Summary: NVIDIA Air is a groundbreaking cloud-hosted data center simulation platform that revolutionizes how IT infrastructures are managed and optimized. This platform allows organizations to create digital twins of their network infrastructure, enabling comprehensive testing and validation of configurations, features, and automation code. In this article, we delve into the key features and benefits of NVIDIA Air, exploring its potential to streamline network operations and accelerate AI adoption.

Understanding NVIDIA Air

NVIDIA Air is a cloud-based infrastructure simulation platform that behaves like a real-world production environment. It enables organizations to build digital twins of their network infrastructure, providing a virtual environment for testing and validating network provisioning, automation, and security policies. This platform is designed to accelerate time to AI and offer enhanced return on investment by enabling organizations to simulate and validate their network infrastructure efficiently.

Key Features of NVIDIA Air

  • Digital Twins: NVIDIA Air enables the creation of digital twins of network infrastructure, allowing for comprehensive testing and validation of configurations, features, and automation code.
  • Cloud-Based: The platform is entirely cloud-based, requiring no hardware, compatibility, or integration requirements. It runs directly in your browser, making it accessible from anywhere, including mobile devices.
  • High Performance: NVIDIA Air offers immense speed, resources, and networking functions needed to simulate real-world data center environments. It supports different network operating systems, including NVIDIA Cumulus and SONiC, and allows users to bring their own network operating systems if desired.
  • Efficiency: By removing the need for a hypervisor, NVIDIA Air eliminates potential bottlenecks, allowing for faster deployment and integration of network configurations.
  • Accessibility: Users can log into NVIDIA Air from their cell phones, making it highly accessible and convenient for network admins.

Exploring SONiC on NVIDIA Air

One of the remarkable features of NVIDIA Air is its ability to spin up premade, fully configured labs on demand. NVIDIA has created a new, preconfigured SONiC lab, equipped with the latest GA release of community SONiC in the classic spine-and-leaf architecture found in modern data centers. This lab allows users to try out the magic of SONiC on NVIDIA Air effortlessly.

SONiC Lab Overview

The SONiC BGP EVPN VXLAN lab demo on NVIDIA Air is a new lab consisting of a standard spine-and-leaf topology running SONiC switches with Ubuntu servers connected to leaves to demonstrate VLAN connectivity. The lab walks users through its configuration and how it was automatically provisioned with Ansible. It also shows how to interact with it, providing full CLI and API functionality, control plane software including BGP, VLANs, and containers, automation and Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP), network monitoring with streaming telemetry, and interop testing between NVIDIA Cumulus Linux and SONiC.

Benefits of NVIDIA Air

NVIDIA Air is particularly beneficial for AI factories, purpose-built data centers designed to handle AI workloads. By providing a virtual environment for testing and validation, NVIDIA Air helps organizations achieve cloud-scale efficiency and streamline network operations. This platform represents a significant advancement in data center simulation technology, offering a powerful and accessible platform for organizations to manage and optimize their network infrastructure.

Use Cases for NVIDIA Air

  • AI Workloads: NVIDIA Air is ideal for AI factories, enabling organizations to simulate and validate their network infrastructure efficiently.
  • Network Testing: The platform allows for comprehensive testing and validation of configurations, features, and automation code.
  • Data Center Management: NVIDIA Air helps organizations manage and optimize their network infrastructure, streamlining network operations and accelerating time to AI.

FAQs

  • Q: What is NVIDIA Air? A: NVIDIA Air is a cloud-hosted data center simulation platform that enables organizations to create digital twins of their network infrastructure.
  • Q: What are the key features of NVIDIA Air? A: Key features include digital twins, cloud-based infrastructure, high performance, efficiency, and accessibility.
  • Q: How does NVIDIA Air support AI workloads? A: NVIDIA Air helps organizations achieve cloud-scale efficiency and streamline network operations, making it ideal for AI factories.
  • Q: Can I try out SONiC on NVIDIA Air? A: Yes, NVIDIA Air offers a preconfigured SONiC lab that allows users to try out the magic of SONiC effortlessly.

For more information on NVIDIA Air and its applications, please refer to the NVIDIA Air User Guide and the NVIDIA Technical Blog.

Conclusion

NVIDIA Air is a revolutionary platform that transforms how data centers are simulated and managed. Its ability to create digital twins of network infrastructure, combined with its cloud-based and high-performance capabilities, makes it an indispensable tool for organizations looking to optimize their IT infrastructure. With its potential to accelerate AI adoption and streamline network operations, NVIDIA Air is poised to play a crucial role in shaping the future of IT infrastructure management.