TECHNOLOGY

Oracle partners with AMD to create faster, low-cost cloud compute

Published

1 year ago

June 22, 2023

To make it easier for organisations to balance price and performance in their cloud environments and reduce costs, Oracle plans to make available new Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Compute E5 instances with 4^th generation AMD EPYC processors.

Unlike other cloud providers’ rigid instance options that bind organisations to paying more for unused computing resources, flexible instances from OCI allow customers to allocate cores and memory as needed.

Oracle offers standard, high-performance computing (HPC), and Dense-IO instances with choices for the number of cores, amount of memory, local and remote storage, networking, and other resources to serve a wide variety of workloads faster and more efficiently. These instances offer customers flexible and simple options to run a wide range of workloads in the cloud including applications from Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, and other third-party ISVs, as well as VMware and Kubernetes environments.

OCI Compute E5 instances will offer more CPU cores, better performance per core, better memory bandwidth, and higher storage capacity than previous iterations with customisable options including:

OCI Compute E5 Standard instances are the preferred platform for web and application servers, back-end servers for enterprise applications, application development environments, and many other use cases. Compared to prior generation E4 instances, the new instances deliver great efficiency by offering 33% better performance per core and 50% better memory bandwidth, as well as 50% more cores on bare metal instances according to internal testing.
OCI Compute E5 HPC instances bring powerful, cost-effective computing capabilities to complex mathematical and scientific problems across industries. By using cluster networking to combine the processing power of multiple HPC instances, organisations can tackle complex tasks that usually require a supercomputer—including training AI models, predicting the weather, and analyzing genetic sequences—in the cloud. The new instances offer 40% better price-performance than prior generation HPC instances according to internal testing.
OCI Compute E5 Dense-IO instances are designed for large databases, big data workloads, and applications that require high-performance local storage. The new instances help organisations to better address workloads such as databases and file systems by offering 50% higher storage capacity and 63% higher storage performance than prior E4 Dense-IO instances according to internal testing.

OCI also enables customers to customise their deployments to suit their needs with specific capabilities such as burstable and preemptible instances. This helps customers control their compute resources and costs by scaling up rapidly or allowing their resources to be reclaimed for use elsewhere when demands fluctuate. For organisations running extra-sensitive workloads, shielded instances offer hardened firmware security on both bare metal and VMs to defend against malicious boot-level software. Lastly, confidential computing instances can also help prevent unauthorised access, while still delivering high performance, by encrypting and isolating data in use.

In addition to typical uses for cloud-based compute services, OCI Compute E5 instances can be configured with clustered file systems to tackle complex cases. These include cases with large databases or requirements to access and change data rapidly such as training AI models, conducting financial analysis, rendering video, or simulating car crashes.

“No two organisations use their compute resources in the same way. Some just need fast, reliable bare metal instances to ensure their end users get good performance, while others are pushing boundaries with complicated simulations that require massive amounts of computing resources. Flexible and scalable OCI compute instances with AMD processors are already collectively saving our customers $40M per year as they can granularly configure instances to match the demands of their workload instead of relying on rigid, preset options,” said Donald Lu, senior vice president, software development, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. “With the next-generation of AMD processors powering our OCI Compute E5 instances, we’re offering our customers the ability to run any workload faster and more efficiently while maintaining the leading price-performance they expect from Oracle.”

“AMD EPYC processors have made another leap forward in the performance, scalability and energy efficiency needed to run the most demanding business critical cloud workloads our customers rely on,” said Ram Peddibhotla, corporate vice president, Cloud Business, AMD. “With our new 4^th Gen AMD EPYC processors, we’re helping cloud providers, like Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, offer high performance compute resources that enable customers to drive faster business results along with the security and flexibility they expect from EPYC processors.”

Kamran Zargahi, senior director, Technology Strategy and Execution, Uber, said: “OCI Compute, powered by AMD processors, provides both flexibility and best-in-class price-performance for workloads.

“The Dense-IO and flexible instances are ideal for Uber applications for mobility & delivery, supporting a mix of our stateful and stateless workloads, including microservices, databases, and streaming analytics. We’re expecting to use the upcoming OCI Compute E5 instances with 4th generation AMD EPYC processors as well.”

Stefan Birrer, chief software architect and co-founder, Phenix Real Time Solutions, said: “Phenix improves online entertainment and sports experiences by delivering synchronised video streams with less than a half second of latency to millions of viewers.

“Currently, we run OCI Compute flexible instances with 3^rd generation AMD EPYC processors and expect to be using the next generation on OCI. OCI Compute helped us encode video streams efficiently and reduce our processing costs by 40%.”

James Hom, co-founder and chief product officer, SoundHound, said: “SoundHound’s voice platform enables automakers, restaurants, and smart device manufacturers to deliver best-in-class conversational AI experiences to their customers. We process more than 200 million queries from different products and services every month with the help of OCI Compute, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, and other services.

