem Status (Nokia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyG1hZoowUk
Telco & openEDGE – OCP Data plane Acceleration for Edge Cloud
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2KvMu_OkhQ
Telco & openEDGE – DO 160 and Twinlake Servers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGK-CFsIon8
Telco & openEDGE -The New Networking Edge OSS Software and Hardware Enabling 5G/IOT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu65tw5DVks
Telco & openEDGE Validation of CORD SEBA Reference Design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyJ6OEPv0jA
Telco & openEDGE – How ONF Builds Solutions on OCP Products for Telco-Cableco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFh8nrPeFFI
Networking: Hardware – An Introduction to the Innovative and Portable iQSFP Tester
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkiMMscN6kQ
Juniper Open Initiatives Overview – Presented by Juniper Networks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlOd5OO1Obo
SONiC – Alibaba’s SONiC Development for Large Scale Deployment and Operation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLnvJjz-USM
Telco & openEDGE – Flex Helsinki, 2OU OpenRACK Built for High-density
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoPpBbdgZwM
Networking: Software – Open Networking (white box) in the Enterprise (Qualcomm deployment of OCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hiLhOHJg5o
Networking: Hardware – Scaled Troubleshoot Process for Optical Interconnects
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyWnJQ0q6LU
Telco & openEDGE – Case Study 1OU Open Rack Server and Dense Rack Level Configs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeX-2t_jXsA
SONiC Latest Update and Roadmap Forward
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljz7IrNxMlM
SONiC – InBand Network Telemetry an Open and Multi-platform Network Analytics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfo_IIvgibs
SONiC – Cloud Scale Telemetry – Real-time Telemetry and Analytics at Scale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrE93J4MQfg
NIC 3.0 Development – Multi-mode OCP NIC 3.0 card HW management
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHzvUuCoGMA
NIC 3.0 Development OCP NIC 3.0 PCIe Electrical Compliance Test Fixture Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXlZf2oaRRM
……………………………………………………………………………….
All OCP Summit 2019 videos:
https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenComputeProject
From IHS Markit’s OCP Summit 2019 presentation:
Actual (1Q–3Q18) revenue:
• 2018 OCP Non-Board YoY growth 120%
• 2018 OCP Non-Board revenue: $2.56B
Non-Board OCP revenue expected to top $10B in 2022
• Servers then storage, followed by networking top categories for revenue
• Growth rate of OCP Non-Board revenue in high double digits out to 2021
• Total market growing in low single digits
• PON potential high growth area
• Market just forming for disaggregated cell tower equipment
• US still dominates other regions in OCP revenue through 2022
• Americas’ early domination due to Non-Board hyperscaler and financial adoption, now driven by telco, CAGR =42%
• APAC will surpass EMEA on strength of hyperscaler and Tier-2 CSP adoption, CAGR 108%
• EMEA growth driven by telco,CAGR 59%
Video of IHS Markit 2019 OCP Market Impact Assessment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9111zvjJ-c
More from IHS Markit 2019 OCP Market Assessment:
Telco Cloud: the next wave is rolling out
• Non-Board hyperscaler projects stalled in 2018, but tier-2 CSPs now ready to drive growth
• Telcos 2017 POCs moved to limited production in 2018 expecting ramp in 2019+, especially in Europe
• Telco total OCP spend will surpass Non-Board hyperscalers in 2021
• Top segments for 2022 are Telco, Tier-2 CSP and Enterprise
………………………………………………………………………………………
-Cost reduction and power efficiency remain biggest drivers for OCP
-Lack of local vendor support is to top concern over last year (60% of respondents)
-400GE switching and optical components shipping in 2019
Announcing F16- Facebook’s next-generation fabric topology:
On March 14th at the 2019 OCP Summit, Omar Baldonado of Facebook (FB) revealed the F16, a next-generation data center (DC) fabric design that has 4x the capacity of their previous DC fabric design. FB engineers developed F16 using mature, readily available 100G CWDM4-OCP optics, which in essence gives their data centers the same desired 4x aggregate capacity increase as 400G optical link speeds, but using 100G optics and 100GE switching.
