Cloud Computing in AI and ML

What Is AI as a Service (AIaaS)?

• Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS) is a cloud-based service offering artificial intelligence
(AI) outsourcing.
• AIaaS enables individuals and businesses to experiment with AI, and even take AI to production
for large-scale use cases, with low risk and without a large up-front investment.
• Because it is easy to start with, it makes it possible to experiment with different public cloud
platforms, services, and machine learning algorithms.
Types of AIaaS

Bots and Digital Assistants

• Digital assistants are a popular type of AIaaS.
• They allow companies to implement functionality like virtual assistants, chatbots, and
automated email response services.
• These solutions use natural language processing (NLP) to learn from human conversations.
• They are widely used in customer service and marketing applications.

Application Programming Interface (APIs)

• AIaaS solutions provide APIs that allow software programs to gain access to AI functionality.
• Developers can integrate their applications with AIaaS APIs with only a few lines of code and
gain access to powerful functionality.
• Many AIaaS APIs offer natural language processing capabilities.
• For example, they allow a software program to provide text via the API and perform sentiment
analysis, entity extraction, knowledge mapping, and translation.
 Machine Learning (ML) Frameworks

• Machine learning frameworks are tools that developers can use to build their own AI models.
• However, they can be complex to deploy, and do not provide a full machine learning operations
(MLOps) pipeline.
• In other words, these frameworks make it possible to build an ML model, but require additional tools
and manual steps to test that model and deploy it to production.
• AIaaS solutions offered in a platform as a service (PaaS) model provide fully managed machine
learning and deep learning frameworks, which provide an end-to-end MLOps process.
• Developers can assemble a dataset, build a model, train and test it, and seamlessly deploy it to
production on the service provider’s cloud servers.
No-Code or Low-Code ML Services
• Fully managed machine learning services provide the same features as machine learning
frameworks, but without the need for developers to build their own AI models.
• Instead, these types of AIaaS solutions include pre-built models, custom templates, and no-code
interfaces.
• This is ideal for companies that do not want to invest in development tools and do not have data
science expertise in-house.
Top AI as a Service Companies

Microsoft Azure

• Cognitive Services
• Cognitive Search
• Azure Machine Learning (AML)
• Bot Services

AWS
• Sagemaker
• Lex
• Polly
• Rekognition
Google Cloud

• AI Platform
• AI Hub
• Conversational AI services
AI as a Service: Benefits and Challenges
• Speed—AIaaS is the fastest way to deploy AI-based technologies. AI use cases differ significantly, and
it’s not always practical for a company to build and maintain an AI tool for each use case. Customizable
solutions are especially useful, as organizations can tweak the service according to their business
constraints and needs.
•Stability—AI solutions often must handle extreme data conditions in the production environment,
including unstructured and noisy data. Integrated AI technologies and expertise allow organizations to
achieve stability and robustness.
•Long-term value—achieving production is often difficult, but maintaining production is also important
to ensure the model stays on track in changing data conditions. Maintaining an AI model in production is
expensive and includes version control, monitoring, noise detection, and updates. AIaaS eliminates the
need to maintain the AI model in-house.
Some challenges of AIaaS include:
• Security—AI solutions require large amounts of data, which the AIaaS vendor must
access. If this data includes sensitive or personal information, it could expose companies
to third-party risks. Likewise, it is important to secure data access, transit, and storage.
• Third-party reliance—working with a third-party vendor entails reliance on that vendor
to maintain security and provide relevant information. It can result in lags when resolving
issues.
• Transparency—AIaaS provides a service, not direct access to an AI system, so the
customer has no visibility into the system’s inner workings (i.e., the algorithms).
• Data sovereignty and governance—some industries restrict data storage in the cloud,
precluding the use of certain AIaaS offerings.
• Unforeseen costs—long-term and unexpected costs often spiral out of control, especially
when companies purchase services requiring training or hiring new staff.
What Is GPU as a Service?
GPU as a Service (GPUaaS or GaaS) offers a convenient way to access high-performance computing
resources for machine learning, deep learning, and other data-intensive applications. By utilizing the
power of graphics processing units (GPUs), GaaS allows users to leverage advanced computational
capabilities without the need for expensive hardware or complex infrastructure management.

