In The Arena by TechArena - Innovating OpenBMC Enabled Shared Firmware Across the Network with HPE’s Jean-Marie Verdun

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

TechArena host Allyson Klein chats with HPE’s Jean-Marie Verdun about his organization’s groundbreaking work to redefine firmware management using OpenBMC technology and how this breakthrough addresses data center customer demands.

Welcome to the Tech Arena, featuring authentic discussions between tech's leading innovators and our host, Allison Klein. Now, let's step into the arena. Welcome to the Tech Arena. My name is Alison Klein. We're recording from OCP Lisbon this week, and I'm delighted to be joined by Jean-Marie Vredon, Distinguished Technologist at HPE. Welcome to the program, Jean-Marie. Thank you. So, Jean-Marie, this is the first time on the Tech Arena, so why don't you just go ahead and introduce yourself and your role at HPE? Okay.

So, my name is Jean-Marie Vardin. I'm French. I'm a writer on the world. That's fantastic. Now, we are at OCP. OCP is obviously a center of cutting-edge data center innovation, and this week's conference is proving to be a highlight, including a lot of acute industry focus. You're delivering a session on sustainable management infrastructure. Why is this critical right now for your customers? I think there are two things which need to be fixed with management.

The first thing is about security, and the second one is about scalability. The data systems are becoming more and more critical because there are more and more complex software, and this is leading to some security issues. And keeping this software stack up to date is something which is very important. And we partner with, I wouldn't say customers, I would say video partners and technical partners on trying to improve these two key features for management. The scalability is actually very important because people tend to scrap their system due to the fact that some firmware stacks are aging and are no longer supported.

And by leveraging a bunch of firmware, so we can consider the ownership of the firmware stack management. That's fantastic. Now, your session focuses on the industry standard technologies that exist in the space and how HPE is taking those and adding your own secret sauce when solutions are delivering. Why are standards so critical for moving the industry forward? And what's the state of standards like OpenBMC? Okay.

I think standardization is very critical for worldwide energy. So we kind of have different solutions for different solutions for customers. This is always leading to more expensive solutions and harder to maintain. And that is why HPE, with that said, OpenSource is providing a new way to standardize

it by opening up the technology and giving the capability to the end users to integrate their own secrets. So that is something which is important for some of our customers, especially the IPaaS community for the cloud service, and that is why we are raising references and we are helping the personal community to be more standardized and avoid the wide, wide waste approach that some of us face. Jean-Marie, I had the pleasure of visiting the HPE booth earlier today and taking a look at a demonstration of the technology that you're talking about. Can you just walk our listeners through the operational aspects of how this works?

Yep. So the typical demonstration that we are bringing to the SAP Azure is about bringing up FlashBase servers. So we are trying to enhance the security of the servers by removing the ZAP, the columns, the starvations from the VMC to the ROM and delivering the software directly from the network. So this is leading to faster goods and higher security. Many cloud service providers are relocating hardware between customers

and they don't want to have hidden storage area inside the service. And one of the ideas behind this is to to have hidden storage area inside the service. And one of the idea behind this is to remove this hidden storage area which are contained directly within the service by network booting machines. So the demo is based on OpenVMC and we modified the network switch, which is behaving like a storage controller

and providing a very specific VLANs to deliver the storage to the server and reboot the machine directly from the network. It is loading a Linux kernel and then it is attaching an X-Scales device as a root file system. I really thought this was interesting because when I first heard about your talk

and what your team was doing, it came into my mind of an efficiency of operation play, but this really is getting to the heart of security. It is going to the heart of security and efficiency because if you want to upgrade that storage, you do not need to go to each service. You just go to a main storage location and you take the content from the network.

So you are more efficient and you are faster on deploying your base. But this is leading you to have a more secure systems because you are faster on updating systems. And this is providing you the capability to update your firmware on a daily basis, et cetera. Instead of waiting every month or every quarter just to update your system.

Really good updates are run every month or every day when they are reaching the production level. But what we believe is that all updates should be available in the system, and this is why we've developed that process. When you think about OCP, obviously HPE has been a member and an active contributor for a number of years.

Why is OCP important in the firmware conversations? OCP is dealing with hardware. And hardware is certainly less than firmware. Firmware is less than hardware. So that's a combination. We cannot have a working system without a good firmware. And we cannot have a good system, a good firmware without a good system. So what we believe is that OCP is focused on energy efficiency, on visibility, and security.

So that is why we want you to contribute to our new levels. That's fantastic. Now, what has the operator response been when you've shared this technology with your customers? And where are you in terms of ideation to a planner? Okay. At the beginning, everybody thought we were crazy. We are just trying to explain to our customer that the firmware can become an operating system.

And if this is becoming an operating system, so they can use the exact same tools than on the HIF side. And when you explain to the end users HIF benefits, everybody enjoys it. Everybody likes it. And that is very exciting to see these feedbacks from the Envisio. And that's also why my talk is with OVHDR this afternoon. So that is something they're really involved. It's not yet in production, but that is definitely something that we are exploring and we are trying to put in production. And I got the same feedback from all the other clubs and restaurants.

And the beauty of the technology is that it's not free-to-earn. Everybody can get inspired by this and can reuse it inside their own data center. That's fantastic. Now, obviously, we're at OCMP Elizabeth. HP has a focus on your talk, but what else are you guys doing at the show?

We work into many different work groups at OCMP. So we are a very active member of the NCMHL, the CSCM, the App Store firmware. So we are also discussing with the community about what should be next, what could be the next innovation that also people are going to love. So this is really a good way to gather

and discuss with engineers about the future of the industry. And that is why I'm going to speak with you. So Marie, one final question for you. I'm sure we talked about some technology that our listeners are interested in finding out more about. Where can they engage you and your team and learn more about the solutions HPC is offering in this arena? Okay.

We have an OpenDMC webpage on HP.com, where there is a form that any business can fill out. OpenDMC is supported on all journals and platforms on HP. So everybody can test OpenDMC on a HP machine. And that is something which is important to me. Then, otherwise, people can send me emails. It's super easy to reach me. I'm trying to inform them as soon as I can.

I'm probably not, but that's another good way. And we have a lot of other HP people working in cyber cities. So I think it's pretty easy to find HP employees either into the CLA channels or the CSE and Logo.

So my recommendation would be just compete with us, share your ideas, and let's try to see how we can work together. That's fantastic. Thank you so much for being on the program today and spending some time in your busy schedule at Lisbon with the Tech Arena. Thank you very much. Have a great day.

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