Google also uses Haskell for Ganeti, their cluster-based virtualization management software. [0]
Why does Ganeti use Haskell?
Ganeti first used Haskell as an experiment when we needed a compiled language that could perform fast computations on cluster metadata. Eventually, we found that Haskell had advantages in its type safety that made it easy for us to develop better code with fewer common errors without having to write extensive “type-specific” unit tests. At this point, we decided to expand our use of Haskell.
As of January 2014, we plan to convert only “infrastructural” code (job queue, locking) that was already very complicated in Python to Haskell. We’ll continue to use Python for Logical Units, backend RPCs, and hypervisor, storage, and networking implementations.
There are two main reasons why Haskell constitutes a low barrier:
- Haskell doesn’t have any runtime dependency on the target systems.
- For setup, Haskell only requires a development environment.
Why does Ganeti use Haskell?
Ganeti first used Haskell as an experiment when we needed a compiled language that could perform fast computations on cluster metadata. Eventually, we found that Haskell had advantages in its type safety that made it easy for us to develop better code with fewer common errors without having to write extensive “type-specific” unit tests. At this point, we decided to expand our use of Haskell.
As of January 2014, we plan to convert only “infrastructural” code (job queue, locking) that was already very complicated in Python to Haskell. We’ll continue to use Python for Logical Units, backend RPCs, and hypervisor, storage, and networking implementations.
There are two main reasons why Haskell constitutes a low barrier:
- Haskell doesn’t have any runtime dependency on the target systems.
- For setup, Haskell only requires a development environment.
[0] https://code.google.com/p/ganeti/wiki/GanetiFAQ#Why_does_Gan...