H2O.ai and Intel collaborate for AI and Machine Learning Acceleration on Intel Platform

H20.ai and Intel announced a project codenamed Project Blue Danube.

The project is aimed to accelerate H2O.ai's  Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies on Intel platforms that include the new 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors.

To deliver agility, scale and security, Intel developed 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors and Intel Optane DC persistent memory and combined with H2O.ai's accelerated machine learning technology the platform gives enterprises a competitive edge, the announcement said.

Executive Opinion

CEO and Founder of H2O.ai, Sri Ambati, said, "AI is eating the cloud after eating software and hardware. AI is powering the most significant value creation in the datacenter and on the cloud. Open source H2O AI in partnership with Intel democratizes AI on large data sets previously impossible and scoring on the edge ubiquitously. Making it faster, cheaper and easier to train, develop and deploy AI for enterprises. AI is an ecosystem play and the tight-knit co-development in hardware and open software from Intel and H2O.ai nurtures a forest of innovation and not just raising a tree."

VP and GM of Intel's Digital Transformation & Scale Solutions, Enterprise & Government, Data Center Group, Lisa Davis, said, "Advanced machine learning software like H2O.ai, powered by 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors and Intel Optane DC persistent memory, will help companies of all sizes achieve an AI transformation. These AI-ready platforms can enable rapid insights for every business, and we're happy to collaborate with software innovators like H2O.ai to achieve this goal."

H2O.ai and Intel

H20.ai AI and machine learning technologies on Intel platform could handle four times the data set size than traditional memory systems. H2O with optimized XGBoost also delivered 4.5 times the improvement in training time. To achieve this fleet, H20 used a machine with Intel Xeon Platinum 8200 processor and Intel Optane DC persistent memory with 100GB memory versus a 4-node cluster with Intel Xeon processor E5-2600, notes the announcement.

H2O AutoML is open source, scalable and distributed in-memory AI and machine learning platform. The platform is widely used in statistical and machine learning algorithms including gradient boosted machines, generalized linear models, deep learning and more.  This platform is popular among R and Python communities.

H2O.ai is a member of the Intel AI Builders Program. It is an ecosystem of industry-leading independent software vendors (ISVs), system integrators (SIs), original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and enterprise end users.