Video Intelligence Platform provider, VisualCortex, teams-up with Firmus’ Supercloud to make enterprise-wide visual computing initiatives environmentally and economically sustainable.
Video Intelligence Platform, VisualCortex, has partnered with Firmus – builders of Supercloud, the hyper energy efficient computational cloud – to reduce computer vision emissions by 50%.
The partnership will make large-scale video analytics environmentally sustainable and commercially achievable. Supercloud, powered by Firmus’ immersion cooled data center, enables VisualCortex and its clients to perform compute-exhaustive Machine Learning workloads, while future-proofing its carbon footprint.
The 50% reduction in CO2 emissions is achieved via Firmus’ fluid-based cooling system (a biodegradable, non-conductive liquid), which is 1000 times more efficient at removing heat from data centers compared to traditional air-based methods of heat exchange.
The partnership delivers three core outcomes:
● A dedicated VisualCortex R&D environment on Supercloud, enabling the vendor to train more computer vision models, in less time, while producing fewer CO2 emissions.
● A referral agreement, enabling VisualCortex to offer Supercloud’s hosting services to its current and future clients at discounted rates.
● A second referral agreement allowing Firmus to recommend VisualCortex’s Video Intelligence Platform to partners and clients at discounted rates.
VisualCortex CEO and Co-Founder, Patrick Elliott, said: “At VisualCortex, our mission is to make video data actionable throughout the enterprise. Our Video Intelligence platform makes it technologically and financially possible to pervasively scale computer vision programs. At the same time, we fully acknowledge that computer vision requires significant GPU processing power. Supercloud, powered by Firmus, provides an ideal solution to address this challenge for VisualCortex and our clients.”
A recent paper from Cornell University highlighted that training Artificial Intelligence models in traditional data center environments can emit over 626,000 pounds – or 284,000 kilograms – of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. For context, that’s almost five times greater than that produced by an average American car over its lifetime.
Supercloud’s immersion cooled approach will enable VisualCortex to reduce emissions produced from model training by around 50%.
“As our clients produce and share more video-based insights, they too will want options for reducing cloud compute costs and the impact on the environment,” said Elliott. “Supercloud can help them achieve both outcomes, playing an important role in sustainably fulfilling our ambition to make video analytics accessible to more organizations and more decision-makers within those organizations.”
Firmus and Supercloud CEO, Tim Rosenfield, said: “VisualCortex is taking video analytics mainstream. Because its Video Intelligence Platform can facilitate any video analytics use case, across any number of video cameras and streams, it’s easy to see how it’s going to expedite enterprise-wide computer vision deployments, thereby substantially increasing demand for high-performance GPU cloud compute.
“As a low-carbon, secure and sustainable AI computational cloud, Supercloud is ideally placed to support VisualCortex and its clients on that journey. Supercloud is built from the ground up to deliver powerful AI, ML and Visual Computing instances and tools in greater volume, at a lower cost and with less CO2 emitted per hour than anything else in the market today.
“Supercloud’s Sustainable Computer Engine delivers access to NVIDIA’s world-leading GPUs, including the A100s for Deep Learning and A40s for visual computing; on top of a flexible AI/ML stack and frameworks – enabling companies like VisualCortex to do more, with less.”
