FlexPod is a converged infrastructure option developed by NetApp and Cisco. FlexPod is available in streamlined and simplified Express version, and the FlexPod Datacenter edition for enterprise private clouds, VDI, scale-out infrastructure, or software defined data centers.
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NetApp ONTAP AI
Score 10.0 out of 10
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NVIDIA and NetApp collaborate to deliver ONTAP AI, a converged infrastructure stack that incorporates
NVIDIA DGX A100, a 5-petaflop AI system, and NVIDIA Mellanox high-performance Ethernet switches to unify AI workloads, simplify deployment, and accelerate return on investment.
Being able to move a physical server config to another physical server within the FlexPod is a god send.
Hardware fails, we all know that.
It happens, by being able to move a profile from one blade to another, it allows you to quickly and easily restore service while waiting for hardware to arrive onsite to repair/replace the failed component.
If you want to deploy your AI system with precofigured solution and validated architecture and also want to scale your system, NetApp ONTAP AI is go to product. If you want to build not so large pipleline for analytics, or an ai system that dont require complex computation then its not recommended.
KVM control of the blades still requires Java. Avocent is using HTML5 now, and it would be nice if the KVM console for these UCS blades could too.
Price - Like any Cisco product, there are cheaper options. They aren't nearly as fully featured, but at times, it would be nice if UCS could be a bit cheaper.
I have made use of Smartstack, vBlock and Flashstack, as well as other mixes of storage and virtualization hosts, and FlexPod is probably still my favorite. While something like a Nimble Smartstack or Pure Flashstack is easier to maintain, I love the in depth information and control that a SAN such as Netapp offers us. There is more knowledge and skill required to manage it, but the maturity of the product helps make up for that.
1) Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit (Formerly CNTK) dont have vast functionalities they are limited to set of rules. 2) They dont support all in one. I.e NetApp ONTAP AI I can analyze, inference and compute on simgle node or system. 3) pricing of Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit (Formerly CNTK) is higher than NetApp ONTAP AI
FlexPod has allowed our team to be extremely quick to resopnd to new VM build requests. The amount of RAM, CPU and backplane offered by B series blades allows us to go with very high VM density. The quick deployment of service profile templates also means that when we have to add new hosts, it is done quicker.
FlexPod and the service profile portability (along with VMware) has allowed for full upgrades and migrations from M1/M2 series hardware to M4 hardware without any downtime or outages to the clients. Blades can be moved into new chassis, or service profiles moved to new generation blades, with no impact to the customers' ability to work.
