Get started with Servers and Cloud Computing
Introduction
Arm in Servers and Cloud Computing
Find Arm hardware
Next Steps
Get started with Servers and Cloud Computing
Server hardware, based on Arm Neoverse processors, is available from cloud service providers (CSPs) and server vendors.
Cloud Service Providers
Creating an account with a cloud service provider (CSP) is the easiest way to get started with Arm. CSPs offer introductory free credits to start learning cloud services. A pay-as-you-go model makes it easy to try out Arm hardware at little cost, if any.
Software developers often try Arm hardware as a way to reduce cost and improve application performance.
Cloud providers offer Arm instances based on Neoverse processors. For example:
- Alibaba Cloud
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Google Cloud
- Microsoft Azure
- Oracle Cloud
- Scaleway
- Hetzner Cloud
Free tier offers are currently available:
- Amazon EC2 t4g.small instances powered by AWS Graviton2 processors are free for up to 750 hours / month until Dec 31st 2026
- Oracle free tier includes up to 4 instances of Arm Ampere A1 Compute 3,000 OCPU hours and 18,000 GB hours per month which are always free
Get started with Arm-based cloud service platforms explains how to create an account and start an Arm virtual machine using the cloud service providers listed above.
Works on Arm (free cloud resources)
The Works on Arm initiative enables developers to build, test, and optimize projects on the Arm64 architecture by providing free access to Arm based developer platforms, cloud instances, and CI/CD environments. Arm has partnered with cloud service providers to make Neoverse compute available to developers.
Academic offers from Cloud Service Providers
Below is a list of Arm cloud partners that have existing academic offers for students and teaching staff who wish to use Arm-based instances.
- Microsoft Azure Student Offer
- Google Cloud for Faculty
- Google Cloud for Researchers
- Alibaba Cloud Academic Empowerment Program
- NVIDIA Higher Education Research
- Oracle Cloud Education
Arm SystemReady Certified hardware
Arm SystemReady is a program that certifies that systems meet the SystemReady standards, giving you confidence that operating systems (OS) and subsequent layers of software just work.
You can find a full list of SystemReady SR Certified Systems on the Arm website along with links to purchase Arm servers.
Server software development
Servers typically run the Linux operating system. Popular distributions for servers include Ubuntu, Red Hat, SUSE Linux, and Debian. Vendor specific distributions, such as Amazon Linux and Oracle Linux are also available.
If the GNU compiler is not pre-installed with your distribution, you can install it using a package manager .
You can also install Arm Compiler for Linux for HPC applications.
Migrating applications to Arm servers is a good place to start analyzing existing applications and reviewing guidance for developers interested in trying Arm hardware.