The edge is the new frontier for artificial intelligence (AI). As organizations aim to deploy AI across distributed environments, they require solutions that can move AI capabilities to the edge—where data is being generated and action needs to be taken. This is leading to innovative collaborations that are redefining the edge and unlocking the true potential of AI.
Harnessing the Power of AI at the Edge
Traditionally, AI model training and inference occurred in centralized data centers in the cloud. However, this approach comes with challenges like latency, bandwidth constraints, and data privacy concerns. With the exponential growth of IoT devices and sensors generating data at the edge, it's imperative to enable real-time AI close to the source of data.
Edge AI solutions allow organizations to deploy AI models directly on edge devices or localized edge servers. This avoids the costs and delays of streaming all data to a distant cloud. Edge AI unlocks use cases like predictive maintenance, quality control, real-time monitoring, and more.
Overcoming the Bottlenecks for Effective Edge Deployment
To make edge AI work at scale, organizations need to overcome some key bottlenecks:
Data movement: Shuttling large amounts of data consumes time, bandwidth, and energy. Localized inference avoids this issue.
Latency: Round-trip delays to the cloud can make real-time applications infeasible. Edge computing provides low latency results.
Intermittent connectivity: Edge devices may have unreliable network connections. On-device inference allows autonomy.
Privacy and security: With sensitive data, it's better to process and analyze it locally rather than transmit it. Edge AI improves data privacy.
Energy efficiency: Battery-powered edge devices demand energy-efficient compute. Specialized AI chips offer high performance per watt.
Untether AI: Pioneering Energy-Efficient AI at the Edge
Untether AI is an innovator in AI edge computing solutions that help organizations overcome these challenges. Untether AI's offerings include:
speedAI® Accelerator Cards: These PCIe cards provide high-performance AI inference in an energy-efficient form factor optimized for edge deployment. Cards like the speedAI®240 Slim deliver up to 240 INT8 TOPS in just 75W.
AI Software Stack: Untether AI provides an optimized software stack to deploy, manage, and monitor AI models at the edge. This enables seamless integration and orchestration.
EdgeAI Modules: These modules package Untether's speedAI® cards into ready-to-deploy edge solutions with components like networking, storage, and cooling.
Untether AI's technology tackles the bottlenecks for effective edge AI. Their accelerator cards provide localized inference that reduces data movement and latency while improving privacy. The energy-efficient architecture enables deployment on small edge devices. And the software stack simplifies edge orchestration and management.
Vertical Data: Unlocking the True Potential of AI
While hardware is important, data is the real fuel for AI. Vertical Data provides the data management and operations capabilities to power next-gen AI applications. Their offering includes:
DataOps Platform: This provides tools to ingest, prepare, label, and manage data pipelines to train AI models.
Data Marketplace: The marketplace contains high-quality datasets to train industry-specific AI models.
Data Science Services: Experts help organizations implement DataOps and customize AI models for specific use cases.
Rich, reliable data is critical to develop accurate AI models. By combining best-in-class data capabilities with Untether's performant edge infrastructure, organizations can unlock the true potential of AI.
Coming Together to Redefine the Edge
In November 2022, Untether AI and Vertical Data announced a strategic partnership to accelerate AI innovation at the edge. By marrying their complementary capabilities, this collaboration will help organizations across industries deploy impactful edge AI solutions.
Simon Randall, CEO of Vertical Data, said, "Data is the fuel for AI and next-gen applications need data that is optimized for edge processing. Our partnership with Untether AI will help customers improve data collection from edge devices and rapidly build and deliver highly accurate AI models that provide low-latency insights right where they are needed most."
Some key areas this partnership aims to tackle:
Smart Infrastructure: Combining edge AI with IoT networks to monitor and optimize infrastructure like buildings, factories, and cities.
Connected Vehicles: Applying edge AI and data to enable use cases like collision avoidance, route optimization, and predictive maintenance of vehicles.
Agriculture: Deploying AI and sensors at the edge of fields to monitor crop health, predict yields, and detect diseases.
Energy: Using edge AI to make power grids and renewable infrastructure like wind farms smarter and more efficient.
Pushing the Boundaries of What's Possible
This collaboration represents the cutting edge of how data and infrastructure come together to enable AI. In the past, edge AI was limited by data bottlenecks. Now, robust data management unlocks the promise of low-latency intelligence.
Meanwhile, Vertical Data gains access to optimized edge infrastructure to ingest and process data directly at the source. This removes the costs and delays of moving data.
Together, Vertical Data and Untether AI will push the boundaries of what's possible by exploiting the joint benefits of data and compute at the edge. More partnerships like this will shape the future of edge AI.
The Future of Intelligent Edge Solutions
Looking ahead, analysts forecast dramatic growth in edge AI. Market research firm IDC predicts over 50% of AI inference workloads will run at the edge by 2024.
Untether AI and Vertical Data are poised to lead this shift. As 5G networks enable new use cases, their integrated edge solutions will unlock real-time intelligence for organizations across industries.
In a statement, Untether AI CEO Marc Naddell said, "This partnership is part of our commitment to driving AI innovation at the edge. Vertical Data's world-class data management capabilities perfectly complement our high-performance, low-power hardware. Together, we will help organizations turn cutting-edge technology into real business impact."
The edge offers huge potential advantages for AI - lower latency, reduced costs, greater autonomy, and more. But organizations need complete solutions to overcome the deployment hurdles. With coordinated technologies to address data, compute, connectivity, and more, the edge can become the ultimate AI platform.
Through pioneering collaborations among leading providers, the future of edge AI looks bright. As organizations look to innovate with AI, they can rely on partnerships like Untether AI and Vertical Data to make it possible. The result will be intelligent systems that drive new efficiencies, uncover hidden insights, and create incredible value - everywhere data is generated.