The Emergence of GPU-as-a-Service

The growing adoption of machine learning and AI across various industries has increased the
demand for robust computing resources. This need for high-performance hardware has given rise
to GPU-as-a-Service (GaaS), a cloud-based solution that offers on-demand access to GPUs.
Key benefits of using GaaS include:
• Scalability: Users can effortlessly adjust GPU resources based on project requirements.
• Elasticity: The pay-per-use model enables organizations to pay only for what they use, reducing
overall expenses.
• Data security: Cloud providers typically employ robust security measures to ensure the protection
of sensitive information.
• Faster time-to-market: GaaS allows for rapid prototyping and deployment by granting
immediate access to cutting-edge technology.
GaaS is suitable for various applications, such as:
1. Machine learning and deep learning: GPUs can significantly accelerate the training of complex
models on large datasets, enabling data scientists to iterate more quickly and improve model
accuracy.
2. Data processing and analytics: Many big data processing tasks, like sorting or filtering, can
benefit from parallel computing capabilities offered by GPUs, allowing organizations to process
vast amounts of data more efficiently.
3. High-performance computing (HPC): Scientific simulations, financial modeling, and other
computationally intensive workloads can utilize GPU acceleration to decrease time-to-solution.
4. Gaming and virtual reality: Cloud-based gaming services often depend on powerful GPUs for
high-quality, real-time graphics rendering, providing an immersive experience.
Comparing GPU-as-a-Service and On-Premise GPUs
As demand for powerful GPUs to handle complex tasks increases, organizations must choose
between on-premise GPUs or GPU as a Service (GaaS).

Cost Efficiency
One major adantage of GPU as a Service is cost efficiency. GaaS allows you to pay only for what
you use, eliminating the need for costly upfront investments in hardware and the expenses associated
with owning physical infrastructure, including operational costs such as energy consumption and
cooling. The GaaS model enables better resource allocation based on workload requirements.

Scalability and Flexibility

GaaS platforms offer greater scalability than on-premise solutions. With cloud-based GPU
services, users can easily adjust resources based on their computational needs without worrying
about acquiring additional hardware or managing data center space limitations. Furthermore, many
GaaS providers supply multiple GPU configurations to accommodate various use cases, such as
deep learning training or inference tasks.
Ease-of-Use and Collaboration

• User-friendly interfaces: Cloud-based GPU platforms typically feature intuitive web interfaces,
making it simple for even non-experts to set up and manage their GPU resources.
• Collaboration: GaaS facilitates seamless collaboration among team members, allowing them to
share workloads and access the same data sets without geographic limitations. This can
significantly enhance productivity for MLOps teams, machine learning engineers, and data
scientists working on complex projects.

Data Security and Compliance

Organizations may have concerns about storing sensitive data on the cloud due to security or regulatory
requirements. On-premise GPUs offer better control over your infrastructure and data storage, ensuring
compliance with industry-specific regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA. However, leading GaaS providers
implement strong security measures to safeguard customer information while adhering to strict compliance
standards.
Latency and Performance
Although cloud-based GPU services are designed for high-performance computing tasks, network
latency may sometimes affect overall performance, compared to on-premise solutions that provide
direct access to hardware resources. However, advances in edge computing technologies help
mitigate these issues by bringing computation closer to the data source.

Selecting Cloud GPU Providers

Assessing Performance
The initial factor to consider is performance of the available GPUs. Providers may offer varying levels of
processing power depending on their hardware resources. It's crucial to determine if a provider's offering meets
your project needs by comparing GPU specifications, such as memory capacity and compute capabilities, and
benchmarking GPUs to see what performance they provide for your actual workloads.
Analyzing Cost Efficiency
Budget limitations often play a significant role in selecting a cloud GPU platform. Providers usually
charge based on usage duration or allocated resources like storage space and bandwidth. Therefore,
it's essential to carefully examine pricing models.
All three major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud) offer free tiers that allow you to
try out some of their GPU options, for a limited time, at no cost.

