Data is the Fuel for Use Cases Like Generative AI
I’m calling it: Artificial intelligence is the hottest topic of 2023. With the release of ChatGPT and Google Bard, there is plenty to be excited about. AI promises to drive business growth around the world, change the way we work and unlock new use cases we aren’t even thinking about yet. But behind all the model training, all the querying and inferencing is data. Data is fueling the AI rocket ship that will lead to better and more informed decisions, generate new content, improve operational efficiencies and ultimately drive greater predictability into business models. Pretty exciting, right?
But in the middle of all the AI hype are the data scientists and IT teams trying to make sense of it all. The truth is – uncovering insights with data can be hard. According to an Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey, 47% of all data within organizations is dark on average (i.e., data that is stored but not ready for analysis),1 with most of that data being unstructured. Over 90% of the global datasphere is made up of unstructured data2 that doesn’t present itself in nice and neat columns for analysis. So, how can data scientists and IT partner together to unlock these insights that are hidden in images, videos and sensor data?
Dell Unstructured Data Solutions: AI Innovations, Delivered
With the Dell Unstructured Data Solutions portfolio – which includes powerful and highly secure file and object storage platforms such as PowerScale, ECS and ObjectScale – our main goal is to help you leverage every drop of valuable data to drive your demanding workloads. In this blog, we’ll take you on a journey to build the optimal IT environment. Modernize and create a next-generation storage foundation with PowerScale OneFS and ECS or ObjectScale, secure your data with Dell Cyber Protection for Unstructured Data and act on your data with a full suite of data management tools and partner ecosystem.
Modernize Your Infrastructure to Create a Next Gen Storage Foundation for AI Workloads
While it’s tempting to skip right to the inferencing, driving effective training and modeling for AI use cases requires a solid storage foundation. You may not know what questions to ask AI today, but the data you store will drive predictions and greater insight in the future. What’s more, your datasets are bound to grow, and your data collection and model training cycles are going to demand higher performance. The good news is we designed PowerScale OneFS, ECS and ObjectScale for the most intensive workloads such as generative AI. With a range of available models, you have the flexibility to right-size your environment for your specific needs. Let’s also talk about scalability. With our portfolio of file and object storage platforms, your datasets can expand as fast as they need to. For example, increase AI model accuracy for higher resolution data sets with up to 186PB of raw storage capacity in a single cluster on PowerScale.3 Adding capacity is non-disruptive, meaning your data scientists and LOB teams can continue learning and innovating with your data without skipping a beat.
“PowerScale enables us to access data and analytics in real time — without the latency caused by sending it from the edge to the core or the cloud.”
– Keith Bradley VP of Information, Technology and Security – Nature Fresh Farms
Additionally, data processing for use cases like generative AI require a combination of training the model, fine-tuning it and generating predictions based on input data. The reality is all three of these steps may occur in different locations. Depending on latency requirements, deployment time, security and a host of other considerations, you may need a combination of on-premises, edge and cloud deployments to truly meet your AI objectives. With our Unstructured Data Solutions, we believe you should be able to run workloads like generative AI wherever you’d like. That’s why our portfolio is multicloud-enabled, giving you a single point of data access from core to edge to cloud. For example, with APEX File Storage for AWS, you can easily move data from on-premises to the cloud using advanced native replication without having to refactor your storage architecture. And once in the cloud, you can use all enterprise-grade PowerScale OneFS features. This is critical for driving operational efficiencies, as there is no need to retrain your IT teams because everything is familiar and predictable.
Secure Your Data with Intelligent, Real-time Detection Tools and Fast Recovery Time
Unfortunately, security threats have shown no sign of slowing down. The cost of cybercrime is expected to reach $10.5 trillion by 20254, and a whopping 76% of organizations have experienced an attempted ransomware attack.5 Attackers are specifically targeting unstructured data because of its value (i.e., sensitive data that can be sold) and sheer data volume. Because of this, multilayered security is a requirement when setting up any environment for AI training and modeling. Dell Cyber Protection for Unstructured Data helps stop cyber-attackers in their tracks with a multilayered approach.
Our commitment to security begins right at the start, as we conduct a comprehensive assessment of your current cybersecurity state through the lens of Zero Trust with Dell security experts. Next, we establish an air-gapped cyber vault that creates an impenetrable barrier between your mission-critical data and general storage. But that’s not all – we seamlessly integrate AI and machine learning software, empowering you to detect and analyze any suspicious activity in real-time. If a threat is detected, our proactive measures kick in. Track and identify all accessed or modified files and quickly lock out accounts and shut down data replication pipelines to mitigate your risk. In the unfortunate event of an attack, our fast recovery time ensures that operations can be restored – recovering petabytes of data in hours versus weeks. With our end-to-end cybersecurity solution, you can rest easy knowing that you have the right level of visibility and security to safeguard your AI environment in real time.
Act on and Analyze Your Data Wherever It Lives
Now that you’ve established a modern, secure foundation for your data, the excitement continues. Our team of in-house Dell AI experts are dedicated to supporting you throughout your entire AI journey – from model training to fine-tuning to inferencing – so you can act on your insights faster. Our in-house data scientists will meet with you to identify your most pressing business problems and recommend ways to run your workloads, like generative AI, where it makes the most sense. Dell also has a broad ecosystem of data management partners – such as Starburst, Snowflake and Databricks – that is tightly integrated to help simplify data discovery and unlock valuable insights. Establish a modern data lakehouse to streamline data access while utilizing the most robust data querying and engineering tools on the market for your AI projects.
“With all-flash PowerScale at the edge we’re able to run analytics and deliver insights faster, including both training and inference.”
– Arnaud Langer, Global Edge and IoT Senior Product Director – Atos
Choose the Provider You Know and Trust to Power Your AI Journey
Dell is here to partner with you to successfully make use of your data and innovate with AI. With market-validated technology and over 16,000 customer installations spanning the globe, you can rest easy knowing you’re choosing a provider that some of the largest companies in the world trust. Additionally, we have the most flexible6, efficient7 and secure8 storage on the market and have been named a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for seven consecutive years.9 In the report, Gartner states that “Dell Technologies has the broadest portfolio of products and builds on insights gathered from the largest installed base in the market to address the challenges of unstructured data.”
Our in-house AI experts and data scientists are ready to ideate and develop a comprehensive AI strategy for your business. Get started today by taking advantage of our Dell AI Starter Kit, which is based on PowerScale, Dell PowerEdge servers and NVIDIA. Visit Dell Unstructured Data Solutions for AI for more information or contact your Dell Sales representative.
1 Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), 2022 State of Data Governance and Empowerment report.
2 IDC White Paper “High Data Growth and Modern Applications; July 2022.
3 Dell spec sheet. Raw capacity up to exabytes (ECS) or up to 186PB in a 252-node cluster (PowerScale).
4 CyberSecurity Ventures 2022: eSentire | 2022 Official Cybercrime Report.
5 ProofPoint: 2023 State of the Phish Report.
6 Based on internal analysis of publicly available information sources, February 2023.
7 Based on Dell analysis comparing efficiency-related features: data reduction, storage capacity, data protection, hardware, space, lifecycle management efficiency, and ENERGY STAR certified configurations, June 2023.
8 Based on Dell analysis comparing cyber-security software capabilities offered for Dell PowerScale vs. competitive products, September 2022.
9 Gartner, Inc. “Magic Quadrant™ for Distributed File Systems and Object Storage” by Julia Palmer, Jerry Rozeman, Chandra Mukhyala, Jeff Vogel, October 19, 2022.
