MLOps Companies Platforms Tools and Infrastructure

In the rapidly evolving field of MLOps, companies are turning to specialized platforms, tools, and infrastructure to streamline their machine learning operations. H2O.ai's Driverless AI is a popular platform that automates the machine learning process, reducing the need for manual coding.

Many MLOps companies are leveraging cloud-based services like Amazon SageMaker and Google Cloud AI Platform to deploy and manage machine learning models at scale. These platforms provide a range of features, including automated model deployment, monitoring, and optimization.

The rise of MLOps has also led to the development of specialized tools, such as Databricks' Unity Catalog, which provides a unified view of data and models across multiple environments. This enables data scientists and engineers to collaborate more effectively and deploy models faster.

MLOps is a paradigm that includes best practices, concepts, and a development culture for machine learning products. It's an engineering practice that combines machine learning, software engineering, and data engineering.

MLOps aims to bridge the gap between development and operations. Essentially, it's about productionizing machine learning systems.

MLOps is a set of engineering practices specific to machine learning projects. It borrows from DevOps principles in software engineering.

MLOps stands for Machine Learning Operations. It's a core function of Machine Learning engineering, focused on taking machine learning models to production and maintaining them.

MLOps is a collaborative function, often involving data scientists, DevOps engineers, and IT.

MLOps companies aim to achieve various goals through successful implementation of ML across the enterprise. These goals include deployment and automation, reproducibility of models and predictions, diagnostics, governance and regulatory compliance, scalability, collaboration, business uses, and monitoring and management.

A standard practice like MLOps takes into account each of these areas, helping enterprises optimize workflows and avoid issues during implementation. This is achieved through a common architecture of an MLOps system, which includes data science platforms, analytical engines, and an MLOps tool that orchestrates the movement of machine learning models, data, and outcomes.

The primary benefits of MLOps are efficiency, scalability, and risk reduction. Efficiency is achieved through faster model development, higher quality ML models, and faster deployment and production. Scalability is enabled through vast management where thousands of models can be overseen, controlled, managed, and monitored.

MLOps also provides reproducibility of ML pipelines, enabling more tightly-coupled collaboration across data teams, reducing conflict with devops and IT, and accelerating release velocity. This is crucial for risk reduction, as machine learning models often need regulatory scrutiny and drift-check, and MLOps enables greater transparency and faster response to such requests.

Here are the key goals and benefits of MLOps:

Machine learning systems can be categorized into eight different categories, each representing a step in the machine learning lifecycle. These categories include data collection, data processing, feature engineering, data labeling, model design, model training and optimization, endpoint deployment, and endpoint monitoring.

Each of these steps requires interconnection to work together seamlessly. Enterprises need to build these systems to scale machine learning within their organization.

The MLOps lifecycle can be categorized into four phases: experimentation and model development, model generation and quality assurance, and model deployment and monitoring. The machine learning model is the main focus throughout all phases of MLOps.

Machine learning systems can be categorized into eight different categories, which are the minimum systems that enterprises need to scale machine learning within their organization.

Each step in the machine learning lifecycle is built in its own system, requiring interconnection to function properly.

These categories include data collection, data processing, feature engineering, data labeling, model design, model training and optimization, endpoint deployment, and endpoint monitoring.

Machine learning systems can be categorized into eight different categories, including data collection, data processing, and model deployment. Each step in the machine learning lifecycle requires interconnection, making it essential to have a structured approach.

The MLOps lifecycle consists of four phases: experimentation and model development, model generation and quality assurance, and model deployment and monitoring. The machine learning model is the main pinwheel of MLOps, driving the entire process.

To track the lifecycle of machine learning models, an enterprise data center can layer on elements of an MLOps software stack. This includes data sources, datasets, AI models, and automated ML pipelines.

Data scientists need a flexible and automated system to manage datasets, models, and experiments through their lifecycles. This includes software containers, typically based on Kubernetes, to simplify running jobs.

Here's a breakdown of the key elements of an MLOps software stack:

These capabilities are becoming available as part of cloud-computing services, allowing companies to create their own AI centers of excellence using MLOps services or tools from vendors.

MLOps companies should focus on implementing best practices to ensure the success of their machine learning projects. The best practices for MLOps can be delineated by the stage at which MLOps principles are being applied, starting with exploratory data analysis (EDA).

Exploratory data analysis involves iteratively exploring, sharing, and preparing data for the machine learning lifecycle. This includes creating reproducible, editable, and shareable datasets, tables, and visualizations. By following this practice, MLOps companies can ensure that their data is well-prepared for model training and deployment.

