The scalable AI solutions can support an operator’s evolution from customer-facing chatbots to AIOps and broad network automation
Communications service providers (CSPs) have already started to use generative AI (GenAI) for capabilities like customer service chatbots and engineering support. The bigger vision is to leverage massive stores of telco data to create more adaptable, performant, optimized networks with closed-loop automation. However, that long-term evolution requires application and data center modernization—in addition to some organizational adjustments. To smooth this process, Dell Technologies and NVIDIA are delivering the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA, the industry’s first end-to-end AI enterprise solution integrating Dell’s compute, storage, client device, software, and services capabilities with NVIDIA’s advanced AI infrastructure and software suite, all underpinned by a high-speed networking fabric.
In conversation with RCR Wireless News during the recent Digital Transformation World—Ignite event in Copenhagen, Denmark, NVIDIA Global Account Manager for Edge and Telco Jared Carl explained that building an AI-ready infrastructure isn’t a simple node life and replace process. “As we shift into the new AI era, as we talk about the change that is necessary to adopt these AI technologies, we’re seeing rack-scale architectures come out,” he said.
With the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA, “Companies of any size…can deploy AI at scale, but they can also start very simply…As we pivot from GPUs being [High Performance Computing]- centric, powering supercomputer predicting weather, we now have chatbots, we now have AI technologies that can be powered at scale, supported in the enterprise, so companies like telcos, who have zero tolerance for downtime, can be very comfortable.”
The Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA integrates Dell’s portfolio with NVIDIA’s AI Enterprise software, Tensor Core GPUs, Bluefield DPUs and Spectrum-X Ethernet networking. The full-stack solution will be exemplified with the Dell PowerEdge XE9680L, which will support eight NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs in a 4U form factor for high-performance AI deployments.
Dell Technologies Global Vice President in the Telecom Systems Business David Trigg called
the mainstreaming of AI “an acceleration unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” and reiterated a core thesis: “one of our biggest points…is it all starts with the data. That’s why the data center is important…and we are front and center in driving this transformation with our customers.”
He also detailed that data center modernization is one piece of a bigger puzzle. Name-checking Dell partners Amdocs, Ericsson and Nokia, Trigg said ongoing application modernization, so users can “take advantage of the AI models, really be able to incorporate that into the functions…within the network” is how operators shift from established GenAI use cases like customer chatbots to full-on network automation.
He called out a TM Forum catalyst project involving a GenAI overlay for legacy BSS
technologies that allows the CSP to more effectively engage with and use its data to more
effectively realize specific business outcomes. “You’re starting to see things that connect kind of the legacy to the new, so [CSPs] don’t have to modernize everything at once because obviously the industry can’t afford to do that.”
Picking up on Trigg’s comments around the foundational importance of data and data centers in leveraging AI, Carl said, “It’s called a data center. It’s not a compute center, it’s not a server room…Follow the data.” Reflecting on conversations at DTW—Ignite, he said he had encountered customers with data problems that would be solved with a better way to interact with that data. GenAI, does this, Carl said. It “basically disaggregates the complexity of the network, disaggregates the complexity of doing the business functions in the background. It makes compute much more accessible to people.” With the Dell AI Factory, “We’re democratizing compute…people can now access that data and make better decisions going forward…It’s a very exciting moment to be in the technology world.”
Visit the Dell AI Factory with Nvidia for additional information.
