HPE offers Cray supercomputer cloud service for AI models

Pelican Press · March 16

HPE offers Cray supercomputer cloud service for AI models

HPE’s new cloud service delivers supercomputing infrastructure and software to enterprise IT *****, providing access to the technologies they need to develop AI models.

The new GreenLake for Large Language Models (LLMs) is a multi-tenant supercomputing cloud service that provides access to Cray supercomputers and HPE’s own machine learning software. The service will allow a wide range of IT ***** to train, tune and deploy large-scale AI applications and services, delivered in partnership with Germany-based AI startup Aleph Alpha.

Leveraging the exascale capabilities of a supercomputer, IT shops can develop more competitive AI offerings faster and more cost-effectively, according to HPE. The company did not provide pricing for the new service.

To date, developing AI software using supercomputers has been restricted to a select group of scientific researchers and government agencies, HPE officials said.

“This announcement opens up possibilities for users that don’t have access to supercomputers to develop large language models using a multi-tenant instance of a supercomputing platform,” said Justin Hotard, executive vice president and general manager at HPE’s high-performance computing (HPC) and AI businesses, in a briefing with reporters. “For instance, this [LLM] service can be used in applications requiring tax and image processing, or where analysis is involved to make predictions.”

This will help democratize users’ access to supercomputers on a consumption-like basis.

Dan NewmanChief analyst, Futurum Research; CEO, The Futurum Group

Users can upload their own data to train and tune a customized model solely for their own use, he added. HPE expects to deliver additional services later this year and next aimed at a number of commercial markets, including climate modeling, ***** discovery, infill services, manufacturing and transportation.

Some analysts see the supercomputer-based service as beneficial for both HPE’s competitive position in that market and for properly sensing the priorities of companies that don’t want or can’t afford to have a multimillion-dollar supercomputer on premises.

“This will help democratize users’ access to supercomputers on a consumption-like basis, and they are using GreenLake to do it, which helps [HPE] out,” said Dan Newman, chief analyst at Futurum Research and CEO of The Futurum Group. “This should also help HPE’s billion-dollar green market that’s becoming an important part of their overall strategy.”

Another analyst believes the new service is well timed because users are finding it difficult to build HPC clusters in their own data centers.

Peter Rutten

“HPC is becoming a ******* workload for commercial enterprises, and they don’t necessarily want to build their own HPC clusters in their own data centers,” said Peter Rutten, research vice president for infrastructure systems and platforms at IDC. “The talk of the town is generative AI now, but this approach could be a practical way of having it both ways and for HPE to make its way into this world.”

While HPE’s service might offer advantages to a range of different users, supercomputer providers including Dell with Apex,