According to Google, there are three ways to implement MLOps: MLOps level 0 (Manual process), MLOps level 1 (ML pipeline automation), and MLOps level 2 (CI/CD pipeline automation). MLOps level 0 is a manual process that is suitable for low-frequency data influx.

Here are the different stages of MLOps implementation:

The best practices for MLOps can be delineated by the stage at which MLOps principles are being applied. For instance, exploratory data analysis (EDA) is crucial for the machine learning lifecycle, where you create reproducible, editable, and shareable datasets, tables, and visualizations.

Data scientists often spend a significant amount of time building solutions to add to their existing infrastructure in order to complete projects. According to a survey by cnvrg.io, data scientists often spend their time on engineering-heavy, non-data science tasks such as tracking, monitoring, configuration, compute resource management, serving infrastructure, feature extraction, and model deployment.

To ensure that ML models are consistent and all business requirements are met at scale, a logical, easy-to-follow policy for model management is essential. MLOps methodology includes a process for streamlining model training, packaging, validation, deployment, and monitoring.

Here are some key MLOps best practices to keep in mind:

These best practices will help you streamline your MLOps process, reduce errors, and improve the overall efficiency of your machine learning operations. By following these guidelines, you'll be able to create a robust and scalable MLOps system that meets the needs of your organization.

Building an MLOps infrastructure can take over a year to build a functioning machine learning infrastructure, and even longer to build a data pipeline that can produce value for your organization.

The cloud computing industry has seen significant growth, with public cloud infrastructure spending reaching $77.8 billion in 2018 and growing to $107 billion in 2019, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.3% estimated to reach nearly $500 billion by 2023.

Companies like Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud have invested heavily in research and development of specialized hardware, software, and SaaS applications, including MLOps software.

AWS' Sagemaker is a fully managed end-to-end cloud ML-platform that enables developers to create, train, and deploy machine-learning models in the cloud, embedded systems, and edge-devices.

However, building an MLOps infrastructure can be expensive and requires significant time and resources, including human resources, time to profit, and opportunity cost.

Buying an MLOps infrastructure might seem like a cost-effective solution, but it also comes with its own set of challenges, including inflexibility, compliance, and security risks.

Hybrid MLOps infrastructure combines the best of both worlds, equipping you with skilled expertise, like on-premise infrastructure, and the flexibility of the cloud.

Here are some key considerations for each approach:

Ultimately, the choice between building, buying, or hybrid infrastructure depends on your company's specific needs and resources.

DevOps and MLOps are two engineering practices that share some similarities, but serve different purposes. DevOps is a set of principles borrowed from software engineering that focuses on rapidly shipping applications, while MLOps is a specific set of practices for machine learning projects.

MLOps borrows from DevOps, but with a focus on taking machine learning models to production. It adds data scientists and ML engineers to the team, who curate datasets and build AI models that analyze them.

DevOps got its start a decade ago as a way to collaborate between software developers and IT operations teams. MLOps builds on this foundation by incorporating data scientists and ML engineers.

MLOps is an engineered care center for machine learning models, where data is molded into multiple ML models that are carried through designated steps from the beginning to the end of production.

In essence, MLOps is a paradigm that leverages three contributing disciplines: machine learning, software engineering (especially DevOps), and data engineering.

Data scientists often spend a significant amount of time on non-data science tasks, such as tracking, monitoring, and configuration, which can be referred to as 'hidden technical debt'.

Databricks Lakehouse Platform is a great tool for running analysis and model testing for big data projects in a single platform. It integrates well with Python, R, or Stata, making it a convenient option.

MLOPs platforms are essential for automating software supply chains, but they often require additional tools for labeling, training, and testing models before deployment. These tools can help streamline the machine learning process.

Weights and Biases is a popular platform for building better ML models, allowing users to deploy, validate, debug, and reproduce models with ease. It also facilitates collaboration and sharing of information among team members.

SuperAnnotate is a leading platform for building high-quality ML pipelines for computer vision and natural language processing, offering advanced tooling and quality assurance capabilities. It's particularly useful for image segmentation tasks.

An MLOps platform provides a collaborative environment for data scientists and software engineers to work together, automate the operational aspects of the machine learning lifecycle, and streamline model management.

This platform facilitates iterative data exploration, real-time co-working, experiment tracking, feature engineering, model management, controlled model transitioning, deployment, and monitoring.

A key aspect of an MLOps platform is its ability to automate the operational and synchronization aspects of the machine learning lifecycle. This helps organizations run ML projects consistently from end-to-end.