“As an established innovator with years of experience delivering AI solutions to world class brands, we now have a great advantage amid the incredible surge in demand for conversational AI and we’re delighted to be supported by next-generation OCI Compute instances with AMD EPYC processors.”

Arnab Mishra, chief operating officer, Xactly, said: “Xactly provides industry-leading tools for sales forecasting and incentive compensation management. We process millions of transactions per customer every day. OCI Compute, powered by 3^rd generation AMD EPYC processors, provides flexibility and elasticity for our flagship products and underlying Oracle Database. We look forward to the next generation of OCI Compute instances with 4^th generation AMD processors.”

OCI Compute E5 instances support multiple operating systems including Oracle Linux, Windows, and Red Hat among others, as well as hundreds of installable images from the Oracle Marketplace. Oracle plans to make OCI Compute E5 instances generally available during the second half of 2023.

Want to learn more about cybersecurity and the cloud from industry leaders? Check out Cyber Security & Cloud Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Duncan is an award-winning editor with more than 20 years experience in journalism. Having launched his tech journalism career as editor of Arabian Computer News in Dubai, he has since edited an array of tech and digital marketing publications, including Computer Business Review, TechWeekEurope, Figaro Digital, Digit and Marketing Gazette.

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Tags: AMD, ORacle

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TECHNOLOGY

Next-gen chips, Amazon Q, and speedy S3

Published

7 months ago

December 1, 2023

Max

AWS re:Invent, which has been taking place from November 27 and runs to December 1, has had its usual plethora of announcements: a total of 21 at time of print.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given the huge potential impact of generative AI – ChatGPT officially turns one year old today – a lot of focus has been on the AI side for AWS’ announcements, including a major partnership inked with NVIDIA across infrastructure, software, and services.

Yet there has been plenty more announced at the Las Vegas jamboree besides. Here, CloudTech rounds up the best of the rest:

Next-generation chips

This was the other major AI-focused announcement at re:Invent: the launch of two new chips, AWS Graviton4 and AWS Trainium2, for training and running AI and machine learning (ML) models, among other customer workloads. Graviton4 shapes up against its predecessor with 30% better compute performance, 50% more cores and 75% more memory bandwidth, while Trainium2 delivers up to four times faster training than before and will be able to be deployed in EC2 UltraClusters of up to 100,000 chips.

The EC2 UltraClusters are designed to ‘deliver the highest performance, most energy efficient AI model training infrastructure in the cloud’, as AWS puts it. With it, customers will be able to train large language models in ‘a fraction of the time’, as well as double energy efficiency.

As ever, AWS offers customers who are already utilising these tools. Databricks, Epic and SAP are among the companies cited as using the new AWS-designed chips.

Zero-ETL integrations

AWS announced new Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, Amazon DynamoDB, and Amazon Relational Database Services (Amazon RDS) for MySQL integrations with Amazon Redshift, AWS’ cloud data warehouse. The zero-ETL integrations – eliminating the need to build ETL (extract, transform, load) data pipelines – make it easier to connect and analyse transactional data across various relational and non-relational databases in Amazon Redshift.

A simple example of how zero-ETL functions can be seen is in a hypothetical company which stores transactional data – time of transaction, items bought, where the transaction occurred – in a relational database, but use another analytics tool to analyse data in a non-relational database. To connect it all up, companies would previously have to construct ETL data pipelines which are a time and money sink.

The latest integrations “build on AWS’s zero-ETL foundation… so customers can quickly and easily connect all of their data, no matter where it lives,” the company said.

Amazon S3 Express One Zone

AWS announced the general availability of Amazon S3 Express One Zone, a new storage class purpose-built for customers’ most frequently-accessed data. Data access speed is up to 10 times faster and request costs up to 50% lower than standard S3. Companies can also opt to collocate their Amazon S3 Express One Zone data in the same availability zone as their compute resources.

Companies and partners who are using Amazon S3 Express One Zone include ChaosSearch, Cloudera, and Pinterest.

Amazon Q

A new product, and an interesting pivot, again with generative AI at its core. Amazon Q was announced as a ‘new type of generative AI-powered assistant’ which can be tailored to a customer’s business. “Customers can get fast, relevant answers to pressing questions, generate content, and take actions – all informed by a customer’s information repositories, code, and enterprise systems,” AWS added. The service also can assist companies building on AWS, as well as companies using AWS applications for business intelligence, contact centres, and supply chain management.

Customers cited as early adopters include Accenture, BMW and Wunderkind.

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TECHNOLOGY

HCLTech and Cisco create collaborative hybrid workplaces

Published

7 months ago

November 29, 2023

Max

Digital comms specialist Cisco and global tech firm HCLTech have teamed up to launch Meeting-Rooms-as-a-Service (MRaaS).

