Generative AI (Gen AI), powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) and neural networks, promises breakthroughs in creativity, automation, and decision-making as it reshapes industries - from natural language processing to computer vision. With innovation and adoption at the forefront of our customers’ minds.
So, what are we seeing in the market at the moment?
The transforming world of hyperscale
Computacenter has an established track record with the West Coast hyperscale community, with several tech giants being former FusionStorm customers, and with whom we have gone from strength to strength since we acquired them in 2018.
The rapid development in the Gen AI space has been an unprecedented catalyst for the “usual suspects” in this community – by which I mean the Software as a Service (SaaS) and Data Center providers, the Content and Social Media platforms, and the Cloud providers – essentially those who you would expect to see pulling out the stops to invest quickly and at scale to harness the potential of AI. But we’re also seeing new players emerge – shiny, new Gen AI powerhouses going from zero to galactic speeds in infrastructure investment and solution development.
So, what do you think about when it comes to Gen AI infrastructure? Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), right? Well, yes, but it isn’t that simple. To meet the demands of the Gen AI workload, you need high-performance infrastructure across the board. In fact, you need “extreme-performance” infrastructure. That means high-density compute, liquid and air-cooled platforms, bursty, low latency AI fabric networks, low latency storage, and a much, much bigger data center footprint with a significantly increased power draw.
With that in mind, it's not surprising that it’s the big players who have been able to move the quickest in building the platforms to support these cutting-edge Gen AI initiatives. We’re seeing complete forklift upgrades in the hyperscale space, with radical transformations and brand-new builds springing up across the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. We expect this US trend to spread to Europe in the next wave. At the same time, new entrants are emerging at pace - recruiting the industry’s brightest and best, and building ground-up data centers that will become the nerve centers for future AI workloads.
That said, we’re seeing some verticals take their first tentative steps, too. While the extent to which organizations will build their own capability is unclear, we’ve already seen innovative use cases in leading financial services, healthcare, and energy companies.
Extreme-performance infrastructure
Most Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) will tell you they can provide the end-to-end high-performance infrastructure for Gen AI solutions, but in our experience, it takes a village to raise a Gen AI initiative. Our hyperscale customers want to pull together the best products to architect best-of-breed solutions and to ensure they have the flexibility they need for the future. And best-of-breed in this space is a growing family, with the leading tech manufacturers you’d expect to see sat at the table alongside new, emerging brands.
Beyond Builders
Not every organization is going to be directly creating Gen AI models. However, they will all end up part of the ecosystem one way or another. Those who will leverage the cloud will still need to adapt, evolve, and transform to be able to capitalize on opportunities. That makes upgrading data center and network infrastructure, and overhauling the edge and workplace, the inevitable consequences of change.
Conclusion
Gen AI isn’t just code, and it doesn’t just sit in the hyperscale world; it’s a symphony of computation, creativity, and collaboration. As we ride this wave, we can help you understand the potential, and importantly, unlock the magic of Gen AI and its value to your business.