Built For What's Next: AMD Datacenter Momentum And The AI Opportunity

In the modern data center, AI workloads and cloud-scale computing are redefining what it means to compete. As enterprises push the boundaries of performance and efficiency, the pressure to make the right infrastructure decisions has never been greater. With a recent 57% year-over-year surge in data center sales, the industry is increasingly looking to AMD for that foundation.

CRNtv’s Jon Alba spoke with Derek Dicker, corporate vice president of the Enterprise Business Group at AMD, to explore the company's record-breaking momentum in the enterprise space, how they are addressing critical data center challenges, and why the channel is vital to navigating the AI super cycle.

Jon Alba: Derek, what are the biggest challenges that you see customers facing right now, and how can AMD help address them?

Derek Dicker: I think there's a small number of recurring themes that we end up hearing, Jon, when we're out talking to customers. The first one is just that data centers themselves, as they stand today, are very full. The numbers range from 90% to 95% of those that exist today are fully occupied. And a good number of those actually have legacy technology, anywhere from three to five years old, so there's a building need for a refresh.

Now, that's coming on the backdrop of enterprises being asked to articulate how they're going to leverage AI. If you've got a full data center and you're asked how to leverage something that's even more compute-intensive, you've got to free up room. The beautiful thing for AMD is we offer technology that allows consolidation to occur as you transition from legacy technology to modern EPYC processors and servers.

On the AI front, we have some outstanding solutions built on top of our Instinct line, coupled with EPYC products. Finally, everybody is dealing with increasing costs due to supply chain inflation on subcomponents. We spend a lot of time working with customers, helping educate them on their specific workloads so they can optimize their products, reduce costs and improve their TCO.

Jon: We can't go a single day without hearing about AI. How is AMD positioned to actually take advantage of this current AI super cycle?

Derek: We certainly look at it through the lens of how we can help enterprises achieve business outcomes. The way the company operates starts with anticipating the challenges customers will face. We get there by having a very close, intimate relationship with customers and working with partners who have those relationships too—which is why the channel is so important for us.

We help them go down the path of solving modernization challenges. We work closely with software vendors and channel partners to stitch together solutions that focus on TCO and give value back to end customers based on what their workloads require. If a customer needs a highly powerful, low-power server, we'll go down that path with CPU technology. If they need something in the training or inference space that requires GPU technology, we are fortunate to provide that.

And giving a shout-out to our client side, there's a ton of outstanding technology in the workstation space and the client space, especially with AI PCs coming forward. It's a full suite of technologies, but it all starts with identifying the business pain point.

Jon: How does AMD see the channel in the context of your overall business from a bird's-eye view?

Derek: I would start by saying that in the last couple of years, we identified that we weren't engaging as meaningfully with the channel as we should be. Over the course of the last several quarters, we’ve launched a brand-new channel program: the AMD Partner Network (APN). This infrastructure allows channel partners from around the world to have one centralized place within the AMD partner community for training material, content, collateral and incentives.

Second, we’ve taken specific feedback from channel partners on how to be most effective. That involves training pre-sales teams and delivering business outcome-led collateral, covering both the AI world and modernization. We identify solutions alongside our ISV friends and build out complete solutions. We are super excited about the momentum.

Jon: What are some of the differentiators that AMD brings to the table for the AI ecosystem?

Derek: I think it's often helpful to let the customers tell you what those differentiators are. The first one is wrapped around being "open." The feedback from the ecosystem is that they want open software and silicon diversity.

The second piece is that we offer technologies applicable to AI that span all the way from the client side with AI PCs, to workstations based on Threadripper, into servers powered by EPYC processors, and lastly, Rack Scale solutions for the largest deployments of AI.

Jon: Finally, is there anything else that you would like the channel community to know about the role that AMD is currently playing here?

Derek: I want them to know that we're very much interested in becoming a better partner. I invite the channel partner community to be vocal with our teams and let us know how we can engage. One of the corporate values I love is humility; we don't always know what we don't know, and it's the channel partners working directly with customers who have that front-row seat.

Second, we're investing for the long haul in terms of resources, people and infrastructure like the AMD Partner Network. We intend to continue to be a great partner across both the AI space and all modernization activities to build our mutual business together.

To learn more about AMD solution offerings, click here.