Available on a subscription model, this solution modernises legacy meeting rooms and enables users to join meetings from any meeting solution provider using Webex devices.

The MRaaS solution helps enterprises simplify the design, implementation and maintenance of integrated meeting rooms, enabling seamless collaboration for their globally distributed hybrid workforces.

Rakshit Ghura, senior VP and Global head of digital workplace services, HCLTech, said: “MRaaS combines our consulting and managed services expertise with Cisco’s proficiency in Webex devices to change the way employees conceptualise, organise and interact in a collaborative environment for a modern hybrid work model.

“The common vision of our partnership is to elevate the collaboration experience at work and drive productivity through modern meeting rooms.”

Alexandra Zagury, VP of partner managed and as-a-Service Sales at Cisco, said: “Our partnership with HCLTech helps our clients transform their offices through cost-effective managed services that support the ongoing evolution of workspaces.

“As we reimagine the modern office, we are making it easier to support collaboration and productivity among workers, whether they are in the office or elsewhere.”

Cisco’s Webex collaboration devices harness the power of artificial intelligence to offer intuitive, seamless collaboration experiences, enabling meeting rooms with smart features such as meeting zones, intelligent people framing, optimised attendee audio and background noise removal, among others.

Tags: Cisco, collaboration, HCLTech, Hybrid, meetings

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TECHNOLOGY

Canonical releases low-touch private cloud MicroCloud

Published

7 months ago

November 28, 2023

Max

Canonical has announced the general availability of MicroCloud, a low-touch, open source cloud solution. MicroCloud is part of Canonical’s growing cloud infrastructure portfolio.

It is purpose-built for scalable clusters and edge deployments for all types of enterprises. It is designed with simplicity, security and automation in mind, minimising the time and effort to both deploy and maintain it. Conveniently, enterprise support for MicroCloud is offered as part of Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro subscription, with several support tiers available, and priced per node.

MicroClouds are optimised for repeatable and reliable remote deployments. A single command initiates the orchestration and clustering of various components with minimal involvement by the user, resulting in a fully functional cloud within minutes. This simplified deployment process significantly reduces the barrier to entry, putting a production-grade cloud at everyone’s fingertips.

Juan Manuel Ventura, head of architectures & technologies at Spindox, said: “Cloud computing is not only about technology, it’s the beating heart of any modern industrial transformation, driving agility and innovation. Our mission is to provide our customers with the most effective ways to innovate and bring value; having a complexity-free cloud infrastructure is one important piece of that puzzle. With MicroCloud, the focus shifts away from struggling with cloud operations to solving real business challenges” says

In addition to seamless deployment, MicroCloud prioritises security and ease of maintenance. All MicroCloud components are built with strict confinement for increased security, with over-the-air transactional updates that preserve data and roll back on errors automatically. Upgrades to newer versions are handled automatically and without downtime, with the mechanisms to hold or schedule them as needed.

With this approach, MicroCloud caters to both on-premise clouds but also edge deployments at remote locations, allowing organisations to use the same infrastructure primitives and services wherever they are needed. It is suitable for business-in-branch office locations or industrial use inside a factory, as well as distributed locations where the focus is on replicability and unattended operations.

Cedric Gegout, VP of product at Canonical, said: “As data becomes more distributed, the infrastructure has to follow. Cloud computing is now distributed, spanning across data centres, far and near edge computing appliances. MicroCloud is our answer to that.

“By packaging known infrastructure primitives in a portable and unattended way, we are delivering a simpler, more prescriptive cloud experience that makes zero-ops a reality for many Industries.“

MicroCloud’s lightweight architecture makes it usable on both commodity and high-end hardware, with several ways to further reduce its footprint depending on your workload needs. In addition to the standard Ubuntu Server or Desktop, MicroClouds can be run on Ubuntu Core – a lightweight OS optimised for the edge. With Ubuntu Core, MicroClouds are a perfect solution for far-edge locations with limited computing capabilities. Users can choose to run their workloads using Kubernetes or via system containers. System containers based on LXD behave similarly to traditional VMs but consume fewer resources while providing bare-metal performance.

Coupled with Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro + Support subscription, MicroCloud users can benefit from an enterprise-grade open source cloud solution that is fully supported and with better economics. An Ubuntu Pro subscription offers security maintenance for the broadest collection of open-source software available from a single vendor today. It covers over 30k packages with a consistent security maintenance commitment, and additional features such as kernel livepatch, systems management at scale, certified compliance and hardening profiles enabling easy adoption for enterprises. With per-node pricing and no hidden fees, customers can rest assured that their environment is secure and supported without the expensive price tag typically associated with cloud solutions.

Tags: automation, Canonical, MicroCloud, private cloud

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