DigitalOcean, a cloud platform popular among developers, is teaming up with Flexential, a leading data center provider, to boost its AI capabilities. This collaboration aims to meet the growing demand for AI and machine learning services by expanding GPU infrastructure.
Here’s a closer look at what this means and why it matters.
Partnership Details
The expansion involves deploying high-density GPU servers at Flexential’s state-of-the-art data center in Atlanta-Douglasville. This facility is designed to handle the intensive power and cooling needs of GPU computing, ensuring efficient performance for AI workloads.
The deployment will happen in phases, allowing DigitalOcean to scale as needed, and its location near major transport hubs ensures excellent connectivity.
Technology and Benefits
DigitalOcean’s GPU Droplets, powered by NVIDIA H200 and AMD Instinct GPUs, will support tasks like AI training, deep learning, and data analytics. This upgrade is expected to offer developers more robust and scalable AI solutions, helping them compete in a fast-growing market.
It’s an unexpected detail that this move also strengthens DigitalOcean’s position against larger cloud providers, potentially affecting pricing and availability for customers soon.
The DigitalOcean and Flexential Partnership
DigitalOcean, known for its simplicity and affordability in cloud hosting and computing, has announced a significant partnership with Flexential, a leader in data center colocation and interconnection services, to expand its GPU infrastructure.
This move, detailed in a press release dated March 18, 2025, focuses on enhancing AI and machine learning capabilities, reflecting the increasing demand for high-performance computing resources in the web hosting and cloud computing sectors.
Background and Context
DigitalOcean provides developers and small to medium-sized businesses with computing, storage, and networking resources, gaining popularity for its user-friendly interface and competitive pricing.
Flexential, with its nationwide footprint of Tier 3 and Tier 4 data centers, offers secure and flexible solutions tailored to evolving customer needs.
This partnership aligns with DigitalOcean’s ongoing commitment to making cloud computing accessible and scalable, especially as AI transforms various industries.
The collaboration is particularly timely, given the surge in AI applications requiring GPU-accelerated computing. Previous announcements, such as DigitalOcean’s launch of GPU Droplets powered by NVIDIA H100 GPUs in October 2024, indicate a strategic focus on AI infrastructure.
This latest expansion with Flexential builds on that foundation, aiming to meet the specific power and cooling requirements of high-density GPU environments.
Details of the Deployment
The expansion involves a phased deployment at Flexential’s Atlanta-Douglasville data center, located just 16 miles from Hartsfield Jackson International Airport and downtown Atlanta. This strategic location ensures excellent connectivity and accessibility, crucial for serving a distributed user base.
The data center, part of Flexential’s Gen 5 design, spans approximately 205,000 square feet and is equipped with advanced cooling systems and power infrastructure capable of delivering over 1,500 watts per square foot.
This high-density capability is essential for housing GPU servers, which are power-hungry and require efficient thermal management.
The deployment will enable additional DigitalOcean GPU Droplets, powered by NVIDIA’s H200 GPUs and AMD Instinct GPU accelerators. These GPUs are among the most advanced available, offering exceptional performance for AI/ML training and inference, deep learning, high-performance computing (HPC), data analytics, and graphics/video rendering tasks.
High-density deployment, in simple terms, means packing a lot of computing power into a small space, maximizing space and energy efficiency, which is vital for handling the intensive nature of GPU computing.
Significance and Implications
This expansion is significant for several reasons. Firstly, it addresses the growing demand for GPU-accelerated cloud services, as more businesses and developers integrate AI into their applications. GPU computing provides the parallel processing power needed for complex computations, making it ideal for AI tasks.
By scaling its GPU infrastructure, DigitalOcean can offer more robust and scalable AI solutions, enhancing its service portfolio and positioning it to compete effectively with larger cloud providers in the AI space.
The partnership also highlights the importance of data center infrastructure in supporting AI workloads. Flexential’s Atlanta-Douglasville facility, with its liquid-ready infrastructure and sustainability commitments, is well-suited to meet these needs.
The phased approach allows DigitalOcean to increase capacity, ensuring flexibility as demand grows incrementally. This could lead to new GPU Droplet options becoming available to customers in the coming months, potentially affecting pricing and availability.
Key figures from both companies emphasized the strategic importance of this collaboration.
Through this partnership with DigitalOcean, Flexential’s Atlanta-Douglasville data center plays a pivotal role in delivering high-density computing environments that meet the precise requirements of AI-focused cloud providers. Through our FlexAnywhere® platform that enables seamless connectivity and scalability across our national network, this deployment provides the infrastructure foundation for DigitalOcean to scale its GPU Droplets offering, and continue to support developers and businesses building next-generation AI applications.
Patrick Doherty, Chief Revenue Officer at Flexential
Flexential’s Douglasville facility addresses our need to bolster GPU infrastructure quickly as our AI/ML business continues to grow. This expansion extends our footprint to support the specific power and cooling requirements of high-density GPU environments and positions us to meet our customers’ expanding AI computing needs.
Adam Knapp, VP of Engineering, DigitalOcean
These statements underscore the mutual benefits, with DigitalOcean gaining the infrastructure to scale and Flexential reinforcing its role as a pivotal player in delivering high-density computing environments for AI-focused cloud providers.
Industry Trends
Georgia, where the Atlanta-Douglasville data center is located, is becoming a hub for data centers due to its favorable business environment and robust infrastructure. This aligns with industry trends, as data center operators like Flexential expand to meet the computational demands of AI and machine learning.
The use of NVIDIA H200 and AMD Instinct GPUs places DigitalOcean at the forefront of technological advancements, offering customers access to cutting-edge hardware for their AI projects.
This partnership is part of a broader trend of cloud providers enhancing their AI offerings. For instance, DigitalOcean’s previous announcements, such as its strategic partnership with Hugging Face in October 2024, demonstrate a consistent focus on simplifying AI infrastructure deployment.
The collaboration with Flexential further strengthens this position, potentially influencing market dynamics by improving customer retention and expanding average revenue per user (ARPU) in the AI sector.
Future Outlook
Looking ahead, this partnership is expected to strengthen DigitalOcean’s market position, particularly in the AI and machine learning sector. By leveraging Flexential’s advanced data center capabilities, DigitalOcean can efficiently scale its GPU infrastructure, meeting the growing demand for high-performance computing resources.
As AI continues to transform industries, collaborations like this will play a crucial role in providing the necessary computational power to drive innovation and growth, making AI computing more accessible and scalable for developers and businesses alike.