Data residing at an AI centre of excellence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most powerful technological forces in this era and, while it began in the data centre, it's moving quickly to the edge. NVIDIA's Charlie Boyle says that one of the biggest things the sector is seeing – which started at the end of 2020 but accelerated into 2021 – is the idea of an AI centre of excellence for companies and institutions. "There's a big change from what we were seeing a few years ago. Previously, when people worked on AI, it would tend to start small, getting some results and would grow over time," he explains. "We are engaging with a lot of customers today, who have realised that starting very small and growing organically may not get them the results they need in the next couple of years. Before, an individual researcher or a small team may procure one or two systems, a little bit of infrastructure, some networking and storage. "Now, we are seeing that more at a strategic level inside of the company where, in order to achieve even basic results, management is realising it needs a critical mass of infrastructure to carry out the experiment to drive the applications that they need.