I recently covered huge news from NVIDIA; the multi-pronged technology company, inventor of GPUs and driver of innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) had officially announced its project with Microsoft to provide millions of enterprise users with access to powerful, industrial cloud resources. NVIDIA’s announcement was part of this year’s GTC global AI conference, where CEO Jensen Huang described what we’re currently living through as “the iPhone moment” for AI.
So, we’ve got AI, the cloud, and projects underway between NVIDIA and Microsoft, two industry giants.
The news today, as you might suspect, is a follow-up on their collaboration.
NVIDIA has now introduced one of its two cloud solutions to be hosted by Microsoft Azure: NVIDIA’s Omniverse Cloud.
Omniverse Cloud is a platform-as-a-service offering (currently for select enterprises) that will streamline industrial digitalization and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) across myriad business processes.
Coupled with Omniverse Cloud, as mentioned, NVIDIA has chosen Microsoft Azure as its first cloud service provider (CSP) for Omniverse Cloud. This grants enterprises access to Omniverse software applications and NVIDIA OVX infrastructure within the secure and scalable Azure cloud services users already extensively rely on.
An Omniverse Cloud subscription on Azure simplifies the digitalization of workflows for automotive teams, for example; from design and engineering to smart factories and marketing. Its ease-of-access functionality allows teams to connect 3D design tools, accelerate vehicle development, create digital twins of automotive factories, and even run closed-loop simulations to test vehicle performance.
This is especially relevant, given market research that indicates still-growing interest in IIoT and digital twins. According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, the global IIoT market is projected to reach $106.1 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.7%. Meanwhile, a study by Grand View Research has predicted that the digital twin market will reach $86.09 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 42.7% from 2021 to 2028. These trends highlight increasing adoptions of digitalization in several industries, making NVIDIA Omniverse Cloud's launch a timely development.
Additionally, by leveraging Omniverse Cloud, NVIDIA and Microsoft offer customers a fully comprehensive cloud environment, plus platform capabilities for the designing, developing, deploying, and managing of industrial metaverse applications. NVIDIA’s platform also connects with products from its partner ecosystem; NVIDIA OVX, i.e. the computing systems that power the Omniverse Cloud. This means developers are able to customize foundation applications included with the platform-as-a-service.
And speaking of specific applications offered with Omniverse Cloud, they include Omniverse USD Composer, Omniverse USD-GDN Publisher, NVIDIA Isaac Sim, NVIDIA DRIVE Sim, and Omniverse Replicator. These applications cover various aspects of industrial digitalization, from composing industrial virtual worlds and creating digital twins to training and simulating AI-based robots and autonomous vehicles.
Some closing examples of Omniverse Cloud success: Automotive manufacturers such as BMW Group, Geely Lotus, and Jaguar Land Rover have already adopted Omniverse to achieve digitalization.
- BMW Group plans to launch the Omniverse Enterprise platform across its production network worldwide.
- Geely Lotus is also using the platform to build digital twins of its factories in order to optimize manufacturing processes.
- Jaguar Land Rover employs Omniverse to generate synthetic data for training AI models and validating perception and control algorithms through real-world driving scenarios.
“Every manufactured object, from massive physical facilities to handheld consumer goods, will someday have a digital twin, created to build, operate and optimize the object,” Huang told audiences during GTC. “NVIDIA Omniverse Cloud is the digital-to-physical operating system for industrial digitalization, arriving just in time for the trillions of dollars of new EV, battery and chip factories that are being built.”
Edited by
Greg Tavarez
