OrionVM and Blaize launch AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS)

This first-of-its-kind partnership will empower organisations across multiple industries to launch their AI solutions quickly and efficiently, including machine learning across vast data sets.

Under the agreement, both companies' global sales teams will sell Blaize’s AI applications, enabled and powered by OrionVM’s optimised cloud platform.

The Blaize AIaaS solutions can be utilised in three possible scenarios:

1. Blaize’s Graph Streaming Processor (GSP) chips for edge AI and sensor fusion applications cards can be virtualised on the OrionVM cloud platform.
2. Dedicated AI environments for clients can be created with virtualised GSPs. For example, they can be integrated into video surveillance technology on the edge providing sophisticated and constantly updated analysis of events.
3. The latest version of Blaize AI Studio is available on the OrionVM cloud platform, allowing for the development of AI applications that can be set up to perform workloads fast without needing to purchase and configure complex hardware environments.

“Before the availability of next-gen cloud solutions like ours, AI was cost-prohibitive owing to steep infrastructure spend and a shortage of qualified programmers. Now, companies do not need to build their clouds, or rely on inflexible and expensive public clouds to build, test, and utilise their artificial intelligence systems. They can now take advantage of data insights through AIaaS without expensive up-front investments. This allows them to harness the power of machine learning at significantly lower costs,” said Daniel Pfeiffer, COO and VP Partnerships for OrionVM. “We are excited to see offerings like Blaize’s AIaaS provide cloud advantages such as enterprise security and the ability to instantly deploy and scale.”

Blaize’s AI applications are available on OrionVM’s resilient, secure infrastructure, enabling customers to run Blaize AI solutions on the efficient and flexible cloud platform.

Customers will be able to deploy combined offerings to solve industry challenges in several verticals, including:

• Security and video surveillance 
• Smart retail
• Smart city and transportation services
• Life sciences and healthcare

“We built our AI solutions with a deep understanding of where AI technology began and where it can go. Our innovative approach has helped companies across various industries because we address their need for products purpose-built for the requirements of edge AI,” said Dinakar Munagala, Blaize Co-founder and CEO. “Our solutions allow customers flexibility by programming AI solutions to fit their specific requirements. Our advanced code-free AI software also uniquely implements ‘edge-aware’ transfer learning and optimisations for higher accuracy post-model compression. The possibilities are almost limitless."

The AI industry has seen significant growth in the last few years, particularly during the pandemic, and this upward trend is expected to continue. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide spending on AI will increase from $50.1bn in 2020 to more than $110bn by 2024.

Digital healthcare, manufacturing, and retail businesses are likely to expand their use of edge computing by 2028, according to the Linux Foundation’s State of the Edge report. These sectors have already demonstrated interest in AI technology’s ability to improve response times and save bandwidth, while enabling less constrained data analysis. 

As businesses of various industries increasingly need to process large sets of data and harness the power of AI, they will seek out efficient and cost-effective ways to bring AI technology into the fold.