The LF AI & Data Foundation | 16 April 2024
Open source solution empowers enterprises with open, multi-provider AI systems to drive unprecedented innovation and value for Generative AI
SEATTLE. Washington - April 16, 2024 - Today, the LF AI & Data Foundation proudly announces the Open Platform for Enterprise AI (OPEA) as its latest Sandbox Project. This pioneering initiative unites industry leaders, including Anyscale, Cloudera, Datastax, Domino Data Lab, Hugging Face, Intel, KX, MariaDB Foundation, Minio, Qdrant, Red Hat, SAS, VMware (acquired by Broadcom), Yellowbrick Data, Zilliz and more to champion the development of open, multi-provider, robust, and composable GenAI systems.
The mission of LF AI & Data is to build and support an open artificial intelligence (AI) and data community and drive open source innovation in the AI and data domains by enabling collaboration and the creation of new opportunities for all members of the community. OPEA aims to facilitate and enable the development of flexible, scalable GenAI systems that harness the best open source innovation from across the ecosystem.
“We're thrilled to welcome OPEA to LF AI & Data with the promise to offer open source, standardized, modular and heterogenous Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines for enterprises with a focus on open model development, hardened and optimized support of various compilers and toolchains. On this foundation, enterprises can accelerate containerized AI integration and delivery, as well as new unique vertical use cases. OPEA will unlock new possibilities in AI by creating a detailed, composable framework that stands at the forefront of technology stacks. This initiative is a testament to our mission to drive open source innovation and collaboration within the AI and data communities under a neutral and open governance model." - Ibrahim Haddad, Executive Director at LF AI & Data.
OPEA is emerging at a crucial juncture when GenAI projects, particularly those utilizing RAG, are becoming increasingly popular for their capacity to unlock significant value from existing data repositories.
The swift advancement in GenAI technology, however, has led to a fragmentation of tools, techniques, and solutions. OPEA intends to address this issue by collaborating with the industry to standardize components, including frameworks, architecture blueprints and reference solutions that showcase performance, interoperability, trustworthiness and enterprise-grade readiness.
“Intel is at the forefront of incubating open source development to build trusted, scalable open infrastructure that enables heterogeneity and provides a platform for developer innovation. Generative AI is at this moment; OPEA, with the support of the broader community, will address critical pain points of RAG adoption and scale today. It will also define a platform for the next phases of developer innovation that harnesses the potential value generative AI can bring to enterprises and all our lives.” - Melissa Evers, Vice President of Software Engineering Group and General Manager of Strategy to Execution, Intel.
The LF AI & Data Foundation invites other organizations and individuals passionate about advancing open source AI and data to join the OPEA project and contribute to shaping the future of enterprise AI. For more information about OPEA and how to get participate, visit opea.dev.
Supporting Quotes
Cloudera
“Cloudera is thrilled to join industry thought leaders like Intel in the Open Platform for Enterprise AI Alliance, embracing openness and collaboration to drive innovation and empower the future of generative AI.” - Andy Moller, SVP of Global Alliances & Ecosystem, Cloudera
Domino Data Lab
"Enterprises integrating their choice of cutting-edge tools into their AI platforms aren’t just ahead of the AI curve—they’re defining it. OPEA's vision aligns with our commitment to open, flexible, governed AI innovation, and we're proud to support it alongside Intel." - Thomas Robinson, COO at Domino Data Lab
Hugging Face
"Hugging Face's mission is to democratize good machine learning and maximize its positive impact across industries and society. By joining OPEA's open-source consortium to accelerate Generative AI value to enterprise, we will be able to continue advancing open models and simplify GenAI adoption." - Julien Simon, Chief Evangelist at Hugging Face
KX
“Collaborative, open-source projects like OPEA fuel our excitement for the future of gen AI because of the ability it has to drive acceleration of both innovation and adoption within enterprise organizations. The power of RAG is undeniable, and its integration into gen AI creates a ballast of truth that enables businesses to confidently tap into their data and use it to grow their business.” - Michael Gilfix, Chief Product and Engineering Officer at KX
