Right-sizing infrastructure starts with understanding what a business needs its technology to accomplish.
For enterprises moving AI into production, cost pressures are sharpening the need to connect technical performance with business value. Performance figures alone don’t tell customers what an investment will mean for their business, according to Jeremy Girven, AWS technical enablement manager at Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
“Is it acceptable for a customer, your end user, to wait 30 seconds for a response, or do they need it immediately?” he said. “If they can wait 30 seconds, you can go with cheaper hardware. If they need it immediately, you’re probably going to be on more cutting-edge hardware.”
Girven spoke with theCUBE host Rebecca Knight at EVOLVE26, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed infrastructure right-sizing, AMD’s collaboration with Cloudera and the economics of enterprise AI deployment. (* Disclosure below.)
Right-sizing infrastructure requires ongoing attention
AMD and Cloudera’s collaboration includes ongoing validation of AMD products for Cloudera deployments. Customers’ budget concerns are a central part of those infrastructure discussions, Girven explained.
“I would say if you don’t have the skill sets, you pull in a partner like Cloudera [or] partner with AMD, and we can help design the solution to meet the needs,” he said. “We’re not to the point where we have cookie-cutter solutions with AI yet … right now, it’s kind of very bespoke for each customer.”
Right-sizing infrastructure remains important after deployment. Enterprises should monitor utilization and adjust capacity repeatedly, while considering where their workloads run, Girven explained.
“I would say definitely don’t just focus on the technology of AI itself, but also keep in mind there’s network fees and things like that that stack on top of it,” he said. “I’ve seen many customers get bit by network egress fees that they didn’t even calculate for.”
Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of EVOLVE26:
(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for EVOLVE26. Neither Cloudera, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)