F16 is also more scalable and simpler to operate and evolve, so FB says their DCs are better equipped to handle increased throughput for the next few years, the company said in a blog post.
After evaluating multiple options, FB converged on a topology within each data center building, which is called “F16.” It is based on the same Broadcom ASIC that was the candidate for a 4x-faster 400G fabric design, Tomahawk 3 (TH3). But FB uses it differently: Instead of four multichip-based planes with 400G link speeds (radix-32 building blocks), FB uses the Broadcom ASIC to create 16 single-chip-based planes with 100G link speeds (optimal radix-128 blocks). Below are some of the primary features of F16:
-Each rack is connected to 16 separate planes. With Wedge 100S as the top-of-rack (TOR) switch, there is 1.6T uplink bandwidth capacity and 1.6T down to the servers.
-The planes above the rack comprise sixteen 128-port 100G fabric switches (as opposed to four 128-port 400G fabric switches).
-As a new uniform building block for all infrastructure tiers of fabric, FB created a 128-port 100G fabric switch, called Minipack. Minipack is a flexible, single ASIC design that uses half the power and half the space of Backpack.
-Furthermore, a single-chip system allows for easier management and operations.
In addition to Minipack, FB also jointly developed Arista Networks’ 7368X4 switch. FB is contributing both Minipack and the Arista 7368X4 to OCP. Both switches run FBOSS – the software that binds together all FB data centers.
https://code.fb.com/data-center-engineering/f16-minipack/
……………………………………………………………………………
400G optical components are not easy to source at Facebook’s scale. Plus, 400G ASICs and optics would need a lot more power, and power is a precious resource at any data center site. So, they built the F16 fabric out of 16 128-port 100G switches, achieving the same bandwidth as four 128-port 400G switches would.
Using the same Broadcom Tomahawk 3 ASIC that would’ve been used for a 400G fabric, F16 connects 16 single-chip planes with 100G link speeds. The top-of-rack switches are still Wedge 100, but Backpack is replaced with Minipack, Facebook’s new work horse fabric switch. The single-ASIC Minipack design is half Backpack’s size and uses half the power, according to Baldonado.
https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/facebook/get-six-data-centers-region-facebook-rethinks-its-network-again
Huawei Cloud is upgrading its presence in Hong Kong with blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) services.
Edward Deng, the president of Huawei Cloud Global Market, made some announcements on Tuesday at the Huawei Cloud Summit 2019 in Hong Kong. Deng said that Huawei Cloud is now offering blockchain services to help Hong Kong leverage blockchain’s characteristics of decentralization, irreversibility and traceability to solidify the city’s position as an international financial and logistics hub.
In addition, Huawei Cloud’s enterprise intelligence full-stack AI, which features 48 services, will become available at the end of this month. Services include the AI developer platform ModelArts, optical character recognition, natural language processing and video analysis. The company says that its AI platform has completed more than 200 projects.
Huawei Cloud’s footprint has been expanded, and the company claims it is the first provider to offer three availability zones in Hong Kong. The platform has obtained 41 global certifications and established a three-dimensional security system covering six major areas. According to Huawei, 221 of the Fortune 500 companies have worked with the Huawei Cloud on projects such as smart cities, smart factories, smart transportation and smart urban parking.
Finally, the Huawei Enterprise Overseas Application Store will open in April. It will feature more than 40 independent software vendors who will offer 250 solutions in more than 16 categories.
“Our vision is to join hands with our Hong Kong customers, industry partners and academic associations to build a smart future for this vibrant city, as well as to drive technology innovation and business development throughout the Greater Bay Area,” Huawei Cloud CTO Zhang Yuxin said in a prepared statement.
https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/huawei-cloud-supports-hong-kong-ai-and-blockchain
Liked this article on Huawei and Google using OCP gear, especially with Google now contributing their rack designs to OCP. I read your IEEE Techblog quite often and I genuinely thank you for your information. The article has truly peaked my interest.