Upbound open-sources Modelplane to optimize inference clusters
Upbound Inc. today released Modelplane, a new open-source tool for managing artificial intelligence inference clusters.
San Francisco-based Upbound is backed by $69 million from Alphabet Inc.’s GV fund, Intel Capital and others. It’s best known as the creator of Crossplane, an open-source infrastructure management engine. It’s an upgraded version of the Kubernetes control plane, a part of the framework that automates key tasks such as provisioning servers.
The Kubernetes control plane is designed to manage container clusters. Crossplane, in contrast, can also coordinate other types of infrastructure. Additionally, the software includes extensibility features that enable developers to customize it to specific use cases. Modelplane, the new open-source tool that Upbound debuted today, is a version of Crossplane optimized for AI inference workloads.
One of the tasks that the tool promises to ease is spreading inference workloads across multiple clouds. In the past, that approach was difficult to implement because each cloud platform must be managed separately. Modelplane eases the workflow by enabling developers to centrally configure infrastructure resources across multiple platforms.
