As organizations scale their artificial intelligence initiatives, they face a critical challenge: how to build infrastructure that delivers both the performance needed for AI workloads and the enterprise capabilities required for production deployments. Cloudian’s recently announced Supermicro and Lenovo reference architectures on NVIDIA accelerated computing platforms address this challenge head-on, providing organizations with proven blueprints for deploying scalable AI infrastructure.
The Rise of Object Storage in AI
Object storage has emerged as a foundational technology for AI infrastructure, driven by its unique ability to manage the massive volumes of unstructured data that power modern machine learning models. Traditional storage architectures often struggle with the scale and performance demands of AI workflows, from training large language models to running inference at scale. Object storage, particularly when integrated with NVIDIA GPUDirect® technologies, provides a robust foundation that combines scalability with the performance needed for these demanding applications.
Validated Architectures: A Recipe for Success
Two new reference architectures showcase the integration of Cloudian HyperStore object storage with leading AI infrastructure platforms from both Supermicro and Lenovo. These validated designs deliver impressive performance of 20GB/s per node with linear scaling capabilities, ensuring organizations can meet the demanding I/O requirements of modern AI workloads including model training, inference, and checkpointing operations.
What makes these reference architectures particularly valuable is their validation through rigorous testing with real-world AI workloads. Organizations can deploy these solutions with confidence, knowing that the architecture has been proven to deliver the required performance and scalability. This validation eliminates the uncertainty and risk often associated with building custom infrastructure solutions.
Object Storage Delivers AI Performance and Enterprise Scale
The reference architectures demonstrate how organizations can achieve high performance without sacrificing enterprise capabilities. Key features include:
- Integration with NVIDIA GPUDirect Storage for optimized data movement between storage and GPU resources
- Comprehensive security framework including enterprise-grade encryption and ransomware protection
- Advanced data management capabilities including multi-tenancy, QoS controls, and automated lifecycle management
- Native S3 compatibility ensuring broad ecosystem support
- Linear scalability from proof-of-concept to production deployments
The Value of Validated Designs
Having a validated reference architecture delivers several key benefits for organizations building AI infrastructure:
- It significantly reduces deployment risk. The integration between compute, networking, and storage components has been thoroughly tested, ensuring that organizations can achieve the expected performance and reliability in their own environments.
- The reference architecture accelerates time to value. Rather than spending months designing and testing custom infrastructure solutions, organizations can leverage these proven designs to quickly deploy production-ready environments.
- It provides a clear scaling path. The reference architectures demonstrate linear performance scaling, giving organizations confidence that their infrastructure can grow seamlessly as their AI initiatives expand.
Looking Ahead
As AI continues to transform industries, having the right infrastructure foundation becomes increasingly critical. These reference architectures from Cloudian, Supermicro, and Lenovo provide organizations with proven blueprints for building scalable, high-performance AI infrastructure. By combining the scalability and efficiency of object storage with enterprise-grade features and validated designs, organizations can accelerate their AI initiatives while maintaining the security, reliability, and manageability their businesses demand.
Download the Lenovo / Cloudian reference architecture here.
Download the Supermicro / Cloudian reference architecture here.
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