@OCP: Caliptra Unifies Interoperability Standards for Enterprise and Cloud- Native Hardware Infrastructure

By Jean S. Bozman

The data center – and how we use it – is due for a makeover.

Cloud computing accelerated following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Changing user demands are transforming manufacturers’ approaches to server architecture designs – and the server racks that house them.

 Now, a new generation of data-center systems, powered by AI and machine learning (ML) software tools, are pushing server-rack density higher – and will need to be cooled more efficiently than before.

When the Rubber Meets the Road

It is a time when the “rubber is meeting the road” – when enterprise computing requirements are bumping into cloud-native applications. It is a time when data center operators consolidating traditional hardware infrastructure and reducing data silos, while reducing cooling requirements.

Up to now, these two types of workloads – enterprise and cloud-native -- have been running side-by-side, with very different sets of requirements for manufacturing and operations. It is a time when data center operators consolidating traditional hardware infrastructure and reducing data silos, while reducing cooling requirements.

Meanwhile, cloud service providers (CSPs) – the world’s biggest “hyperscalers” – are focusing on three attributes – performance, efficiency, and security – to “scale up” data center infrastructure, including compute, storage, and networking.

 To cope with increased density and heat generation, a new approach to cooling is emerging – liquid cooling inside the rack. Component density is increasing inside racks, demand for power/cooling is rising, and there’s a worldwide push to support sustainability and to reduce customers’ energy costs.

Open Computing Project’s Plans: Cooperation on Rack Standards

The Open Computing Project (OCP) conference in San Jose (Oct. 18-20) revealed much about enclosure re-designs – with modularity on system boards, new configurations of server, storage and networking components, and new approaches to cooling using air and liquid coolants.

19-inch Racks Meet OCP Racks

In many data centers, 19-inch racks in x86-based system “cabinets” have become industry-standard gear. Based on compute, storage, and networking components – standard interconnects, customers are connecting them today, using high-speed interconnects.

Now, the Open Compute Platform (OCP) is providing an alternative “OCP rack” (alternative to the 19-inch rack) that is gaining importance for data centers and cloud providers. It is designed to improve scalability and flexibility.

One of the intriguing features of cloud computing is that it is leading to new alliances and partnerships between longtime competitors. We’ve seen that emerge, and gain momentum, in the open software space. Now, we are seeing a new wave of multi-company cooperation and competition in open hardware, an approach that encourages infrastructure, security, and power/cooling standards.

New OCP Interoperability Initiatives

 Here are the top initiatives announced at OCP for data-center innovation:

• Caliptra for Root-of-Trust Security: The new Caliptra initiative, supported by AMD, Google, Microsoft and NVIDIA, supports Root of trust (RoT) security. Other OCP member companies are also expected to join, which would expand the number of processor platforms that support certified levels of end-to-end “confidential computing.” Caliptra provides a unified foundation for Root of Trust security, supporting end-to-end security as SOCs (Security Operations Centers) are verified to be correctly configured and running the correct firmware.
• Caliptra Support: The agreement between four major vendors – AMD, Google, Microsoft, and NVIDIA – to co-develop and support the Caliptra standard is designed to pave the way to universally trusted end-to-end boot time security that starts with the processors, enforcing SOC-level configuration and firmware validation .
• OCP + Linux Foundation: OCP and the Linux Foundation announced that they will actively support hardware-software co-design among OCP and Linux Foundation member companies for open systems and cloud infrastructure. The agreement opens the door to optimizations of platforms for security, reliability, and efficiency. Although this level of cooperation has happened informally before this, support for co-design stands to deepen the degree of optimization up and down the technology stack, which is intended to boost interoperability.
• Liquid Cooling: Once a pipe-dream for those who tried to extract excess heat in many other ways, liquid cooling – specifically immersion cooling – has the potential to dramatically reduce the cost of removing heat that is generated within server racks. It does so by immersing the entire server   –  including CPUs, GPUs, SSDs, and interconnects – in a manufactured liquid, such as a mineralized oil or clear solvent. Demos at the OCP conference showed that the liquid can be clear, calm and without ripples – or, alternatively, it can appear to “boil” due to temperature changes in the liquid-cooled enclosure. Still in the early stages of adoption, immersion cooling is far along in terms of development, but not yet widely adopted, as vendors as a preliminary step prepare to augment air-cooling with liquid-cooled racks.

Summary

The pending technology refresh in the data center is taking shape. A variety of designs is coming onto the data-center equipment marketplace -- and some things are already plain to see. The new designs feature “disaggregated” components, allowing ever-faster semiconductor components and accelerators to be scaled up to support highly “dense” workloads in smaller spaces than before.

Highly distributed cloud-ready infrastructure allows the multi-cloud world to exist. However, this end-to-end cloud infrastructure requires both interoperability between component types –  and the emergence of widely adopted security standards. At a time when the “rubber is meeting the road,” enterprise data centers find themselves reducing data silos and consolidating hardware infrastructure. Meanwhile, cloud service providers – including some of the world’s biggest “hyperscalers” are looking to improve security so that enterprise applications can safely run on their servers, storage, and networking.

The convergence of infrastructure is seen directly on hardware chips, system interconnects and backplanes for industry-standard x86 and OCP rack-based architectures. The OCP exhibit hall showed and we can see – in living color – the morphing of designs for OCP-compliant racks and their support for an evolving set of OCP specifications. Widely accepted standards are allowing data centers to connect the disaggregated infrastructure pieces, speeding up adoption of new interconnects for high-performance computing, AI/ML software and multi-cloud digital infrastructure.

Copyright 2022, Jean S. Bozman. All rights reserved.