Advantech and Zeblok Partner to Enable Seamless Cloud-to-Edge AI Services

July 19, 2022, Taipei, Taiwan – Advantech and Zeblok Computational today announced their collaboration on a new end-to-end solution based on Zeblok’s Ai-MicroCloud® AI platform-as-a-service and Advantech SKY-8000 Edge Servers. The solution streamlines deployment of new edge AI services for operators, service providers and software developers, creating a seamless platform that enables cloud to edge AI with shorten time to market. In addition, the solution has been validated to be deployed on SmartPoint.IO smart kiosk.

Advantech and Zeblok’s partnership addresses edge AI scalability and ecosystem challenges by building a consistent infrastructure that extends cloud environments to the edge over high performance and high reliability server platforms that support even the most demanding edge AI use cases. The solution enables an AI-API economy by providing an Ai-AppStore for AI applications, functionality to optimize completed AI/ML models for heterogeneous architectures, using Intel’s OpenVINO™ toolkit, and a mechanism to both produce AI inferences as secure Ai-APIs and distribute it to end points rapidly and cost-effectively. It is essentially AI middleware that brings the edge AI ecosystem together to streamline development, testing, training, optimization, and deployment of end-to-end AI solutions.

“The combination of 5G, AI and edge computing is driving the next digital transformation, unlocking limitless business opportunities for operators, service provides and enterprises”, said Brian Wilson, Associate Vice President of Sales, Advantech. “We are thrilled to partner with Zeblok to enable a solid foundation where the edge AI ecosystem can innovate faster helping customers thrive in this new AIoT era.”

“With 70% of the world’s data soon to be created and acted upon outside of traditional data centers, this is a fundamental paradigm shift,” said Mouli Narayanan, founder and CEO, Zeblok. “Through our partnership with Advantech we accelerate this transformation with efficient software distribution on reliable hardware platforms at autonomously operated edge data centers to streamline the rollout of next generation low latency and high availability edge AI services.”

The end-to-end AI solution leverages Zeblok’s Ai-MicroCloud® turnkey AI Platform-as-a-Service. It creates an open cloud-to-edge ecosystem, allowing enterprises to create their own AI Assets, and deploy them as secure Ai-APIs, for distribution from core to edge, including deploying multiple inferencing engines to each edge server, lowering the "cost per insight." By employing a standard certification methodology, the solution seamlessly scales to thousands of edge endpoints.

Zeblok’s Ai-MicroCloud® has been certified to be deployed on Advantech SKY-8000 Series Servers. These optimized compute and networking nodes scale from pole-mount, extended operating temperature range configurations all the way up to high-performance platforms that can be deployed as micro data centers at the edge. They balance leading Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor performance with high density PCI Express card payload to integrate the required high-speed networking, time synchronization, and AI acceleration technologies. Its carrier-grade design and advanced platform management provide superior reliability to high availability 5G and Edge AI applications, while streamlining operations. The solution has also been validated to run in SmartPoint.IO kiosks delivering edge computing capabilities to AI inferences for smart cities.

The solution is immediately available for customer evaluation. For more information or to request a demo, please contact cloud.iot@advantech.com or sales@zeblok.com.

Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Ai-MicroCloud®, Ai-Optimization-as-a-Service™ and Ai-Rover® are trademarks of Zeblok Computational Inc.

Solution Brief: https://networkbuilders.intel.com/solutionslibrary/zeblok-computational-advantech-and-smartpoint-io-unlock-edge-ai-s-potential

Charo Sanchez, Global Alliances Manager, Advantech Cloud-IoT Group  

Rajeev Laghate, Chief Commercial Operations Officer 

Advantech Cloud-IoT Group helps service, solution providers and enterprises extend the cloud to the IoT edge by providing scalable platforms that reliably execute business and mission critical services anywhere in the network. Our innovative servers and appliances enable a seamless transformation toward cloud native operations and are supported by a vibrant software ecosystem and supply chain, offering key foundational building blocks that accelerate digital transformation. From SD-WAN, SASE and Private Wireless to Open RAN, Edge and Hybrid Cloud, Advantech Cloud-IoT Group is enabling the co-creation of products and services that will form the backbone of the new 5G & AIoT economy.  www.advantech-5g.com.

Zeblok Computational provides a digital foundation for enterprises to execute and scale their Ai strategies from cloud-to-Edge and reduce cost per insight. Zeblok’s Ai-MicroCloud® is a comprehensive, portable, cloud native, turnkey Ai SaaS environment, which enables companies to easily create their own Ai ecosystem, to mix and match Ai ISVs and hardware manufacturers and deploy AI inferences as APIs at scale. ML Ops workflows enable simplified curation of Ai assets and delivery of end-to-end Ai solutions anywhere. The Ai-MicroCloud® includes a full Ai/ML DevOps capability, plus integrated tools to optimize completed Ai/ML models for heterogenous architectures and an Ai-API engine, which automates multi-cloud deployment of Ai inference engines to production and automates deployment to thousands of edge locations. Zeblok’s Ai-MicroCloud® accommodates multiple technologies from disparate vendors, saving 6-8 months of engineering effort, and installs securely to existing enterprise IT infrastructure to fit any topology, obviating the need to invest in equipment or structural changes, and bringing compute closer to data. computational.zeblok.com