SAN JOSE, CA: Google and Rackspace, an information technology and service provider, announces a partnership to develop a next-generation OpenPower and Open Compute Project form factor server. Both the companies are co-developing an open server specification based on the new POWER9 architecture and aim to present a candidate server design to the Open Compute Project (OCP).

The OpenPower Foundation is a consortium of more than 200 leading technology companies, organizations, and individuals innovating around the POWER processor. Member companies are enabled to customize POWER CPU processors and system platforms for optimization and innovation for their business needs. These innovations include custom systems for large or warehouse-scale data centers, workload acceleration through GPU, FPGA or advanced I/O, platform optimization for SW appliances, or advanced hardware technology exploitation.

The Open Compute Project is a collaborative community focused on redesigning hardware technology to efficiently support the growing demands on computing infrastructure.

 Rackspace also announced that its OpenPower-based "Barreleye" servers developed with IBM, Samsung, Mellanox and others in 2016 are being made available in data centers, including Rackspace's OpenStack public cloud.

“Today’s IT infrastructure leaders seek open technology alternatives to processor and system architectures,” says John Zannos, Chairman of the OpenPOWER Foundation, and Vice President of Cloud Channels and Alliances, Canonical. “Customized solutions and open building blocks are quickly becoming required options for system design. Collaborative innovation, the hallmark of both the OpenPOWER Foundation and the Open Compute Project, is essential to building the next generation data center.”