Nvidia launches Base Command Platform to accelerate AI workloads

Following an announcement in May, Nvidia today launched Base Command Platform, an AI development hub that gives enterprises access to Nvidia DGX SuperPOD infrastructure on a rental basis. Base Command Platform, which is being remotely hosted by Equinix, is the first offering available through Nvidia’s AI LaunchPad partner program.

Organizations are investing more in data analytics during the pandemic, according to a paper from West Monroe. A recent survey by KPMG agrees, with C-suite executives reporting that data and analytics platforms are the most common new technology to be adopted and 21% of respondents reporting their company was piloting AI and machine learning solutions. With Base Command Platform, Nvidia hopes to attract a portion of the increased IT spend, specifically from companies looking to offload computing workloads to the cloud.

“As enterprise AI adoption grows, so does demand for faster access to the world-leading infrastructure offered by Nvidia and our partners,” Manuvir Das, head of enterprise computing at Nvidia, said in a press release. “Base Command Platform makes it easy for enterprises to instantly access the power of an Nvidia DGX SuperPOD to accelerate the AI and data science development lifecycle.”

Base Command Platform features a cloud-based interface, a command line API, integrated monitoring, and reporting dashboards designed to support the AI development lifecycle. It incorporates AI and data science tools including Nvidia’s NGCTM catalog of software, and it’s supported by a network of partners spanning companies in storage, digital infrastructure, and machine learning.

DGX SuperPOD, which was unveiled in April, is a server featuring 20 or more Nvidia DGX A100 systems and InfiniBand HDR networking. It sports Nvidia’s BlueField-2 data processing units (DPUs), which offload, accelerate, and isolate users and their data, allowing organizations to provide private cloud access to DGX SuperPOD infrastructure with firewalled multitenancy.

Partner ecosystem

NetApp provides an integrated data management solution that gives Base Command Platform customers access to high-performance storage. And Weights & Biases offers MLOps software with capabilities like experiment tracking, data versioning, and model visualization.

Among Base Command Platform’s early access customers is Adobe, which says it’s exploring how the solution can enable its researchers and data scientists to work on shared accelerated computing resources. “Base Command Platform offers an easy onboarding experience for AI developers,” Abhay Parasnis, CTO and chief product officer at Adobe, said in a statement. “Our team is exploring the potential of Base Command Platform to simplify the machine learning development workflow.”

Monthly subscription pricing to Base Command Platform starts at $90,000, with a three-month minimum.