Intel Architecture Empowers Baidu Cloud ABC Vision

Author of the article: Raejeanne Skillern, Intel vice president and general manager of cloud service vendors Group Data Center Group

Every time I come to China, I can't help but sigh at the technological advances brought about by innovation. Here, every individual and business is passionate about change. With the introduction of innovative technology, the great changes made here will break the traditional limitations. Last week, I attended the Baidu Cloud Summit (ABC Summit) and announced with Baidu Cloud that we will establish the Baidu-Intel Artificial Intelligence Solution Center and share our cooperation in promoting innovation in Cloud Computing (ABC). ABC stands for Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, and Cloud CompuTIng, and is the three pillars that support Baidu's business transformation.

Artificial intelligence has changed the consumer, enterprise, and government markets on a global scale, and has had a profound impact on industries such as financial services, health care, transportation, and manufacturing.

Intel is committed to the democratization of artificial intelligence, trying to make artificial intelligence to the general public. Based on this, Intel and Baidu Cloud set up an artificial intelligence solution center. This cooperation leverages the strengths of both parties in the hardware and software arena to provide Intel's latest artificial intelligence technologies and solutions in a simplified, scalable and comprehensive manner in the Baidu cloud environment.

· Simplified

In the early stage, no cost is required, and customers can develop, test, and run artificial intelligence applications in the Baidu Intel artificial intelligence cloud that supports the deep learning framework. In addition, the artificial intelligence architecture is easy to program and run through general programming and management of the Intel platform.

· Scalable

Users can start with an application or proof of concept and can scale to large deployments as needed.

· Comprehensive

Baidu Cloud and Intel jointly provide a comprehensive and complete set of tools and solutions to assist each step of the artificial intelligence workflow—from describing the problem, understanding the design, to production deployment.

Baidu-Intel Industrial Intelligence Solution Center is expected to be put into use in the next quarter.

In addition, Intel will continue to optimize its artificial intelligence framework in its latest and most advantageous hardware and libraries. The Intel Xeon Scalable Processor Platform is enhanced with built-in deep learning and neural network enhancements through the Intel® Math Kernel Library (MKL-DNN) for Deep Neural Networks and the Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions 512 (AVX-512) Neural network training and reasoning performance. With the technical advantages of Intel, Baidu's Paddle-Paddle open source deep learning framework will be greatly optimized and its performance will be greatly improved.

For most companies, big data is the starting point for in-depth analysis. To empower artificial intelligence, companies often add deep learning capabilities to their existing infrastructure. In response to this demand, Intel developed and open sourced BigDL, a distributed deep learning library for the Apache Spark* open source cluster computing framework. With BigDL, users can write their own deep learning applications as standard Apache Spark applications that run on existing Apache Spark or Hadoop clusters. Baidu Cloud will release a unified data analysis platform that integrates BigDL and Hadoop to empower users with deep learning applications, allowing users to enjoy neural network capabilities without having to invest in a framework.

At present, enterprises from different industries are migrating applications to the cloud to improve business agility and scalability, so cloud service providers are under increasing pressure. They need to optimize performance for a variety of workloads, especially computing and big data intensive workloads. Intel delivered a customized CPU for Baidu, tailored to Baidu workloads to improve performance and end-user experience. Baidu has adopted Intel's latest Xeon scalable processor and gained great energy efficiency gains. Baidu is poised to support industry users with the best technology to help it succeed in today's competitive business world.

Future business success depends on the ability of companies to quickly navigate data and drive insight. Intel and Baidu are working together to innovate and use big data to guide action. Stay tuned for more news from Baidu Intel Artificial Intelligence Solution Center and apply for a free trial. To learn how Intel can help cloud service providers like Baidu deliver energy-efficient, agile and trusted infrastructure and differentiated cloud services, visit: http://CSP.