AI-Driven Infrastructure: The Key to Faster Time to Market

Presented by Microsoft + NVIDIA

Dedicated cloud infrastructure is the best way to rapidly and cost-effectively scale AI to create business value and growth. In this VB Spotlight, experts from Microsoft and NVIDIA explore how critical infrastructure is to the success of your AI strategy.

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“The most important thing companies can do today is adopt a growth mindset when it comes to AI, and embrace it with both arms,” says Nidhi Chappell, CEO , Azure HPC and IA, at Microsoft. "I have the privilege of being in the front row, so I've seen what a differentiator it is and how much it drives innovation."

But the complexity and cost of implementing an AI strategy, especially getting pilots into production, remains a major challenge. This is where a high-performance AI infrastructure comes in.

A purpose-built, cloud-based, end-to-end platform including optimized processors, accelerators, networks, storage and software, enables businesses to successfully operationalize and scale AI in production with improved standardization, cost control and governance.

An AI-first foundation can eliminate unmanaged purchases, uneven development, and uncertain model performance, help reduce duplicate efforts, tighten workflows, and eliminate many resource and time costs to operate all parts of the tech stack. well together.

Infrastructure optimized for various AI workloads

“AI is not a monolith,” Chappell reminds us. "This is an umbrella term that encompasses many different types of workloads; cost profiles vary widely, especially for companies at different stages of AI maturity."

At one end of the spectrum, some companies are involved in high-end model training and inference of large amounts of data. At the other end, companies use very lightweight predefined models and deduce them in the field.

Rather than battling a behemoth in a small footprint, a standardized cloud-based AI infrastructure can be optimized for a wide variety of use cases and workloads and a company's particular scenarios . For example, a retailer can use AI for inventory management at the store level, daily or weekly. The cost structure of each end-to-end solution varies just as widely.

To be clear, standardizing on an AI platform and the cloud does not mean vendor lock-in or letting go of the reins of development. Instead, containerization, Kubernetes, and other open, cloud-native approaches provide enterprises with portability between providers and clouds, giving CIOs the visibility and control they need without hampering innovation. /p> Calculation of costs

Terms like "specialty" can cause IT decision makers to worry about cost.

"For companies developing their own sophisticated models, mindful of their IP, and needing to chain together thousands of GPUs for training large models, cost is often not a barrier," says Chappell . However, she adds, "The general enterprise market requires GPUs that are cost-optimized for training or fine-tuning a predefined model, low power consumption, and inexpensive inference." /p>

For every business, it's a delicate balance. Overprovisioning means expensive and underutilized infrastructure; underprovisioning slows development and deployment, and can lead to unplanned expenses to fill gaps or overages on cloud services. For companies deploying less sophisticated AI, purpose-built infrastructure can be scaled down to a cost-effective level.

And because a standardized infrastructure speeds development and deployment, companies gain a competitive advantage by bringing AI to production faster, which can lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

Advice Chappell: "Don't look at the cost of infrastructure, instead look at the cost of developing a model or inference. That's the real metric. Then consider the intellectual property you're developing: qu is it worth?"

Learn more about purpose-built AI platforms, how end-to-end AI environments reduce costs, improve innovation, and accelerate time to market. production and real ROI, don't miss this VB Spotlight.

Watch for free on demand here.

Agenda

Enable an orderly, rapid and profitable development...