Closing the Gap on Your AI Proof of Concept

As the world enters what many see as the 4th industrial revolution, our access to data and the consumption of information have never been greater. Sensors, IoT (internet of things) devices and video platforms are being deployed at an astronomical rate, generating more data than we have ever consumed. IDC estimates by next year the digital universe will generate 44 zettabytes of data – four times the amount from four years ago. A staggering amount by all accounts, compounded by the fact it is growing every minute.

Some have referred to this era as the Internet of Everything, or IoE. New applications and impacts are emerging every day, in areas like smart health, transportation and retail. Our quality of life, efficiency and new scientific discoveries are powered by these new applications. However, it’s not only the data but the ability to analyze and recognize value with these new data sources. As IT (and people) struggle to keep up with data and the resulting information it helps form, companies must look at how to best optimize for deep data. To sort through all this data, you need a different kind of technology, such as accelerated computing with GPUs, or “graphics processing units,” especially with the increased use of machine learning (ML) to better filter, categorize and recognize meaningful data points.
 

At the forefront of this technology revolution is NVIDIA, the leader in accelerated computing. We at Flexential announced our partnership with NVIDIA in January 2019 as a “DGX-Ready” partner, which means we have the data centers to house, cool and maintain these servers. NVIDIA provides a fully optimized hardware and software platform built on NVIDIA DGX systems, purpose-built for the unique demands of AI. NVIDIA DGX is a high-performance, compute platform that delivers industry-leading acceleration of the most complex AI training problems.

While many organizations employ a cloud-first strategy for consuming compute, there are benefits to a hybridized approach that balances prototyping and early experimentation in cloud with deterministic performance for training at scale on-premises. And unlike DIY solutions that employ off-the-shelf components, DGX systems are fully optimized and integrated explicitly for enterprise AI, enabling data science teams to focus on AI-powered insights rather than systems integration and management.

As application needs grow, having confidence in a consistent cost model is important to scaling your business and ensuring the right results — on time and budget.

NVIDIA, NetApp, Trace3 and Mellanox have worked to provide a best-in-class solution for the rapid deployment of DGX and partner technologies supporting the NVIDIA reference architectures within Flexential data centers. This solution will allow customers to quickly pilot ML/AI apps in a secure, compliant facility, with global network services to support data migration and hyper-scale connectivity. Through our partnerships we are excited to offer a “test drive” to give prospects the ability to pilot this platform, and start to journey to lock in better economics and results. When a user decides to move forward, no re-hosting or data moves required — ensuring no time is lost during the pilot phase. Painless from setup to production.

Flexential provides the latest generation in efficient power and cooling technologies in its 39 data centers, across 19 markets, while inter-connecting its facilities with a scalable up to 400Gbps backbone, augmented by additional SDN and SD-WAN services for hyper-scale cloud connect. These solutions can be deployed rapidly to support changing conditions for data integration and analytics.

Also, Flexential’s expert security and compliance services team can assist in the design and integration of security requirements as part of the overall solution, increasing peace of mind and time to deliver.