Critical connectivity for modern data centers

The role of the network in cloud and AI innovation

Cloud and data center transformation critically depends on the evolution of the network. The network is essential for connecting distributed data centers that guarantee data sovereignty and real-world AI performance.

To support enterprise and consumer use cases, AI needs a network that can support the proliferation of data centers, ensure mission-critical security and reliability, and deliver hyperscale performance.  

Connecting the cloud... to power innovation from AI to Z

AI demands a transformed cloud

The future of the cloud and AI depends as much on connectivity to, within and between data centers as what runs inside them.

Trained in centralized data centers, AI will need a distributed cloud with regional, metro and edge data centers to maximize its impact in the real world.  

That evolution cannot happen without rethinking the network. While AI is the most important new factor driving network traffic growth, it is also driving mission-critical applications that demand new levels of latency, reliability and security.

$2 trillion

Cloud business by end of this decade

+10,000

Data centers worldwide

70%

DC capacity used for AI by 2030

24%

Annual AI traffic growth

Circuitry pattern

The cloud-network continuum

The cloud is facing pressures from AI that are forcing it to become more distributed, with a mix of central, edge and on-prem data centers.

  • Emerging enterprise and consumer use cases with sensitive data and immediate response needs require inferencing closer to the end user  
  • On the training side, data sovereignty drives repatriation, while space and power limits require spreading workloads across data centers.  

The cloud continuum needs a flexible and scalable network to seamlessly shift workloads to where processing the data is most efficient and secure. This calls for a programmable network, ready to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing environment, no matter what the future holds. 

The critical role of the network

The cloud transformation is powered by an end-to-end network that connects workloads inside data centers, bridges buildings and sites, routes across wide-area links, and reaches users and devices with speed and reliability.

Access and distribution

The network ensures AI inference workloads reach enterprises and users quickly and reliably, delivering the performance modern applications demand.

Inside data centers

The network enables high-speed, reliable, and lossless interaction between compute resources, maximizing efficiency and minimizing job completion time in the AI factory.

Between data centers

The network ties together multiple facilities into a cohesive AI infrastructure, enabling ultra-fast, reliable, and secure collaboration across sites.

Connectivity diagram

The profound changes in network design

As the cloud evolves to support AI applications, network design has to respond. This is not an incremental upgrade but a profound, foundational shift that is as urgent and important as every other part of the AI value chain.

  • Speed and scalability must rise to meet the extreme performance requirements of AI workloads and their need to move horizontally to where they are most efficient  
  • Reliability and security are essential as AI drives increasingly critical applications with impacts on safety, defense and essential services in everything from manufacturing to healthcare
  • Programmability and automation are the only way to ensure that AI applications can drive what they need from an agile and responsive network. 
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Automation imperative

 

Network automation is not an option. It's the only way to master the increasing network complexity and respond faster to changing demands or unexpected events.

By marrying AI and automation, the network becomes predictive and autonomous, configuring, healing and optimizing itself.

Automate now to turn the network into a key competitive advantage and stay ahead of the game.

Security must go deep

 

With AI-driven threats on the rise, protecting data from malicious actors must be your top priority.

By building security in depth, the network can encrypt data, detect anomalies, mitigate threats and enforce policies in real-time.

Secure every node, every layer, to safeguard your business and protect what matters most.

Fingerprint above circuitry
brain nerve system diagram

Networks for AI, with AI

 

AI is revolutionizing the network, just as it is transforming the data center and cloud.

Harness its power to streamline operations, optimize performance, strengthen security, reduce energy consumption, and improve reliability across your network infrastructure.

Now is the time to amplify innovation and boost efficiency.

Sunset

Someday is here. Are you ready?

Turn your data center into the nerve center of the AI era.

Industries we empower

Modernize your data centers with Nokia networking solutions

Our comprehensive portfolio of networking solutions provides the reliability, scalability, efficiency and security needed to seamlessly connect users and AI workloads in and across data centers, irrespective of where they reside.

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