Leverage AI on IBM Z & LinuxONE to enable real-time AI decisions at scale, accelerating your time-to-value, while ensuring trust and compliance
The AI Black Box is a self-contained, on-premises AI and data ecosystem built on IBM Fusion HCI, designed to deliver the full spectrum of Watsonx capabilities—including AI, data integration, intelligence, governance, orchestration, and security—while ensuring complete data sovereignty and regulatory compliance.
Built for high-performance AI workloads, this solution integrates GPU-accelerated compute, high-throughput storage, and large memory bandwidth to support large language models (LLMs), RAG, and generative AI within enterprise-controlled environments.
Achieve Data Sovereignty: Keep all data, models, and governance local to the enterprise.
Enable High-Performance AI Compute: Leverage Fusion HCI’s scalable GPU and memory architecture.
Establish Trusted AI Governance: Enforce transparency, lineage, and auditability with Watsonx.governance.
Simplify Deployment: Pre-integrated Watsonx suite on a single converged hardware and software stack.
The AI Black Box unifies Watsonx and Guardium under a Fusion HCI foundation:
The IBM Fusion Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) provides the physical and virtual foundation for the AI Black Box.It delivers optimized compute density, high-throughput storage, and GPU scalability, making it ideal for Watsonx workloads.
NVIDIA L40S, A100, or H100 GPUs per node (scalable up to 8 GPUs/node).
Supports mixed precision (FP16/BF16/INT8) for AI model training and inference.
AI performance acceleration through CUDA, TensorRT, and ROCm frameworks.
Horizontal scalability: 50% GPU capacity expansion every 6 months (target baseline 5× growth over 5 years).
Dynamic GPU pooling for Watsonx.ai, Watsonx.data, and Watsonx.orchestrate workloads.
High-memory configuration per node: up to 4 TB DDR5 / CXL-enabled RAM.
Memory bandwidth: 400–800 GB/s per node for large model workloads.
Optimized for parallel training and real-time inference.
Supports NUMA-aware scheduling for AI data locality and performance consistency.
NVMe-based tiered storage (All-flash or hybrid configurations).
Supports software-defined storage with Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation (ODF) or Ceph.
Throughput: 25–50 GB/s per node; IOPS: >2M per cluster.
Data protection: Snapshots, replication, encryption at rest, and Guardium-integrated access control.
Scalable to petabyte-class capacity, supporting multi-tenant Watsonx lakehouses.
25/100 Gbps Ethernet or InfiniBand fabric.
Low-latency RDMA for GPU cluster interconnects.
Supports air-gapped deployment for classified or regulatory environments.
ETL/ELT, real-time streaming, and data replication
Observability and quality checks integrated into ingestion pipelines
Guardium-driven data discovery and protection policy enforcement
Hybrid open lakehouse on Fusion HCI NVMe storage
Query engines: Presto, Spark, Trino
Vectorized embeddings for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
Integration with Db2, Netezza, Informix, and Data Gate
Native support for Parquet, Iceberg, and Delta Lake formats
Data lineage, quality, and metadata curation
Cross-domain data sharing under unified control
Integrated Watsonx.governance for bias detection and transparency
Model monitoring for fairness, drift, and explainability
Automated compliance dashboards
Integrated policy management with Guardium and OpenShift security services
Foundation model lifecycle: training, tuning, deploying LLMs
Native GPU acceleration through Fusion HCI’s compute fabric
Local vector stores enable secure generative AI and RAG
Automates enterprise workflows using AI outcomes
Integrates with ERP/CRM systems for contextual AI actioning
Includes reusable “skills” for document processing, HR, and IT automation
End-to-end data activity monitoring and encryption
Anomaly detection for unauthorized data access
Policy-based controls for structured and unstructured data
Integration with Watsonx.governance for continuous compliance validation
Complete On-Prem Control: No external data transmission or cloud dependency.
Regulatory Alignment: GDPR, ISO 27001, and local data protection compliance.
Air-Gapped Security: Offline operational capability for sensitive workloads.
Audit-Ready: Full traceability from data ingestion to AI inference.
✅ Fusion HCI-native AI platform — GPU, NVMe, and DDR5-optimized✅ 100% data sovereignty — enterprise-controlled, air-gapped ready✅ Integrated Watsonx ecosystem — AI, data, governance, and orchestration✅ Scalable performance fabric — 50% GPU expansion roadmap✅ Guardium-secured compliance and encryption at every layer✅ Vector-ready AI workflows for LLMs and generative models✅ Hybrid-ready foundation for future multi-cloud or edge extensions
The AI Black Box on IBM Fusion HCI enables enterprises to securely harness the power of Watsonx for generative and predictive AI while maintaining sovereignty, scalability, and trust.It is the ideal foundation for national AI frameworks, regulated industries, and hybrid AI modernization programs seeking to balance performance with compliance.