(Registration is still required to view this FREE Webinar)
Description:
The OCP Community, led by operators like Hedgehog and neoclouds, recently released Ethernet-based reference architectures (RAs) and network configurations for AI training and inference clusters. These open RAs offer a viable, proven alternative to InfiniBand and proprietary, vertically integrated AI networking stacks, providing a prescriptive model for AI data center networks and hyperscale growth.
The architectures incorporate OCP switches, OCP NICs, SONiC NOS, and Hedgehog open-source software for secure ingress and egress in front-end networks, resilient storage networks, high performance RoCE for back-end scale out, and in-band management. These RAs utilize generally available technology while preparing for tomorrow’s Ultra Ethernet. The webinar will showcase real-world examples deployed in production by OCP members of the Scaling AI Clusters at Neoclouds Workstream, which have also been validated by those in the OCP Networking project community.
Who should attend?
Anyone building AI data centers who wants to network like a hyperscaler should attend this session. Neoclouds, enterprises and government agencies can use these high-performance AI network architectures to run training and inference infrastructure at lower cost, better performance, and with easier operations.
What will you learn?
- OCP templates for Open Pod Groups and xPU Open Clusters
- Best practices for scale up and scale out xPUs
- Topology options for rail-optimized wiring and dual-plane fabrics for efficient GPU-to-GPU communications and resilient operations
- The respective roles of the Hedgehog control plane and SONiC data plane for multi-tenant isolation and security
- Lifecycle automation for Day 0, Day 1, and Day 2 operations
- Best practices for configuration drift management and continuous reconciliation with Kubernetes
- Modeling the network configs as Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions
- Integrating the network with SRE cloud-native tools for GitOps and Infrastructure as Code
- Maintenance operations for Open Pod Groups and xPU Open Clusters
- How to plan and procure a complete bill of materials for each reference architecture in the OCP Marketplace
Speakers:
James Kelly
VP Market Intelligence and Innovation, Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP)
James joined the OCP Foundation staff in 2024 as VP Market Intelligence and Innovation, working with technology leaders in the community and augmenting the foundation’s directional strategy, innovation efforts and marketing. His contributions to the OCP proceed from over two decades of experience in technology research, engineering, product management and marketing.
Alan Weckel
Founder and Technology Analyst, 650 Group
Alan is a recognized data center networking, enterprise, and Cloud market expert. He publishes quarterly market share and forecast data for switching, routing, and Cloud markets. His research spans verticals, use case, and speed transitions. In addition to specific technology reports, Alan publishes on adjacent markets such as AI Networking, DCI, and Data Center Semiconductors and is a market influencer in the financial community and standards bodies. Alan is at the forefront in market methodology and segmentation, pioneering research in areas such as white box, data center switching, AI, Cloud CAPEX, and merchant silicon.
Marc Austin
CEO, Hedgehog
Marc Austin is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Hedgehog. Marc is a fox who knows many things and a hedgehog who knows one big thing. As a Hedgehog he knows that millions of cloud native development teams will use Hedgehog open network fabrics to deploy their apps on distributed cloud infrastructure. As a fox he knows many things from his experience leading mass-scale automation strategy at Cisco, Internet of Things networking at Jasper, digital media delivery at Amazon, mobile application development founding Canvas, the birth of smartphones at AT&T, early mobile ride sharing founding Mobiquity, internet search at Infoseek, e-commerce at Internet Shopping Network and leading people through adversity in the United States Army.