“To create a lightweight, agile, and productized cloud,” ZStack’s founder & CEO Zhang Xin has repeatedly stated this when announcing the seamless hybrid cloud strategy and products with Alibaba Cloud, when launching the first cloud-network integration product with Dahe Cloud, and now when collaborating with Huaxintong to launch a cloud platform based on ARM domestic chip servers.
ZStack’s founder & CEO Zhang Xin speaking at the Digital Expo
To be honest, when I first heard from Zhang Xin that “one machine can also run a hybrid cloud,” I nodded in agreement, but in my heart, I was skeptical—Is this true? I have heard too many vendors making promises, but they were mostly verbal expressions or written narratives without seeing real application scenarios. This time is different; at the recently concluded 2018 Guiyang “Digital Expo,” I personally witnessed and touched the world’s smallest cloud computing application based on an ARM processor platform: an ARM domestic chip server from Huaxintong running ZStack’s cloud platform with three core applications on it. It is particularly noteworthy that at the Huaxintong booth and the Alibaba Cloud booth, I saw the “one ARM domestic chip server, one cloud” showcased from different aspects including core key technologies, solutions, and actual application scenarios. Seeing is believing; Zhang Xin is not “boasting”.
Fully domestic “cloud” is evident
In fact, even before I came to Guiyang for the 2018 Digital Expo, I had heard that ZStack would collaborate with Huaxintong to launch a cloud running on ARM domestic chip servers. When I arrived at the “Digital Expo” site, especially after walking around Huaxintong’s booth, I was still shocked. I did not expect Huaxintong’s ARM ecosystem to have reached a relatively mature stage, not only has Huaxintong launched the domestic ARM chip “Shenglong,” but it has also formed a complete domestic industrial chain based on ARM processors, including server manufacturing, Linux operating systems, cloud platform solutions, application software, etc. This also reflects from one aspect that the cloud based on ARM domestic chip servers, built in collaboration between ZStack and Huaxintong, is not a castle in the air, but a tangible cloud supported by equipment and industrial ecology.
Huaxintong, in the construction of the “Cloud on Guizhou” project, needs an IaaS platform that can meet domestic needs and be delivered quickly. The core self-developed, open-source, and highly productized ZStack, due to its excellent self-research architecture, seamless docking with Alibaba’s public cloud, and complete integrated product delivery advantages, has become Huaxintong’s best partner. What we see today is the first fully domestic cloud platform that can be scaled and commercialized, created by ZStack in collaboration with Huaxintong and Alibaba Cloud, including domestic chips, domestic servers, and domestic cloud platforms. This solution, starting with the “Cloud on Guizhou Big Data Precision Poverty Alleviation Cloud,” has already played a role in local electronic government and precision poverty alleviation projects.
The implementation of this solution has benchmark significance, proving that ARM processors can also meet the stringent performance requirements in cloud computing environments, and a fully domestic cloud solution composed of domestic chips, domestic servers, and domestic cloud platforms is feasible.
According to the reporter’s understanding, the next step will also be based on ZStack as the cloud platform foundation, successively launching projects such as the Cloud on Guizhou portal app, and Guizhou province’s electronic government website (domestic ARM version), further promoting large-scale commercialization of Huaxintong’s ARM domestic chip servers on the Cloud on Guizhou system platform.
It is a coincidence of opportunity and mutual recognition of capabilities
According to rumors, before collaborating with ZStack, Huaxintong had contacted several domestic cloud platform vendors. Why did it ultimately fall to ZStack?
At first, when Huaxintong approached, ZStack was also very cautious, and both sides had very in-depth communication at ZStack’s Shanghai headquarters. Zhang Xin first arranged for senior engineers to test Huaxintong’s ARM platform. The test results were unexpected; it was very convenient to open ZStack cloud hosts and connect to the network on Huaxintong’s ARM domestic chip servers. Running cloud applications on Huaxintong’s ARM domestic chip servers was very stable and flexible, and this initial judgment also sparked greater interest in deep cooperation between both sides. In the following week, Huaxintong provided ZStack with a complete server testing environment, and ZStack conducted product performance and reliability testing based on this testing environment. Then, both sides deployed the ARM architecture-based ZStack cloud solution in the Cloud on Guizhou project’s data center for practical application testing, and the results were very good.
Seeing is believing
One ARM server, “A Cloud”
So, in the following three months, ZStack completed the development work that was originally planned to take five months.
Zhang Xin told reporters that ZStack is always committed to the productization of cloud computing, so it will not invest heavily in research and development for a specific project. The reason for collaborating with Huaxintong is that ZStack’s advantages are in being open, flexible, and easy to use, allowing for quick delivery; secondly, this cloud platform for ARM domestic chip servers is scalable and productizable, which does not deviate from the company’s original intention; thirdly, ZStack has adhered to the self-research, security, and controllability technology route since its inception, insisting that all core code is self-developed while also insisting on productization and independent innovation based on open-source cloud computing, which aligns with Huaxintong’s purpose of independently developing ARM domestic chip servers and promoting domestic applications. Zhang Xin firmly believes that such a fully domestic cloud system can be used in industries with special security requirements.
“ZStack is a lightweight, agile, and highly productized cloud computing company that is simple to use and supports integrated product delivery. This is the key reason we chose ZStack.” Regarding why they chose to cooperate with ZStack, Dr. Wang Kai, CEO of Huaxintong, revealed, “ZStack’s self-developed technology architecture meets Huaxintong’s core demands for rapid implementation. Additionally, some new product features introduced by ZStack, such as large-screen displays, can clearly and intuitively show the usage status of IT infrastructure resources. All of this makes ZStack a key part of Huaxintong’s ARM ecosystem.”
Starting from a proprietary cloud system
The Cloud on Guizhou system platform officially launched on October 15, 2014, and within a month, seven clouds and 41 application systems had successfully migrated to the Cloud on Guizhou platform. Today, the Cloud on Guizhou system continues to expand and grow, with more and more applications and localities in Guizhou province connecting to it, with the “Smart Gui’an Cloud Platform” being one of them.
In fact, the “Smart Gui’an Cloud Platform” is like a remote node of the Cloud on Guizhou. From the overall architecture, the Cloud on Guizhou is a deployment of a hybrid cloud. In the future, more nodes like the “Smart Gui’an Cloud Platform” will be connected, and the scale of this hybrid cloud will continue to grow.
Huaxintong and ZStack jointly created this cloud based on ARM domestic chip servers, which first landed on the “Smart Gui’an Cloud Platform.” According to Zhang Xin, the “Smart Gui’an Cloud Platform” is a proprietary cloud system, belonging to an edge computing node. It is specifically aimed at a certain type of business application, which is electronic government. Judging from the current situation, the cloud system based on ARM domestic chip servers can meet the performance and functionality requirements.
Starting from a proprietary cloud system, achieving the localization from chip to server system to cloud platform is a feasible and gradual evolutionary path.
From the development process of IT, it can also be seen that technological development is a spiral ascent—from the initial proprietary, closed systems to open, general cloud computing, and now there is a demand for proprietary cloud systems. Some standardized, large-scale applications and general functions can be supported by public clouds, while some specialized needs and tasks that can be completed locally can choose proprietary cloud systems and edge computing methods. This allows for reasonable division of labor and enables both public and proprietary clouds to leverage their strengths.
The cloud platform based on ARM domestic chip servers will occupy an important position in electronic government and other industry cloud computing projects in the future.
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