Intel, Nvidia Score New Google Cloud Partnerships For Hybrid Cloud, Virtual Workstations

Chipmakers Intel and Nvidia have both announced partnerships with Google Cloud that will enable new capabilities around hybrid cloud deployments and virtual workstations, respectively.

The partnerships were unveiled Tuesday at the opening of Google Cloud Next '19 in San Francisco, where the cloud service provider also disclosed the expansion of its global data center footprint and the addition of a new Internet of Things specialization for channel partners.

Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., said its new strategic partnership with Google Cloud is around "Anthos," the name for a new reference design for a hybrid cloud architecture that enables enterprises to "seamlessly deploy applications across on-premise and cloud environments."

[Related: Intel’s Lisa Davis On How Xeon 'Cascade Lake' Will Drive A New Wave Of Digital Transformation]

The reference design, which will be published as an Intel Select Solution by mid-2019, combines Intel's newly launched second-generation Xeon Scalable processors with an optimized Kubernetes software stack to increase workload portability in hybrid cloud environments, according to Intel.

The semiconductor giant said Anthos is designed to address the challenges businesses face with finding the right hybrid cloud solutions for seamlessly migrating workloads across multiple clouds.

"We’re delivering an Intel technology foundation for customers to take advantage of their data, and that requires delivery of architectures that can span across various operating environments," said Navin Shenoy , Intel's top data center executive, in a statement. "This collaboration will give customers a choice of optimized solutions that can be utilized both in the on-prem as well as cloud environments."

The Anthos reference design is an extension of Intel's evolving partnership with Google Cloud, which announced last week the availability of new compute- and memory-optimized virtual machine offerings based on second-generation Xeon Scalable processors. Google Cloud will use the new Intel Optane DC persistent memory to arm virtual machines with 7 terabytes of total memory, according to the statement.

Intel said OEMs and systems integrators are expected to launch Anthos-based solutions later this year.

Nvidia Brings Ray Tracing To Google Cloud Virtual Workstations

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia said that Google Cloud will become the first cloud service provider to serve up the Nvidia Quadro Virtual Workstation (pictured), allowing users to take advantage of the chipmaker's Turing GPU architecture for rendering cinema-quality graphics in real-time.

Also known as Quadro vWS, the virtual workstation is based on Nvidia's Tesla T4 GPU accelerator that was launched last fall following the company's reveal of Turing in August.

[Related: 4 Bold Statements From Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang On The Future Of Computing]

Google Cloud users can take advantage of the T4's RT Cores for native support of ray tracing, a graphics rendering technique that realistically models how light interacts with objects. They can also use the T4 for artificial intelligence inference workloads, thanks to the GPU's Tensor Cores.

"For professionals who work with design tools and handle complex workloads such as rendering and simulation, Quadro vWS with RTX technology can transform the creative process through real-time photorealistic rendering and AI-enhanced graphics, video and image processing," Nvidia said in a blog post.

Nvidia's Quadro vWS announcement was made after the GPU giant made a new artificial intelligence push in March through new partnerships with Amazon Web Services and major server vendors.

Quadro vWS is currently available in a private beta and will launch publicly later this month.