Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, today announced its partnership with G-Core Labs, a European cloud and edge provider, and Graphcore, a British semiconductor manufacturer, to support the future of artificial intelligence (AI) deployment at scale with a new AI-ready infrastructure solution.
G-Core Labs will deploy in Digital Realty’s AMS5 data center, a 16 MW facility located in its Schiphol campus in Amsterdam, a site that’s continually being invested in as a result of increasing demand. The facility, which can support ultra-high power density, makes use of ground water cooling, and recycles waste heat, runs on 100 percent clean energy like the rest of Digital Realty’s European portfolio.
By deploying in AMS5, one of the most highly connected facilities in continental Europe, customers will gain access to several densely populated connected data communities including 800+ enterprises, 700+ network service providers, and 600+ cloud and IT providers, via its global platform PlatformDIGITAL®.
“As AI adoption continues to rise steadily across the globe[1], businesses require infrastructure that’s fit-for-purpose. The solution we’ve created in collaboration with G-Core Labs and Graphcore effectively eliminates the complexity and lengthy deployment cycles associated with AI infrastructure, giving data professionals the space and tools needed to innovate and address some of society’s most significant challenges, all with a flexible platform that scales,” says Tony Bishop, SVP, Enterprise, Platform & Solutions, Digital Realty.
Powered by Graphcore’s Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU), one the world’s most sophisticated processors designed specifically to manage AI workloads, the AI as-a-service solution provides customers with the compute necessary to run substantial AI projects at scale in the cloud, supporting businesses across a wide range of industries, including finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and scientific research, and maximizing return of investment (ROI) at every stage of their AI adoption journey, from proof of concept to deployment.
“We created Graphcore and our Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU) to help accelerate innovation in AI. Working with partners like G-Core Labs and Digital Realty allows us to deliver leading-edge AI compute that is easily accessible, highly flexible, and extremely cost-effective. Having a strong cloud compute offering in Europe also lets us meet the data sovereignty needs of our rapidly growing European customer base,” says Nigel Toon, Co-founder & CEO, Graphcore.
"Earlier this month, we launched the first server cluster of our IPU-based AI cloud in Luxembourg, the country where our company is headquartered. However, we don’t intend to stop there and are already launching together with Digital Realty and Graphcore a second cluster in Amsterdam. We plan to further expand our AI infrastructure in Europe and beyond. We have everything we need to do this: a powerful cloud, a globally distributed network, and first-class partners," says Andre Reitenbach, CEO, G-Core Labs.
Built on Digital Realty’s Data Hub, the AI infrastructure-as-a-service solution – available to customers in the coming weeks – enables customers to deploy AI models next to critical data sets quickly and securely, addressing challenges associated with AI implementation at scale, such as localized data aggregation and compliance.
[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/quantumblack/our-insights/global-survey-the-state-of-ai-in-2021