How to Fast-Track AI Innovation Without the Headaches

Every day, AI and other emerging technologies make the headlines. IT leaders across industries are under pressure to put AI initiatives in motion-and fast. Whether the goal is improving operational efficiency, elevating customer experiences or accelerating decision-making, AI offers incredible promise while also introducing considerable technical complexity.

With or without AI, though, companies are increasingly encumbered by technical complexity. As data volumes increase astronomically, managing, protecting and getting value from enterprise data has become more costly and difficult. It's a problem that's been brewing since the beginning of the digital age. Meanwhile, most organizations operate a hybrid multicloud architecture distributed to many locations around the world. And the speed of business seems to be ever accelerating.

Many companies looking to implement AI don't know where to start. They're overwhelmed by the technical challenges, from fragmented data to infrastructure limitations to AI skills shortages. This adds up to a lot of headaches for IT teams as they look for creative opportunities to use AI to benefit their businesses.

Rather than taking all this technical complexity on yourself, you can work with experts in AI and hybrid multicloud solutions who'll help you use technology for competitive advantage. Partnering with companies that have the right expertise can balance your strengths and simplify your AI journey. This is how you innovate faster and smarter with AI.

Multicloud AI Needs Proximity

Why hybrid multicloud networking is AI's force multiplier?

What makes AI and other emerging technologies so challenging?

Companies face wide-ranging challenges with implementing AI. Many of these difficulties are data-related:

• Enterprise data is often fragmented and disorganized; companies don't know where all their data is or how to effectively use it.
• Migrating data for AI training and inference can be costly and difficult.
• With data regulations on the rise, companies need to ensure compliance with data privacy and residency requirements.
• Sensitive data may need to be hosted in a private environment for greater control, but organizations still want to use public cloud for some workloads.

There are also numerous infrastructure and IT skills-related challenges:

• AI solutions need to be integrated with legacy systems and clouds.
• Traditional infrastructure that wasn't designed for AI or high-performance computing (HPC) applications can't scale quickly enough to meet requirements.
• IT teams don't have the time or the skills to manage infrastructure for AI.

It's a lot to manage, so it's no wonder that launching into AI can feel so daunting.

Where to find help managing a hybrid environment for AI

Hybrid multicloud environments allow companies to take advantage of the flexibility and scalability of public clouds, alongside the security and control of private infrastructure. Not only do hybrid cloud environments help companies balance different priorities; they can be downright necessary for AI initiatives involving sensitive data. However, they can also be complex to manage when it comes to areas like integration, networking, monitoring, security and compliance, and more.

To simplify the management of hybrid multicloud environments, many organizations choose to leverage managed cloud solutions. That's because managed cloud solution providers have specialized technical expertise to help businesses get the best performance from their cloud infrastructure at the lowest cost. Working with them frees up internal IT teams to focus on innovation. Managed cloud solutions can also help companies fast-track innovation with AI by optimizing data management, offering access to AI hardware, facilitating integration between clouds and AI infrastructure, enhancing risk management and much more.

Managed cloud solution providers like RapidScale have helped businesses navigate numerous hurdles, including the chaos of AI. When RapidScale started noticing that their customers needed not just public cloud solutions for AI but also private, hosted environments for some workloads, they began looking for ways to expand their capabilities delivering hybrid environments for AI. This is how RapidScale can help businesses simplify IT and unleash innovation with next-gen technologies.

With their mission to provide organizations with a personalized cloud solution backed by the most customer-oriented service in the industry, RapidScale has helped thousands of customers move their businesses forward, without being mired in IT management. And now they're growing their roster of customers implementing AI for their next wave of innovation.

Check out the video to hear directly from RapidScale:

How Equinix enables companies like RapidScale

To deliver the hybrid managed cloud solutions their customers need for AI, RapidScale needed to provide private, hosted environments that connect easily to major clouds. They decided to deploy private infrastructure in Equinix AI-ready data centers and leverage Equinix Fabric® for interconnection across their global footprint. By working with Equinix, they don't have to maintain data centers themselves or invest in high-tech equipment for enabling AI and HPC infrastructure. They also don't have to focus on data center compliance issues or power and cooling. And their customers have access to diverse cloud on-ramps from locations around the world.

By using Equinix colocation data centers, RapidScale can continue to focus on empowering their customers with hybrid managed cloud solutions that simplify IT. They can help companies unlock the potential of their data and innovate in their businesses, without having to build and manage data centers themselves.

Equinix has 270+ data centers around the world and is home to ~3,000 clouds and IT service providers. As data center demand increases in the age of AI, companies can see significant benefits when putting infrastructure in AI-ready facilities that are home to rich business ecosystems, including service providers like RapidScale.

Learn more about how to future-proof your AI strategy by downloading our AI-ready data center guide.