[SPONSORED GUEST ARTICLE] These are the occasions that strive the souls of IT staffs tasked with deploying AI at scale. The neophyte companies supplier and the distracted assist supervisor will, within the midst of speedy change, shrink from the complexities at hand; however they that meet the challenges head on and efficiently deploy AI deserve admiration and gratitude.
With apologies to Thomas Paine*, getting “Massive AI” up and operating actually is a disaster an excessive amount of of the time. A latest Harvard Enterprise Evaluation article estimated the AI venture failure charge as excessive as 80 p.c.
Successfully implementing AI at scale includes a complete host of design, construct, deployment, and administration issues. It requires in depth expertise and data with massive computing clusters in excessive efficiency computing (HPC) and AI applied sciences; superior networks, storage and integration applied sciences; and information heart methods for holding prices in energy-efficient, high-performance working environments. Very similar to Paine’s The Disaster bolstered the case for change and rallied individuals at a pivotal time, at this time’s IT leaders want inspiration, steerage and nice assist.
Of the few corporations that possess this distinctive mixture of expertise, experience, and capabilities, Penguin Options is main the way in which. With over 25 years of expertise delivering HPC clusters at scale and a strong and rising monitor report in AI deployment and administration, Penguin Options is a trusted associate for AI-powered corporations throughout the globe.
A dialog with Patrick Ward, senior director of companies at Penguin Options, helps clarify why. Speaking with Ward, you rapidly get the sense that he’s the one you need with you within the trenches. He has deep technical data and three a long time of expertise in IT, which give him a robust grasp of what organizations and their finish customers want. He clearly attracts pleasure from his work, approaching new challenges with enthusiasm and a solutions-oriented perspective. What’s extra, he exudes empathy, a vital attribute for any efficient companies skilled. He understands the pains brought on by methods breakdowns and refuses to just accept IT downtime as a traditional a part of work life.
“Hey, if I’m a person, I simply need to submit jobs,” Ward stated. “The cluster ought to simply work. That is no completely different from making a name. You decide up your cellphone and count on a connection. You don’t ever give it some thought. Customers shouldn’t be fearful if their cluster goes to work at this time. It ought to simply work for them. That’s the expertise Penguin gives by means of our companies group.”
Delivering on that mission isn’t any small feat. Infrastructures for AI-at-scale are massive and complicated, with nearly limitless alternatives for one thing to go improper. A cluster that “simply works” is the product of steady vigilance and complete assist companies that hold all the things operating easily.
Penguin’s monitor report on this entrance is spectacular. Constructing on its established prowess in HPC, the corporate has developed proficiency within the design, construct, deployment, and administration of AI clusters at scale. Beginning in 2017, Penguin Options enabled Meta AI cluster deployments. Then, in 2021, Penguin Options supplied AI-optimized structure and managed companies for Meta’s AI Analysis SuperCluster (RSC), which Meta stated is “among the many quickest AI supercomputers operating at this time.” The RSC consists of two,000 NVIDIA DGX A100 methods that collectively include 16,000 NVIDIA GPUs and 46 petabytes of cache storage.
Penguin has tens of 1000’s of GPUs below administration throughout its many purchasers, which additionally now embrace Voltage Park and Georgia Tech. Whereas the whole quantity is spectacular, Ward is equally happy with the extra modest clusters that his workforce deploys and manages.
“Everybody loves to speak concerning the 20,000-plus core clusters. These are thrilling, however there’s some nice purposes which are getting used even in these decrease ranges, too, that we’re very happy with,” he famous. “We’ve got many purchasers with small and mid-sized methods who’re driving options to difficult computational issues, and people are nice buyer alternatives with nice buyer worth.”
In lots of circumstances, AI adoption includes the biggest IT investments that these corporations have ever made. By partnering with Penguin Options, corporations can deploy and obtain most workload throughput at velocity in order that they expertise each accelerated computing and accelerated ROI.
Penguin Options additionally is understood for its alignment of design and set up companies, which helps corporations keep away from the hidden landmines that may stymie AI deployments.
Patrick Ward of Penguin Options
“If there’s one outstanding space the place we stand out, it’s the robust linkage between system design-to-deployment,” Ward remarked. “These two working in live performance, we’re capable of get up very massive clusters quicker than most.”
Ward has seen too many corporations “get into bother” by making an attempt to deal with design and set up in-house. AI differs from each HPC and conventional enterprise compute environments, with distinctive necessities associated to energy and cooling, navigating community efficiency administration, implementing non-invasive system stability monitoring, and extra. Penguin Options excels in these areas, which signifies that corporations can keep away from potential pitfalls and get their AI infrastructure up and operating briefly order.
Penguin Options gives companies for each side of AI-at-scale:
- Skilled Companies: Superior and rising applied sciences are advanced, tough to configure, and require particular care to deploy. Lack of familiarity can rapidly escalate into delays and price overruns, which may be devastating to budgets and venture deadlines. Penguin Options engineers are licensed within the newest applied sciences, with years of expertise in information heart infrastructure, HPC, AI accelerators, information storage, networking, and different administration software program. Their knowledgeable configuration, set up, and deployment of AI at scale ensures that methods can be utilized straight away.
- Managed Companies: Managing HPC clusters, storage methods, personal clouds, and different advanced Linux-based environments can rapidly devour IT budgets. Penguin Options gives a proactive IT companies subscription that augments prospects’ in-house IT groups to maintain the compute atmosphere operating at peak efficiency. These companies are powered by Penguin ClusterWare™, a cluster administration software program platform that may be built-in with acquainted DevOps instruments like Ansible and Git.
- Knowledge Middle Companies: Penguin Options delivers the very best design, deployment, and administration expertise within the cloud, hybrid-cloud, and totally managed internet hosting conditions. With in depth expertise designing optimized information facilities, hosted or hybrid, and its robust partnerships with world-class information facilities permits Penguin options to ship a wide range of strong co-location internet hosting choices.
- Design Companies: The broad use of software-defined applied sciences has made the IT panorama extremely fluid, putting new design, integration, and assist burdens on in-house IT groups. Choosing the proper expertise design associate is crucial for corporations trying to unlock the promise of the newest improvements. At Penguin Options, skilled options architects assist prospects harness the facility of quickly altering advanced applied sciences and supply agile design companies that assist prospects resolve their largest technical challenges.
- Venture Administration Companies: Skilled venture coordination and oversight guarantee profitable engagements with prospects. Penguin’s licensed venture managers assist prospects tackle the complete gamut of challenges that may come up, together with downward budgetary pressures, “scope creep,” shifting priorities, a number of third-party distributors, advanced software program stacks, and competing stakeholder expectations. With assist from a centralized Venture Administration Workplace, Penguin Options gives knowhow, instruments, and sources suited to the precise wants of every venture.
Organizations looking for to deploy HPC-class AI ought to associate with a vendor with the expertise elements and the assist companies to make it occur easily, effectively and in alignment with the group’s goals. Penguin has a heritage of know-how with huge clusters and large infrastructure. It’s an organization and companies group that’s been there and continues to do it higher than most.
* Thomas Paine, The Crisis
