Sometimes obligations accelerate the unnoticed advantages of undiscovered or ignored solutions; just like the companies had to transition into remote working during the pandemic. And the global chip shortage, alongside other reasons, is pushing giant cloud companies to take ARM-based solutions more seriously.
Big cloud companies are ARMing their servers
ARM-based servers might be a good solution for reducing the power demand
In recent months, the enterprise tech analyst company Omdia has published new research showing the shifting from x86 to ARM. In the three months of 2021, July, August, and September, 5 percent of all servers shipped to cloud companies contained ARM-based CPUs. The most notable companies in this data are Amazon, Equinix, and Oracle. On the other hand, Huawei is also speeding up its servers with their ARM-based Kunpeng CPUs.
AMD, one of the two biggest x86 CPU companies, is also considering developing ARM-based server chips. In September, AMD CFO Devinder Kumar said they are ready to make ARM chips, even if they think x86 is the best solution for the server-side. The company is also gaining strength in its x86 business in the enterprise area, gaining a 2% share compared to the previous quarter, reaching 18%.