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Cisco unveils server for Artificial
Intelligence and Machine Learning
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Roland Acra, SVP and GM for Cisco›s Data
Center Business Group
A
rtificial intelligence (AI) and Machine
Learning (ML) are opening up new
ways for enterprises to solve complex
problems. But they will also have a profound
effect on the underlying infrastructure and
processes of IT. According to Gartner, “only
4% of CIOs worldwide report that they have
AI projects in production.”
That number will grow dramatically over
the next few years. And when it does, IT
will struggle to manage new workloads,
new traffic patterns, and new relationships
within their business. To help meet these
emerging challenges, Cisco is unveiling its
first server built from the ground up for AI
and ML workloads.
The new Cisco UCS server speeds up deep
learning, a compute-intensive form of ML
that uses neural networks and large data
sets to train computers for complex tasks.
Packed with powerful NVIDIA GPUs, it is
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designed to accelerate many of today’s
best-known ML software stacks. Data
scientists and developers can experiment
with ML on a laptop. in healthcare, they’re interested in better
insights and diagnostics, improving medical
image classification, and speeding drug
discovery and research.”
But deep learning at scale demands much
more compute capability. It requires an IT
architecture that is capable of taking in vast
sets of data. And tools that can make sense
of this data and use it to learn. With the addition of the Cisco UCS C480
ML, Cisco now offers a complete range of
computing options designed for each stage
of the AI and ML lifecycle.
That is why Cisco is working with its
technology partners to validate many of
today’s most popular ML tools: to help simplify
deployments and accelerate time to insight.
“Over the next few years, apps powered
by AI and ML will become mainstream in
the enterprise. While this will solve many
complex business issues, it will also create
new challenges for IT,” said Roland Acra,
SVP and GM for Cisco’s Data Center
Business Group.
“Today’s powerful addition to the Cisco
UCS lineup will power AI initiatives across
a wide range of industries. Our early-access
customers in the financial sector are
exploring ways to improve fraud detection
and enhance algorithmic trading. Meanwhile
From data collection and analysis near the
edge, to data preparation and training in the
data centre, to the real-time inference at the
heart of AI, customers are covered.
“We believe the power of ML should be
available for all organisations, whether in the
cloud or on-premises, and we’re excited to
continue our collaborative efforts with Cisco,”
said David Aronchick, Product Manager at
Google Cloud.
“We’re pleased to see Cisco creating
hybrid cloud solutions for ML and also
contributing code to the Google-led open
source project, Kubeflow. Organisations
running Kubeflow on the new UCS C480
deep learning server will benefit from
consistent ML tools that work great both
on-premises and on Google Cloud.” n
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