Examining Integration & Compatibility

A crucial aspect of selecting a cloud GPU platform is ensuring compatibility with your current tools,
frameworks, and workflows. Verify if the provider supports popular machine learning libraries like
TensorFlow or PyTorch, and if they provide pre-built images containing these libraries.

Additionally, consider how easy it is to integrate the platform into your existing infrastructure – some
providers may have simpler APIs or more comprehensive documentation than others.
Reviewing Data Security & Compliance
Finally, data security should be a top priority when choosing a cloud GPU provider. Make sure the
selected platform complies with relevant industry regulations and has robust security measures in place
to protect sensitive data. It's also a good idea to review each provider's policies concerning data storage
locations and encryption methods used during transmission.
What Is Machine Learning in the Cloud?
• Machine Learning (ML) is a subset of artificial intelligence that emulates human learning,
allowing machines to improve their predictive capabilities until they can perform tasks
autonomously, without specific programming. ML-driven software applications can predict new
outcomes based on historical training data.
• Training an accurate ML model requires large amounts of data, computing power, and
infrastructure. Training a machine learning model in-house is difficult for most organizations,
given the time and cost. A cloud ML platform provides the compute, storage, and services required
to train machine learning models.
• Cloud computing makes machine learning more accessible, flexible, and cost-effective while
allowing developers to build ML algorithms faster. Depending on the use case, an organization
may choose different cloud services to support their ML training projects (GPU as a service) or
leverage pre-trained models for their applications (AI as a service).
Machine Learning in the Cloud: Benefits and Limitations

Benefits of Machine Learning in the Cloud

• Many organizations are capable of building machine learning models in-house, using open source
frameworks such as Scikit Learn, TensorFlow, or PyTorch. However, even if in-house teams are capable
of building algorithms, they will often find it difficult to deploy models to production and scale them to
real-life workloads, which often requires large computing clusters.
• There are several barriers to entry for deploying machine learning capabilities into enterprise applications.
The expertise required to build, train, and deploy machine learning models adds to the cost of labor,
development, and infrastructure, along with the need to purchase and operate specialized hardware
equipment.
• Many of these problems can be addressed by cloud computing. Public clouds and AIaaS services help
organizations leverage machine learning capabilities to solve business problems without having to
undertake the technical burden.
The key benefits of cloud computing for machine learning workloads
can be summarized as follows:
• On-demand pricing models make it possible to embark on ML initiatives without a large capital
investment.
• The cloud provides the speed and performance of GPUs and FPGAs without requiring an investment in
hardware.
• The cloud allows businesses to easily experiment with machine learning capabilities and scale as
projects move into production and demand for those capabilities grows.
• The cloud allows access to ML capabilities without advanced skills in artificial intelligence or data
science.
What Are the Limitations of Machine Learning in the Cloud?

Machine learning in the cloud has three key limitations:

• Doesn’t replace experts—ML systems, even if they are managed on the cloud, still require human
monitoring and optimization. There are practical limits to what AI can do without human oversight and
intervention. Algorithms do not understand everything about a situation and do not know how to respond to
every possible input.
• Data mobility—when running ML models in the cloud, it can be challenging to transition systems from one
cloud or service to another. This requires moving the data in a way that doesn't affect model performance.
Machine learning models are often sensitive to small changes in the input data. For example, a model may
not work well if you need to change the format or size of your data.
• Security concerns—cloud-based machine learning is subject to the same concerns as any cloud computing
platform. Cloud-based machine learning systems are often exposed to public networks and can be
compromised by attackers, who might manipulate ML results or run up infrastructure costs. Cloud-based ML
models are also vulnerable to denial of service (DoS) attacks. Many of these threats do not exist when
models are deployed behind a corporate firewall.
Types of Cloud-Based Machine Learning Services

Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS)

Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS) is a delivery model that enables vendors to provide
artificial intelligence (AI) that reduces their customer’s risk and initial investment. It helps customers
experiment with various cloud AI offerings and test different machine learning (ML) algorithms,
using the services that suit their scenario best.
Each AIaaS vendor offers various AI and machine learning services with different features and
pricing models. For example, some cloud AI providers offer specialized hardware for specific AI
tasks, like GPU as a Service (GPUaaS) for intensive workloads. Other services, like AWS
SageMaker, provide a fully managed platform to build and train machine learning algorithms.
GPU as a Service (GPUaaS)

• GPU as a Service (GPUaaS) providers eliminate the need to set up on-premises GPU infrastructure. These
services let you elastically provision GPU resources on demand. It helps reduce the costs associated with in
house GPU infrastructure, increase the level of scalability and flexibility, and enable many to implement
large-scale GPU computing solutions at scale.
• GPUaaS is often delivered as SaaS, ensuring you can focus on building, training, and deploying AI
solutions to end users. You can also use GPUaaS with a server model. Computationally intensive tasks
consume massive amounts of CPU power. GPUaaS lets you offload some of this work to a GPU to free up
resources and improve performance output.
Popular Cloud Machine Learning Platforms
Here are three popular machine learning platforms offered by the leading cloud providers.

AWS SageMaker
SageMaker is Amazon’s fully managed machine learning (ML) service. It enables you to quickly build and
train ML models and deploy them directly into a production environment. Here are key features of AWS
SageMaker:
• An integrated Jupyter authoring notebook instance—provides easy access to data sources for analysis
and exploration. There is no need to manage servers.
• Common machine learning algorithms—the service provides algorithms optimized for running
efficiently against big data in a distributed environment.
• Native support for custom algorithms and frameworks—SageMaker provides flexible distributed
training options designed to adjust to specific workflows.
• Quick deployment—the service lets you use the SageMaker console or SageMaker Studio to quickly
deploy a model into a scalable and secure environment.
• Pay per usage—AWS SageMaker bills training and hosting by usage minutes. There are no minimum
fees or upfront commitments.
Azure Machine Learning

Azure Machine Learning is a cloud-based service that helps accelerate and manage the entire ML project
lifecycle. You can use it in workflows to train and deploy ML models, create your own model, or use a
model from sources like Pytorch or TensorFlow. It also lets you manage MLOps, ensuring you can monitor,
retrain, and redeploy your models.
Individuals and teams can use this service to deploy ML models into an auditable and secure production
environment. It includes tools that help automate and accelerate ML workflows, integrate models into
services and applications, and tools backed by durable Azure Resource Manager APIs.
Google Cloud AutoML
AutoML is Google Cloud’s machine learning service. It does not require extensive knowledge of machine
learning. AutoML can help you build on Google’s ML capabilities to create custom ML models tailored to your
specific needs. It lets you integrate your models into applications and websites. Here are key features of
AutoML:
•Vertex AI—unifies AutoML and AI Platform into one user interface, API, and client library. It lets you use
AutoML training and custom training, save and deploy models, and request predictions.
•AutoML Tables—allows an entire team to automatically build and deploy machine learning (ML) models on
structured data at scale.
•Video Intelligence—this feature provides various options to integrate ML video intelligence models into
websites and applications.
•AutoML Natural Language—this feature uses ML to analyze the meaning and structure of documents,
allowing you to train a custom ML model to extract information, classify documents, and understand authors’
sentiments.
•AutoML Vision—lets you train ML models to classify images according to your own custom labels.
Machine Learning in the Cloud with Run.AI

When running machine learning in the cloud at scale, you’ll need to manage a large number of
computing resources and GPUs. Run:AI automates resource management and orchestration for
machine learning infrastructure. With Run:AI, you can automatically run as many compute intensive
experiments as needed.
Here are some of the capabilities you gain when using Run:AI:
• Advanced visibility—create an efficient pipeline of resource sharing by pooling GPU compute
resources.
• No more bottlenecks—you can set up guaranteed quotas of GPU resources, to avoid bottlenecks
and optimize billing.
• A higher level of control—Run:AI enables you to dynamically change resource allocation,
ensuring each job gets the resources it needs at any given time.
Thank You