Intel and other companies have invested $44 billion into Oxide, a startup aiming to revolutionize on-premise and cloud servers with a minimalist design. Oxide’s focus is on providing cloud-facing servers for purchase, rather than just for rent, particularly for businesses with a need for on-premises IT infrastructure. The company ships its rack with everything installed in one box, eliminating the need for additional cabling and hardware upon arrival.
Oxide’s approach involves co-designing hardware and software to create servers with no hard-coded quotas for switching or routing, allowing customers to program the switch themselves. The firm has also replaced the baseboard management controller with a service processor that handles power cycling and remote server management.
The company’s concept of reequipping servers was first introduced in 2019 and has since evolved to include its own components and software to manage workloads and networking. By taking a minimalist approach, Oxide brings software much closer to the silicon, rather than stacking multiple software and hardware layers.
According to Oxide CTO Bryan Cantrill, the company seeks to avoid traditional switches and has developed a system using AMD EPYC Milan CPUs in compute sleds. These servers can handle tasks like VM management, eliminating the need for software from VMware or OpenStack. This approach differs from companies like Google, AWS, and Meta, which have developed similar lightweight servers but only offer them for rent.
Dell and HPE have also not yet ventured into developing barebones cloud servers, creating an opportunity for Oxide to make its mark in the industry. With its innovative platform and support from industry giants like Intel, Oxide is set to change the landscape of cloud server architecture.
