The ARMv8-A option - powered by a pair of 48-core Cavium ThunderX chips - makes Packet the first cloud provider to offer a 64-bit ARM server with the same elastic benefits of Intel-powered solutions. The 2A server is priced at $0.50/hr, or $0.005/core per hour (about 1/10th the cost per core of Packet's existing Intel-powered Type 2) and is available in minutes via API, portal or widely used DevOps tools such as Terraform and Ansible.
"Making a powerful, low-cost ARM compute node available to developers has been a dream of mine for years," said Zachary Smith, CEO at Packet. "With the support of the Cavium and SoftBank teams, as well as our hardware and ecosystem partners, we're thrilled that users can take advantage of ARMv8-A powered bare metal at this incredible price point with the same experience as our x86 solutions."
Unlike lower-end ARMv7-A variants, the ARMv8-A architecture powering Packet's bare metal Type 2A is designed for high density data center workloads and thrives on tasks like container-based applications, data processing, threaded application workloads and network heavy functions such as load balancing. To encourage rapid adoption, Packet also announced full 64-bit ARM support for Ubuntu 16.04, as well as a pipeline that includes CoreOS, FreeBSD and CentOS.
"Packet is enabling genuine choice in the data center market with an instantly available ARMv8-A 64-bit server solution that is a direct challenger to legacy providers," said Jeff Underhill, director of server programs, ARM. "The combination of outstanding performance at a compelling price is bolstered by Packet's access to a wide range of developer networks anxious to test their workloads on ARM processor-based servers."
Cloud native (Docker, Kubernetes, Mesos) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are natural workloads for ARMv8-A as they are highly portable and do not require the same tie-in with Intel processors. Packet's offering follows a recent investment by SoftBank, who acquired ARM Holdings for $32 billion in September.
"Packet brought the public cloud experience to single tenant bare metal," said Rishi Chugh, Director Marketing, Data Center Processor Group at Cavium. "The ARM-based high density server platform, built on Cavium's award-winning workload optimized ThunderX processor, further accelerates the enablement of next generation cloud applications that power the modern internet and technology of tomorrow."
