Featured Insights
Strategic perspectives from Hume Consulting's expertise in data center optimization and growth strategies

NVIDIA's NVLink Fusion: True Innovation or Strategic Lock-in?
NVIDIA's NVLink Fusion True Innovation or Strategic Lock-in? Earlier this week at Computex, Jensen Huang introduced NVLink Fusion, positioning it as a means to "democratize scale-up" by allowing customers to mix and match compute architectures. On the surface, this suggests flexibility: integrating CPUs, GPUs, and specialized silicon, all interconnected via NVIDIA's high-performance NVLink. However, upon closer examination, this appears to be more of an illusion of choice.

From Silicon to Token
The world of large‑language‑model inference moves fast. Meta’s Llama 4 and DeepSeek's range of models turns yesterday’s “good enough” hardware into today’s bottleneck, so picking the right platform is more strategic than ever. I compared eight options that keep popping up in various engineering and sales conversations, including consumer RTX GPUs, Apple Silicon, NVIDIA’s H‑series, Groq’s purpose‑built LPU, Cerebras’ wafer‑scale engine, and turnkey DGX workstations. Each proves valuable in th
Latest Articles
Fresh perspectives on data center optimization and strategic technology consulting

From Silicon to Token
The world of large‑language‑model inference moves fast. Meta’s Llama 4 and DeepSeek's range of models turns yesterday’s “good enough” hardware into today’s bottleneck, so picking the right platform is more strategic than ever. I compared eight options that keep popping up in various engineering and sales conversations, including consumer RTX GPUs, Apple Silicon, NVIDIA’s H‑series, Groq’s purpose‑built LPU, Cerebras’ wafer‑scale engine, and turnkey DGX workstations. Each proves valuable in th

GTC 2025: NVIDIA’s Big Moves and Bigger Questions
Explore NVIDIA's GTC 2025 reveals, from Hopper racks to Silicon Photonics. What challenges and surprises await digital infrastructure's future?

GTC 2025 Preview: The Future of GPU Technology with Ben Baldieri
On the eve of NVIDIA's 2025 GTC Conference, Nick Hume and Ben Baldieri dive into the evolving GPU world and its impact on digital infrastructure. They explore the challenges and opportunities in the GPU-as-a-service market, enterprise adoption trends, and the critical role of data management and com

Behind the Curtain: AWS re:Invent 2024 Highlights
Expanding on my post from last week, it was great to see AWS leaning back into their engineering roots at re:Invent this year. They really pulled back the curtain to show us how they’re solving problems at a scale most of us can’t even imagine. It also brought back memories of my own work at re:Invent in 2018, working behind the scenes on level-400 (expert) break-out sessions, workshops and demos. Those experiences gave me a front-row seat to the kind of engineering depth AWS brings to the tabl
OCP Global Summit 2024 Series (part 4)
For the final piece of the Global Summit wrap up, I focus on Networking, both inside the server and between racks, and the crystal ball state of AI. Networking In the area of networking, the conference shed light on some fantastic initiatives that are set to redefine how we connect and scale AI systems. These are set to give users viable alternatives and real choice, providing some well needed competition in the space, and reduce reliance and supply-chain risks. SCALE UP with UALink (Ultra A

OCP Global Summit 2024 Series (part 3)
We've touched on the power innovations at the summit, so obviously, the next logical step is to talk about cooling. Cooling If there is one thing I noticed this year, was the surge in companies expanding their portfolios to include more end-to-end cooling solutions. In previous years and conferences, if was more common to see one company specializing in cold plates, another in CDUs (Coolant Distribution Units), and someone else in immersion tanks. As a customer, you'd then have to integrate

OCP Global Summit 2024 Series (part 2)
Originally planned as a two-part reflection, my series from the fantastic OCP Summit has grown into a series! Up next: the topic of power. Power One of the most talked about topics at the conference was power. Generation, distribution and solutions for data centers, especially in the context of sustainability and efficiency, both inside and outside the data center, and unique solutions behind the meter. Hydrogen’s Color Spectrum Aaron Wemhoff's presentation taught me that hydrogen isn’t ju

OCP Global Summit 2024 (part 1)
It’s been a busy conference season, with the AI Hardware and Edge AI Summit, Yotta 2024, and OCP’s Global Summit all taking place in the past month or so. The OCP Global Summit has become a personal favorite of mine; the diversity of presenters and industry verticals is unmatched, along with more focus on technical and engineering talks, rather than sales pitches. As in previous years, I’ve been reflecting on the conference and poring over the 22 tracks and more than 430 presentations — thousan