How Schneider Electric’s AI Data Center Collaboration With NVIDIA Will Boost Solutions

By Ed Moltzen
04-29-2024

With Artificial Intelligence (AI) now permeating so many aspects of IT, Schneider Electric and chip-maker NVIDIA have aligned to create new standards that could make its impact on the data center even more beneficial.

 

With Artificial Intelligence (AI) now permeating so many aspects of IT, Schneider Electric and chip-maker NVIDIA have aligned to create new standards that could make its impact on the data center even more beneficial.

The two companies have agreed to collaborate on a reference design for AI in the data center, putting themselves on the leading edge as demand escalates for the technology - which will increase demand for energy management.

Schneider Electric and NVIDIA - which makes GPUs deployed in AI solutions - announced their collaboration at a time when businesses are increasing deployment of AI-based solutions.

The new reference design - a blueprint or prototype - would address the escalating demand for processing power during the current AI application boom, with a vision for scalable and energy-efficient operations.

The ultimate payoff? A simplified pathway for solution providers, data center owners, and operators to integrate AI solutions without blowing the lid off efficiency and operations.

Additionally, AVEVA, a subsidiary of Schneider Electric, plans to connect its digital twin platform with NVIDIA Omniverse.

The NVIDIA Omniverse platform has been used for developers building applications in fields like architecture, product design, and filmmaking.

The reference design will provide a framework for integrating NVIDIA’s computing platform in data centers, enhancing performance, scalability, and sustainability for AI workloads. It will benefit solution providers and engineers in both upgrading existing and building new data centers.

This move would also speed up the design and deployment of complex systems that use AI, cutting down on time-to-market and costs. Through these efforts, Schneider Electric and NVIDIA hope to spur innovation across different industries by leveraging digital transformation for more sustainable and efficient operations.

According to Schneider Electric's White Paper 110, the rapid growth of AI is reshaping data center design and management. With AI workloads becoming a significant part of data center operations, there's a push towards higher rack power densities.

This evolution brings challenges across power, cooling, racks, and software management, prompting a rethink in design and operational strategies to improve performance, scalability, energy efficiency, and sustainability.

The white paper highlights that AI workloads, split into training and inference tasks, demand considerable processing power and energy. It predicts AI's power consumption could account for 15-20 percent of total data center energy use by 2028, outstripping overall data center power demand growth.

 

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