GTC: DDN Showcased Solutions for Accelerating AI, Analytics and Deep Learning

DataDirect Networks, Inc. (DDN) showcased game-changing storage solutions and applications that empower users to accomplish their challenging AI objectives at NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, CA.

A³I DGX-1

The company has demonstrated innovations in its A³I architecture and new customer use cases in autonomous driving, life sciences and healthcare, retail and financial services. The firm also announced a partnership with Robovision BVBA.

In DDN booth, the company showcased the next generation of A³I reference architectures, which include NVIDIA Corp.‘s DGX POD, DGX-2, and the firm’s AI400 parallel storage appliance. Through industry standard benchmarks and customer use cases using the new reference architectures, the company will demonstrate how it establishes higher levels of application acceleration when combining the power of GPUs with parallel storage systems.

Featured use cases will include testing results from the Max Delbrück Center (MDC) for Molecular Medicine in conjunction with Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB). MDC is a molecular biology and clinical research center in Germany, and ZIB is an interdisciplinary research institute for applied mathematics and data-intensive high-performance computing.

MDC originally partnered with the company in 2018 to accelerate its applications and to manage large volumes of data. Using an A³I architecture with an DGX-1 system and an AI200 from the firm, MDC was able to improve accuracy and precision within analyzed images while simultaneously accelerating training performance by 240%. More recent testing with an A³I architecture comprised of DGX-2 system and AI400 revealed results that more than doubled previous improvements.

“Our main discovery using DDN hardware was noticing its ability to scale,” said Alf Wachsmann, head, scientific computing department, MDC. “In our testing, we observed ‘native’ performance of the DGX-1 and DGX-2 for really large data sets, which was not possible without the A³I hardware. ‘Native’ performance means that we see all eight DGX-1 and 16 DGX-2 GPUs fully utilized, thus, we are able to make perfect use of these resources and speed up our deep learning workload from weeks to days.“

Demonstrate frictionless-retail solution with XXII
The company feature a frictionless-retail experience in a live, interactive booth demonstration at NVIDIA GTC 2019. Frictionless retail employs concepts such as autonomous check-out and real-time analytics to improve the shopper experience from creating seamless, in-store interactions to enabling real-time customer service. XXII Group, a provider of real-time video analysis solutions, is working with DDN to bring the in-store experience to the GTC show floor. Using proprietary computer vision algorithms, the XXII solution allows customers to shop in stores without any friction and without having to wait in lines.

“We strongly believe in the power of AI to transform our lives concretely,” explains Dam Mulhem, co-founder, XXII. “With DDN’s impressive storage solutions in the cloud and on premise, we are privileged to partner with the DDN team to help us achieve our goals. DDN is also one of the leaders of AI-oriented calculators for inference purposes, with high storage capacities and high-volume video management, and is assisting us with overcoming challenges in that arena as well.“

Partnership with Robovision
With many customers expressing concerns around implementing AI, DDN partners with Robovision and its self-service deep learning platform, which enables organizations to bring concrete, maintainable AI applications live in mere weeks.

“Advancements in AI are creating some of the most challenging workloads in modern computing history and are requiring IT infrastructures that can adapt and scale rapidly, efficiently and reliably,” said Dr. James Coomer, SVP, product, DDN. “Robovision understands that implementing scalable AI effectively requires an approach that combines software platforms with compute and storage infrastructure and a deep understanding of a customer’s business stack. Partnering with Robovision allows our joint customers to accelerate the deployment and power of their AI applications.“

“Recent testing in our lab of the combination of NVIDIA’s DGX-2 along with DDN’s AI400 has reinforced our view that infrastructure considerations are fundamental to the realization of business transformation and life-improving AI applications,” said Jonathan Berte, CEO, Robovision. “DDN’s commitment to developing highly parallel and scalable architectures matches well with the high performance requirements of compute and AI applications. We look forward to upcoming projects with DDN and leveraging them to help customers extract the most value from their complex data.“

PartnerLink program tier
During the GTC conference, DDN has launched a Platinum Tier within the PartnerLink program, exclusively for DGX-certified resellers of the firm’s A³I with DGX-1, DGX POD, and DGX-2. This specialized tier is designed to provide added support to the resellers who work with AI and deep learning customers and best understand their needs, and to support them with high QoS.

The new tier will provide resellers with exclusive offerings from the company, including access to proof of concept units for qualified opportunities, special pricing for demo units, guaranteed margins for registered deals, and special pricing on A³I with DGX systems.

“DDN’s renewed focus on the channel over the last three years has strengthened our relationships with both customers and partners. We are excited about offering the Platinum Tier and to continuing to differentiate our channel program with focus and expertise,” said Dean Koester, SVP, field sales for Americas and Europe, DDN.

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October 8,  2018 | Press Release