CIQ, the founding accomplice behind Rocky Linux, has introduced a collaboration with NVIDIA that would reshape how enterprises deploy GPU-accelerated computing at scale. The corporate will combine the NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit straight into its Rocky Linux choices, making a validated, ready-to-run surroundings for synthetic intelligence, machine studying, and high-performance computing workloads.
The transfer is designed to eradicate long-standing challenges round GPU deployment, the place organizations usually spend weeks manually integrating and configuring CUDA libraries and drivers.
With the CUDA Toolkit natively accessible in Rocky Linux, customers acquire rapid entry to NVIDIA’s optimized libraries and improvement instruments, all absolutely examined and supported by CIQ. In response to CIQ, this streamlines the method of bringing GPU-powered workloads into manufacturing, shrinking deployment instances from weeks to minutes whereas making certain compliance and lowering the chance of misconfiguration.
Gregory Kurtzer, founder and CEO of CIQ, known as the partnership a “game-changer for the worldwide HPC and AI ecosystem,” noting that Rocky Linux is seeing speedy enterprise adoption worldwide. Kurtzer argued that enterprises can now speed up innovation with out the normal deployment hurdles, unlocking scalable GPU efficiency from analysis labs to manufacturing information facilities and cloud environments.
Rocky Linux, launched in 2021 as a downstream, community-driven successor to CentOS, has shortly change into a dominant pressure in enterprise infrastructure. Knowledge from the Additional Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) Particular Curiosity Group exhibits that Rocky Linux now accounts for greater than 40% of all EPEL downloads, making it probably the most broadly adopted Enterprise Linux distribution in its class. Its inclusion as certainly one of NVIDIA’s formally supported Enterprise Linux platforms additional strengthens its place because the working system of alternative for GPU-accelerated environments.
Enterprises Embracing AI
Bjorn Hovland, chief working officer at CIQ, emphasised the operational effectivity positive factors, stating that Rocky Linux with CUDA “delivers GPU-ready infrastructure out of the field, eliminating deployment complexity and serving to clients obtain most efficiency from day one.” The combination is predicted to be notably impactful for organizations coaching massive language fashions, operating inference pipelines, or conducting complicated simulations throughout sectors like finance, power, and life sciences.
Trade companions have additionally endorsed the collaboration. Ansys, a pacesetter in engineering simulation software program, praised the transfer as a serious enabler for joint clients, citing quicker onboarding and optimized GPU efficiency as key advantages.
CIQ plans to distribute prebuilt Rocky Linux with CUDA photos by way of its registries and main cloud marketplaces, making certain portability, consistency, and compliance throughout environments. For enterprises navigating an AI-driven future, the partnership indicators that Rocky Linux just isn’t solely right here to remain however is quick changing into the go-to basis for GPU-intensive workloads.
