PhoenixNAP's Bare Metal Cloud Meets AI's Data Center Demands
I love hearing from providers on how they’re grappling with delivery of cloud services to support customer adoption of AI. Jeniece Wronowski and I got that chance in a recent episode of our Data Insights podcast when we hosted Ian McClarty, President of PhoenixNAP, for a deep dive into the evolving role of AI in data centers and how bare metal cloud is meeting the demand for infrastructure that’s up to the AI performance challenge.
Our conversation started with Ian sharing his view on the enormous impact AI is having on data centers and the unique demand they bring to both operators and their customers. They require immense compute power as well as low latency communication, putting significant strain on traditional cloud infrastructure. Ian pointed out how the explosion of data—from IoT devices, streaming, and cloud applications—continues to fuel the AI boom, and that AI can’t be treated as another workload in the data center. It demands a completely fresh approach to data center infrastructure, something Ian and his team at PhoenixNAP are laser-focused on providing.
Ian then turned to bare metal cloud offerings, something PhoenixNAP is famous for delivering, and how they are particularly suited to meet AI’s growing infrastructure needs. Unlike typical cloud solutions that share resources, bare metal cloud provides dedicated servers that give companies access to raw, non virtualized hardware. This is key, Ian explained, for resource- hungry AI workloads. Companies working on AI algorithms need the ability to quickly scale, spin up resources on demand, and process huge amounts of data—capabilities that bare metal cloud supports seamlessly.
Ian highlighted three key advantages to this approach: performance, scalability, and control. In traditional virtualized environments, AI workloads can face latency issues or performance bottlenecks due to resource sharing. In addition, bare metal cloud allows for rapid scaling, whether a company needs to deploy a few servers for small-scale training or dozens for large AI models. The infrastructure can be customized and scaled up or down based on demand providing flexibility that is crucial as AI workloads can vary significantly in terms of compute power needed. Control is equally important, and Ian stressed how organizations want more control over their infrastructure when it comes to AI. With bare metal cloud, companies have the freedom to configure the hardware environment to suit their specific needs, which is especially important for workloads involving sensitive or proprietary data. This level of customization and control just isn’t possible in shared cloud environments.
As we love to do on the Data Insights series, we turned the conversation to sustainability. With recent reports placing energy consumption of data centers forecasted to represent up to 20% of the world’s energy supply due to the rise of AI, operators are grappling with driving efficiency across every vector of computing. Ian acknowledged the industry’s responsibility to address the environmental impact and noted that PhoenixNAP is taking proactive steps to design data centers with energy efficiency in mind, from improving cooling technologies to optimizing server utilization. PhoenixNAP is also exploring renewable energy utilization to power their facilities. While the journey to a fully sustainable data center is ongoing, the strides they’re making are encouraging. Ian believes that future innovations in both hardware and software will make sustainability not just an add-on but a core feature of high-performance computing environments.
The conversation made it clear that PhoenixNAP is primed for infrastructure transformation to support AI’s growth. The company’s focus on performance, flexibility, and sustainability positions it uniquely to meet the challenges and opportunities that AI presents. I left the conversation energized about the possibilities bare metal cloud offers for AI innovation and the impact it will have across industries.
Tune in to the full episode for more insights from Ian and how PhoenixNAP is reshaping the future of data centers.
I love hearing from providers on how they’re grappling with delivery of cloud services to support customer adoption of AI. Jeniece Wronowski and I got that chance in a recent episode of our Data Insights podcast when we hosted Ian McClarty, President of PhoenixNAP, for a deep dive into the evolving role of AI in data centers and how bare metal cloud is meeting the demand for infrastructure that’s up to the AI performance challenge.
Our conversation started with Ian sharing his view on the enormous impact AI is having on data centers and the unique demand they bring to both operators and their customers. They require immense compute power as well as low latency communication, putting significant strain on traditional cloud infrastructure. Ian pointed out how the explosion of data—from IoT devices, streaming, and cloud applications—continues to fuel the AI boom, and that AI can’t be treated as another workload in the data center. It demands a completely fresh approach to data center infrastructure, something Ian and his team at PhoenixNAP are laser-focused on providing.
Ian then turned to bare metal cloud offerings, something PhoenixNAP is famous for delivering, and how they are particularly suited to meet AI’s growing infrastructure needs. Unlike typical cloud solutions that share resources, bare metal cloud provides dedicated servers that give companies access to raw, non virtualized hardware. This is key, Ian explained, for resource- hungry AI workloads. Companies working on AI algorithms need the ability to quickly scale, spin up resources on demand, and process huge amounts of data—capabilities that bare metal cloud supports seamlessly.
Ian highlighted three key advantages to this approach: performance, scalability, and control. In traditional virtualized environments, AI workloads can face latency issues or performance bottlenecks due to resource sharing. In addition, bare metal cloud allows for rapid scaling, whether a company needs to deploy a few servers for small-scale training or dozens for large AI models. The infrastructure can be customized and scaled up or down based on demand providing flexibility that is crucial as AI workloads can vary significantly in terms of compute power needed. Control is equally important, and Ian stressed how organizations want more control over their infrastructure when it comes to AI. With bare metal cloud, companies have the freedom to configure the hardware environment to suit their specific needs, which is especially important for workloads involving sensitive or proprietary data. This level of customization and control just isn’t possible in shared cloud environments.
As we love to do on the Data Insights series, we turned the conversation to sustainability. With recent reports placing energy consumption of data centers forecasted to represent up to 20% of the world’s energy supply due to the rise of AI, operators are grappling with driving efficiency across every vector of computing. Ian acknowledged the industry’s responsibility to address the environmental impact and noted that PhoenixNAP is taking proactive steps to design data centers with energy efficiency in mind, from improving cooling technologies to optimizing server utilization. PhoenixNAP is also exploring renewable energy utilization to power their facilities. While the journey to a fully sustainable data center is ongoing, the strides they’re making are encouraging. Ian believes that future innovations in both hardware and software will make sustainability not just an add-on but a core feature of high-performance computing environments.
The conversation made it clear that PhoenixNAP is primed for infrastructure transformation to support AI’s growth. The company’s focus on performance, flexibility, and sustainability positions it uniquely to meet the challenges and opportunities that AI presents. I left the conversation energized about the possibilities bare metal cloud offers for AI innovation and the impact it will have across industries.
Tune in to the full episode for more insights from Ian and how PhoenixNAP is reshaping the future of data centers.
