Netherlands-based IT consulting firm ITQ is launching a new Proof-of-Concept (POC) service for VMware Private AI Foundation, a partnership between VMware and Nvidia for running AI workloads in private cloud environments. It is the first service within a complete suite ITQ intends to roll out for private development of AI models.
The service leverages VMware’s Cloud Foundation, Nvidia’s AI technology, and Dell’s PowerEdge servers. It is intended to win over companies hesitant about secure and scalable AI deployment. After all, not everyone is eager to send large amounts of sensitive and proprietary data to a public cloud. Exorbitant costs (or the fear thereof) are also a frequent stumbling block.
Keeping control over data
ITQ wants to address those concerns by offering a full stack that allows companies to build AI apps—think chatbots or deep learning solutions—within a controlled and secure infrastructure. With this solution, customers can get started with AI workloads but maintain control and ownership over their valuable data. This is especially important for companies with strict compliance requirements.
The company emphasizes that it is not just a tech pile-up, but a tailor-made solution. ITQ offers customers complete support from the build phase to validation. It also ensures that customers receive guidance on issues such as dimensioning, integrating Nvidia hardware and deploying automated self-service tools. The service further includes features such as CI/CD pipelines, Lifecycle Management and optimized workflows. These help customer IT teams run a tight ship in developing and managing AI projects.
Starting point for AI use cases
Jeffrey Kusters, ITQ’s CTO, thinks his company can offer an exciting proposition with this new service: “This new service offering enables companies to break through the typical limitations of public cloud environments (for IP-sensitive and privacy-sensitive data), and build AI solutions which are fully compliant and secure.”
ITQ is marketing the service as a starting point for enterprise-ready AI use cases, whether conversational AI, RAG, or real-time video analytics. Scalability is possible, but with policy and cost-effectiveness in mind. That should avoid typical pitfalls that companies still sometimes fall into when committing to the public cloud, e.g. runaway costs or uncertainty about data residency.
Quick to set up
This Proof-of-Concept is intended as a precursor to more services and will be part of an ever-expanding AI-focused lineup. Offering the service within VMware Private AI Foundation makes sense, as VMware and Nvidia have intended it as an infrastructure that is as approachable as possible. Companies already deploying VMware’s cloud infrastructure can use it quickly.
The Foundation also integrates with data center vendor platforms. These can be new, optimized systems within existing server racks, but customers can also receive only the software and build systems themselves.
Also read: VMware and Nvidia launch Private AI Foundation: AI that keeps enterprise data secure