Dell partners with NVIDIA for secure, on-premises, Generative AI

Dell Technologies and NVIDIA have announced a joint initiative to make it easier for businesses to build and use generative AI models on-premises to quickly and securely deliver better customer service, market intelligence, enterprise search, and other capabilities.

Called Project Helix, the solution will deliver a series of full-stack solutions with technical expertise and pre-built tools based on Dell and NVIDIA infrastructure and software. In addition, it includes a complete blueprint to help enterprises use their proprietary data and more efficiently deploy generative AI responsibly and accurately.   

"Project Helix gives enterprises purpose-built AI models to more quickly and securely gain value from the immense amounts of data underused today," says Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and co-chief operating officer of Dell Technologies. "With highly scalable and efficient infrastructure, enterprises can create a new wave of generative AI solutions that can reinvent their industries."

"We are at a historic moment, when incredible advances in generative AI are intersecting with enterprise demand to do more with less," says Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. "With Dell Technologies, we've designed extremely scalable, highly efficient infrastructure that enables enterprises to transform their business by securely using their own data to build and operate generative AI applications."

Project Helix simplifies enterprise generative AI deployments with a tested combination of optimized hardware and software, all available from Dell. This delivers the power to convert enterprise data into smarter, higher-value outcomes while maintaining data privacy. These solutions will help companies quickly deploy customized AI applications that drive trusted decisions from their own data to grow and scale their businesses.

Project Helix will support the complete generative AI lifecycle – from infrastructure provisioning, modelling, training, fine-tuning, application development and deployment to deploying inference and streamlining results. The validated designs help enterprises quickly build on-premises generative AI infrastructure at scale.

Dell PowerEdge servers, such as the PowerEdge XE9680 and PowerEdge R760xa, are optimized to deliver performance for generative AI training and AI inferencing. The combination of Dell servers with NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs and NVIDIA Networking form the infrastructure backbone for these workloads. Customers can pair this infrastructure with resilient and scalable unstructured data storage, including Dell PowerScale and Dell ECS Enterprise Object Storage. 

With all Dell Validated Designs, customers can use the enterprise features of Dell server and storage software, with observability through Dell CloudIQ software. Project Helix also includes NVIDIA AI Enterprise software to provide tools for customers as they move through the AI lifecycle. NVIDIA AI Enterprise includes more than 100 frameworks, pre-trained models and development tools, such as the NVIDIA NeMo large language model framework and NeMo Guardrails software for building topical, safe and secure generative AI chatbots.

Project Helix includes security and privacy built into foundational components, such as Secured Component Verification. Protecting data on-premises reduces inherent risk and helps companies meet regulatory requirements.

"Companies are eager to explore the opportunities that generative AI tools enable for their organizations, but many aren't sure how to get started," notes Bob O'Donnell, president and chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research. "By putting together a complete hardware and software solution from trusted brands, Dell Technologies and NVIDIA are offering enterprises a head start to building and refining AI-powered models that can leverage their own company's unique assets and create powerful, customized tools."

Dell Validated Designs based on the Project Helix initiative will be available through traditional channels and APEX flexible consumption options beginning in July 2023.