- Microsoft (MSFT +0.2%) unveils the Azure Data Box Edge, which allows businesses to run AI computations efficiently without installing special processors.
- The product improves upon Amazon’s (AMZN +0.3%) Snowball, which blends specialized hardware with its AWS cloud services. Snowball sends customers hardware, which the customer fills up with data, then mails it back for long-term AWS cloud storage.
- Microsoft came out with its direct Snowball competitor last year with Azure Data Box, which had room for 100T of data.
- The new product has a tighter focus on AI with the chip in the Box Edge handling inference about new data. The chips are field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that can be bought and adjusted to deliver high performance for specific computing jobs.
- The Box Edge works with Microsoft’s open-source software, making third-party software customizations a possibility.
- Previously: Microsoft announces new products, partners with SAP and Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) (Sept. 24)
- Now read: I Was Wrong About Microsoft: It's A Buy
Original article