MariaDB Foundation
“As GenAI matures, integration into existing IT is a natural and necessary step. The world needs GenAI and vectors as part of a general purpose RDBMS, and we have already demonstrated our ability to deliver this through MariaDB Server. We see huge opportunities for core MariaDB users - and users of the related MySQL Server – to build RAG solutions. It's logical to keep the source data, the AI vector data, and the output data in one and the same RDBMS. The OPEA community, as part of LF AI & Data, is an obvious entity to simplify Enterprise GenAI adoption.” - Kaj Arnö, CEO of MariaDB Foundation
Minio
“The OPEA initiative is crucial for the future of AI development. Advocating for a foundation of open source and standards - from datasets to formats to APIs and models, enables organizations and enterprises to build transparently. The AI data infrastructure must also be built on these open principles. Only by having open source and open standard solutions, from models to infrastructure and down to the data are we able to create trust, ensure transparency and promote accountability.” - AB Periasamy, CEO and co-Founder, MinIO
Qdrant
"As the leading open-source vector database technology provider, Qdrant is excited to support the launch of the OPEA, underscoring the importance of open standards in AI for innovation and data sovereignty. Our commitment to these principles is rooted in our core, and we look forward to contributing to an ecosystem where AI thrives with a deep respect for data ownership." - Andre Zayarni, CEO & Co-founder at Qdrant
Red Hat
“As gen AI continues to advance, open source is playing a critical role in the standardization and democratization of models, frameworks, platforms and the tools needed to help enterprises realize value from AI. Red Hat is excited about the potential for AI innovation for our customers through the Open Platform for Enterprise AI." - Steven Huels, vice president and general manager, AI Business Unit, Red Hat
SAS
"With the potential that generative AI has to shape our future and the ways we do business, it’s imperative that we tap into the power of collaboration for innovation and accuracy in enterprise AI. We're excited to be a part of the newest AI & Data Sandbox project and to work with other industry leaders on OPEA. - Shadi Shahin VP, Product Strategy, SAS
VMware (acquired by Broadcom)
“We are seeing tremendous enthusiasm among our customer base for RAG, with organizations deploying RAG applications on-premises to empower employees and customers to find the information they need faster, creating greater efficiencies in customer service and document search. The constructs behind RAG can be universally applied to a variety of use cases, making a community-driven approach that drives consistency and interoperability for RAG applications an important step forward in helping all organizations to safely embrace the many benefits that AI has to offer.” – Chris Wolf, Global Head of AI and Advanced Services at Broadcom
Yellowbrick Data
"We are pleased to collaborate with the Open Platform for Enterprise AI (OPEA), which offers essential guidance in a dense and complex market. Within OPEA, Yellowbrick serves as a data provider—recognizing data as the crucial fuel for AI. Our data warehouse incorporates advanced vector capabilities, enabling seamless integration of AI with current systems and workflows. This ensures that AI augments rather than interrupts business processes, simplifying AI adoption.” - Mark, Cusack, CTO, Yellowbrick Data
Zilliz
"We firmly believe that vector databases are integral to the future of open generative AI, which is why we donated the Milvus vector database to the Linux Foundation back in 2020. Our support of OPEA is an extension of that commitment to creating a framework alongside Intel that fosters extensible, accessible, and scalable AI platforms for enterprise developers." - Charles Xie, CEO & Founder of Zilliz
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About LF AI & Data Foundation
LF AI & Data is an umbrella foundation of the Linux Foundation that supports open source innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) and data. LF AI & Data was created to support open source AI and data, and to create a sustainable open source AI and data ecosystem that makes it easy to create AI and data products and services using open source technologies. We foster collaboration under a neutral environment with an open governance in support of the harmonization and acceleration of open source technical projects.
Media Contact
Carly Akerly
LF AI & DATA Foundation
cakerly@contractor.linuxfoundation.org