In today’s cloud-centric world, efficiency isn’t just a goal – it’s a necessity. As organizations seek more sustainable and cost-effective computing solutions, Arm-based servers have emerged as a compelling alternative. However, migration challenges have historically slowed adoption. That’s changing with Arm‘s newly announced extension for GitHub Copilot, designed to simplify the journey to Arm architecture for millions of developers.
AI-Assisted Development Meets Arm Expertise
GitHub Copilot has transformed development workflows for over a million paid users across 20,000+ enterprises. These developers spend an average of 3.4 days per week using the tool, with Accenture reporting a 55% increase in coding speed and an 85% boost in developer confidence.
The Arm extension builds on this foundation by integrating architecture-specific knowledge directly into the development experience. By simply invoking `@arm` within GitHub Copilot Chat, developers gain immediate access to:
- Curated code examples tailored for Arm architecture
- Best practices and migration strategies
- Performance optimization techniques leveraging Arm-specific capabilities
- Direct links to Arm’s learning resources and documentation
This context-aware assistance significantly shifts from generic AI coding suggestions to architecture-specific guidance to address real-world migration challenges.
Complete CI/CD Pipeline on Arm
Perhaps most significant for DevOps teams is the introduction of a complete CI/CD pipeline featuring GitHub Actions, Arm Runners and the Arm extension, which is fully available on Arm for free to developers everywhere.
This integration creates a seamless development workflow that spans:
- Initial coding with architecture-specific assistance from the Arm extension
- Building and testing through GitHub Actions
- Deployment using Arm Runners optimized for performance
The recent announcement of free GitHub Runners for Arm further reduces barriers to entry, enabling teams to experience the performance and efficiency benefits of Arm architecture without additional infrastructure costs.
Real-World Impact
Early adopters have already reported significant benefits. Rinat Shagisultanov, VP of Technology at InfoMagnus, describes the extension as “game-changing for developers,” highlighting how it helps teams leverage “Arm intrinsics and architectural features to make their software more performant and efficient.”
Its deep integration with Arm’s architectural knowledge distinguishes the extension from generic AI assistants. Jeremy Sinclair, Software & AppSec Architect and Microsoft MVP, notes: “What blew me away wasn’t just that the Arm extension could help with code – it was how it gave real context about the Arm architecture. The difference between receiving generic, unhelpful guidance and getting legitimate, architecture-specific guidance from Arm is critical to efficiency.”
Mitch Ashley, VP and Practice Lead, DevOps and Application Development at The Futurum Group, states, “Software development innovation is about reducing friction and helping development teams embrace new capabilities and efficiencies. Arm is a vital part platform for applications and software in the device, at the edge, and at the core of the cloud. Bringing together the Arm and GitHub ecosystems directly to developers’ copilots and IDEs shortens the pipelines for the development, testing and deployment on Arm technologies.”
Beyond Server Migration
While the initial focus is on servers and cloud environments, Arm has outlined plans to extend support across a diverse range of applications:
- Generative AI: Simplifying the creation and deployment of AI applications on Arm architecture
- Mobile and Gaming: Optimizing applications for performance on Arm-based platforms
- IoT and Software-Defined Vehicles: Creating seamless workflows for cloud-to-edge and cloud-to-car deployment
The extension will also help developers adopt advanced Arm architecture features like BF16 and I8MM, along with the latest Armv9 capabilities available in Azure Cobalt 100 GitHub Runners – including SVE2, which significantly accelerates machine learning performance.
MLOps Integration
For organizations building AI/ML pipelines, the combination of GitHub Actions, native Arm Runners, and the Arm extension creates compelling opportunities. Developers can now build end-to-end MLOps workflows that automate each step in the machine learning lifecycle while running natively on Arm-based platforms.
This integration is especially valuable for cloud-to-edge optimization scenarios, where consistent architecture across development and deployment environments can dramatically improve performance and reduce operational complexity.
The Developer Experience Advantage
GitHub’s Chief Product Officer, Mario Rodriguez, emphasizes the transformative potential of integrating these ecosystems: “We’re integrating two amazing ecosystems… melding them together to enable scenarios that were impossible before. Sometimes, I like to think about these things as “one plus one equals three.”
This collaboration has already generated impressive results, with over 11 million jobs executed and more than 250 million minutes of compute time utilized through the partnership. Rodriguez notes, “That’s a quarter billion minutes already in the platform through this partnership. And in my opinion, we’re just getting started.”
Looking Forward
As Arm continues enhancing the extension, future updates will support a broader range of devices and use cases. The company remains committed to being the trusted platform for developers, working with ecosystem partners to ensure seamless access to the latest Arm platform capabilities across every segment of compute.
For DevOps teams considering migration to Arm architecture, the extension represents an immediate productivity boost and a strategic investment in future-ready infrastructure. By reducing the knowledge gap and streamlining migration workflows, Arm and GitHub make high-performance, energy-efficient computing more accessible.
