Intelligent data infrastructure company, NetApp, unveiled new capabilities aimed at maximizing the potential of generative AI projects. Recognizing the ability to automate tasks, uncover insights, and drive innovation, NetApp's latest updates combine its intelligent data infrastructure with high-performance computing, networking, and software from NVIDIA (News - Alert).
According to the NetApp 2023 Data Complexity report, nearly three-quarters of companies are already utilizing Gen AI. To unlock its full potential, organizations require secure, high-performance access to data spread across complex hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
NetApp aims to deliver management simplicity without creating new infrastructure silos, and secure data for responsible AI.
“GenAI has massive potential to help organizations harness their data to uncover business insights and improve operational efficiency,” said Archana Venkatraman, Research Director, Cloud Data Management, IDC (News - Alert). “NetApp has continuously adapted to deliver the services and solutions customers need to effectively manage their data pipelines. These updates further illustrate NetApp’s willingness to evolve and bring innovations to customers that unlock the full potential of AI.”
Key updates to NetApp's intelligent data infrastructure capabilities include the introduction of NetApp AIPod, an AI-optimized converged infrastructure for high-priority AI projects. Certified as a NVIDIA DGX BasePOD solution, it integrates NVIDIA DGX H100 systems with NetApp AFF C-Series flash systems, providing cost-effective performance optimization while maximizing rack space and sustainability.
“AI powers mission-critical use cases in every industry, from healthcare to manufacturing to financial services,” said Tony Paikeday, Senior Director of AI Systems at NVIDIA. “NetApp AIPod certified for NVIDIA DGX BasePOD provides a powerful reference architecture that helps enterprises eliminate design complexity, reduce deployment time frames, and simplify ongoing operations.”
FlexPod for AI reference architectures is an extension of the converged infrastructure solution from NetApp and Cisco (News - Alert) and now supports the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform.
Additionally, scaling and benchmarking enhancements have been added to support GPU-intensive applications, making FlexPod an efficient blueprint for designing, deploying, and operating AI use cases.
NetApp's validation for NVIDIA OVX systems further streamlines enterprise AI deployments, offering solutions for model fine-tuning and inference workloads. NetApp's storage combined with NVIDIA OVX computing systems integrates NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand or NVIDIA Spectrum (News - Alert)-X Ethernet, and NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs.
The company also introduced new cyber-resilience capabilities, including Autonomous Ransomware Protection with AI (ARP/AI). This pioneering use of AI/ML embedded in storage enhances ONTAP's machine-learning capabilities, providing increased accuracy and performance to detect and mitigate sophisticated cyber threats.
“Our unique approach to AI gives customers complete access and control over their data throughout the data pipeline, moving seamlessly between their public cloud and on-premises environments. By tiering object storage for each phase of the AI process, our customers can optimize both performance and costs exactly where they need them. Our unified approach delivers the performance, productivity, and protection customers need to quickly innovate with AI,” said Arunkumar Gururajan, Vice President of Data Science & Research at NetApp.Edited by Greg Tavarez
