Nvidia partnered with colocation providers to make its supercomputing platforms more accessible to artificial intelligence (AI) developers. Equinix will be among the first colocation vendors to join Nvidia’s AI LaunchPad program, which “offers customers instant access to AI and machine learning infrastructure that's ready to use,” said Justin Boitano, VP and GM of enterprise and edge computing at Nvidia.

The colocation push allows users to deploy AI workloads on the chipmaker's DGX Servers and certified hardware from vendors such as Dell Technologies and Lenovo.

“This program means enterprises no longer need to justify large capex investments to get started. They can start modestly paying for the hardware in a pay-as-you-go model to quickly and affordably show internal stakeholders the power of AI,” Boitano said.

Nvidia claims these industry-standard servers are ideal for running the Nvidia AI Enterprise software suite on VMware’s vSphere platform and will enable more companies to launch distributed AI applications.

By placing AI compute resources in colocation facilities, such as those operated by Equinix, the chipmaker claims enterprises can take advantage of high-speed backbone networks connecting the facilities to train AI models using data from multiple public and private clouds. Equinix operates more than 200 facilities located in more than 60 metros.

“This program puts high-performance computing in direct proximity of their data, allowing enterprises to get started in their AI transformation even faster,” Boitano explained.

Colocated AI compute resources carry other benefits, Steve Stienhilber, VP of business development at Equinix, said in a statement “Many industries use private clouds to keep costs down by having compute resources close to the data for performance, data privacy, ownership, and sovereignty reasons."

The first LaunchPad-enabled Equinix locations are slated to come online later this summer.

To manage these distributed AI workloads, Nvidia also announced Fleet Command, a platform it claims will allow users to securely deploy and manage AI applications across thousands of locations.

“Fleet Command security orchestrates, manages, and scales AI applications across distributed edge infrastructure,” Boitano said, adding that once deployed, administrators only need to authenticate their credentials, and Nvidia handles the rest. It’s “as easy as installing a smart thermostat or a smart speaker in your home,” he added.

The platform, which is available today on Nvidia-certified servers, allows users to remotely install, update, and manage software across multiple nodes from a centralized dashboard.

Nvidia claims “the world’s leading retail, health care, and logistics companies,” including Bore Logistics, which operators more than 700 locations globally, are among its Fleet Command customers.