CHATSWORTH, Calif. — The data storage company DDN is releasing an appliance for artificial intelligence (AI) data systems.
Part of DDN’s A3I line, the AI400X2 offers twice the performance of the previous-generation appliance in the same footprint, according to DDN last month.
The AI400X2 joins the lineup of A3I appliances that are powering “thousands” of NVIDIA DGX systems globally across a range of production environments.
To optimize application performance and minimize network congestion, DDN has introduced Hot Nodes, a technology developed in collaboration with NVIDIA, which intelligently caches files to the client’s local flash storage.
The appliance’s performance and usability enhancements include Hot Node integration and a streamlined intelligent user interface to accelerate and simplify enterprise IT operations.
New intelligent UI capabilities include granular visibility into AI workloads and client GPU-level utilization to simplify configuration management and system monitoring and optimize end-to-end performance.
New A3I client-side encryption and role-based access control configurations and policies give IT teams tools to further strengthen AI data security.
The enhanced speed, efficiency, and intelligence of the AI400X2 are intended to move organizations toward “an increasingly hands-off approach to AI application management.”
“AI is a powerful business enabler, and the AI400X2 will help customers get into production faster and reduce time to results,” said Dr. James Coomer, senior VP of products, DDN.
Charlie Boyle, VP and GM of DGX systems at NVIDIA, said high-performance storage is essential to AI infrastructure.
DDN’s AI400X2 storage appliance “provides a platform that can rapidly supply data for the most demanding AI development requirements on NVIDIA DGX systems,” Boyle said.