To ensure consistent and reproducible models, organizations can set a clear, consistent methodology for model management. This includes streamlining model training, packaging, validation, deployment, and monitoring.

By doing so, organizations can proactively address common business concerns, such as regulatory compliance, and enable reproducible models by tracking data, models, code, and model versioning.

Here are some benefits of a well-implemented MLOps platform:

ML Management is a crucial aspect of the MLOps process. It ensures that ML models are consistent and meet all business requirements at scale.

To achieve this, a logical and easy-to-follow policy for model management is essential. MLOps methodology includes a process for streamlining model training, packaging, validation, deployment, and monitoring.

By setting a clear, consistent methodology for Model Management, organizations can proactively address common business concerns, such as regulatory compliance. They can also enable reproducible models by tracking data, models, code, and model versioning.

Here are some key benefits of effective Model Management:

DataBricks Lakehouse Platform is an example of a platform that supports Model Management. It allows users to run analysis and model testing for big data projects in a single platform, without switching between different tools.

IBM Watson Studio is another example of a platform that supports Model Management. It allows users to build various data solutions with cutting-edge AI technologies and an easy-to-use user interface.

Effective Model Management is essential for organizations to run ML projects consistently from end-to-end. It helps to streamline the process of model training, packaging, validation, deployment, and monitoring.

Managing on-prem and cloud infrastructure can be a challenge, especially when it comes to managing different skill sets, access to specialized compute and storage, and ongoing reliability issues. This can take up a lot of time and attention, taking away from model R&D and data collection.

Building your own platform and infrastructure can be overwhelming, especially as demand increases. It's not ideal unless it's part of your core business, like being a cloud service provider.

Here are some key challenges to consider:

Implementing MLOps can be a complex task, and it's essential to be aware of the challenges that come with it. Unrealistic expectations from stakeholders can hinder the success of ML projects.

Stakeholders often make unrealistic expectations of end goals, which can be a significant challenge. To overcome this, it's crucial to roll up your sleeves and dive into the data yourself, rather than relying on preset steps.

Data discrepancies can also cause issues, as data is often sourced from different verticals, leading to confusing data entries. Performing statistical analyses of raw data can help standardize formats and values.

A lack of data versioning can make it difficult to track changes and control model runs. This can be mitigated by implementing data versioning and ensuring that users load the correct data versions into the system.

Inefficient infrastructure can also be a challenge, particularly when running multiple experiments. A compatible infrastructure with high graphical processing power is necessary to support multiple data versions.

Here are some of the key challenges of MLOps:

These challenges can be overcome with careful planning, attention to detail, and a willingness to learn and adapt. By being aware of these challenges, you can take steps to mitigate them and ensure the success of your MLOps project.

Managing on-prem and cloud infrastructure can be a challenge, especially when trying to balance the two. According to a study by Cloudcheckr, today's infrastructure is a mix of cloud and on-prem, with 58% of companies adopting hybrid cloud in 2019.

Managing both on-prem and cloud infrastructure requires a different skill set, as mentioned in a report. This can be a barrier for companies that don't have the necessary expertise.

A fully managed platform can provide great flexibility and scalability, but it also comes with compliance, regulations, and security issues. This is a concern for companies that handle sensitive data.

Here are some common challenges that companies face when managing on-prem and cloud infrastructure:

Building your own platform can take up a lot of resources, leaving less time for model development and data collection. Buying a fully managed platform can provide flexibility and scalability, but it also comes with its own set of challenges.

Having a dedicated operations team to manage models can be expensive on its own. Hiring more engineers to manage the process can be a slow and costly endeavor.

Calculating all the different costs associated with hiring and onboarding an entire team of engineers can lead to a significant drop in return on investment. This makes an out-of-the-box MLOps solution a more attractive option.

An out-of-the-box MLOps solution is built with scalability in mind, at a fraction of the cost. This can be a game-changer for organizations looking to scale their experiments and deployments without breaking the bank.

Opportunity cost is a significant consideration when it comes to investing in MLOps infrastructure. A staggering 65% of a data scientist's time is spent on non-data science tasks, which is a huge opportunity cost.

This means that data scientists are not utilizing their skills to deliver high-impact models, but rather are bogged down in technical tasks. Using an MLOps platform automates these technical tasks and reduces DevOps bottlenecks.

By adopting an end-to-end MLOps platform, you can give your data scientists the freedom to focus on what they do best – delivering high-impact models. This has a considerable competitive advantage that allows your machine learning development to scale massively.

Here are some key benefits of reducing opportunity cost with MLOps: