Inspur Information, a leading IT infrastructure solutions provider, has sponsored an International Data Corporation (IDC) white paper on the 2020 Global Computing Index (henceforth referred to as The Report). As the world’s first index report on computing, The Report unveils the relationship between computing power and economic development and serves as a reference for the outlook of the global digital economy.

Global digital transformation has entered a phase marked by exponential growth in innovation, with the size of the digital economy projected to continue on an upward trend. As a key factor that underlies digital technology development, computing is now defining the productivity of the digital economy era. According to The Report, economic growth directly correlates with the development of computing—one point of growth in the computing index translates to a 3.3‰ rise in the size of the digital economy and a 1.8‰ growth in GDP. Specifically, AI computing market share is projected to continue on this upward trajectory. Research on computing markets in sample countries shows that AI computing market share has grown from 7% in 2015 to 12% of the overall computing market in 2019 and is expected to reach 23% in 2024. With the largest number of hyper-scale data centers in the world, the United States has demonstrated its strong infrastructure support for computing power growth, ranking first on the index ranking with a score of 75. In second place with a score of 66 is China, followed by Japan (55), Germany (52), and the United Kingdom (47).

The Global Computing Index represents a year-long joint effort by Inspur Information and IDC. The Report, covering Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States, offers a comprehensive assessment of computing power across four dimensions: computing capacity, computing efficiency, application level, and infrastructure support.

Zhang Dong, vice president of Inspur Information, noted that "the application of emerging technologies, especially AI, will be driving the advancement of computing. As the volume of data and the complexity of algorithms continues to rise, computing will be the determining factor for the AI development ceiling.”

Computing Defines Productivity in the Digital Economy Era; Synchronized Development of Emerging Technology Applications and Computing will Foster Economic Growth

The development of emerging technologies and computing are mutually beneficial in that computing power provides infrastructure support for emerging technologies, which in turn pushes forward the evolution of computing. IoT, AI, and big data are among the major emerging technologies.

In 2020, the global spending on AI by enterprises was forecast to be US$49.87 billion, and this number is estimated to reach US$96.28 billion by 2023. The development of AI is driven by the advancement in computing, data, and algorithms, and sufficient computing power is necessary for the processing of large amounts of data using complex algorithms. The widespread application of IoT will give rise to the fast advancement of edge computing, which has already reshaped IT infrastructure and will revolutionize computing, storage, and networks. Cloud computing is the most important means for improving computing efficiency. IT infrastructure that supports same-pace development of cloud and edge will enable applications of emerging technologies, improve computing power, and eventually reap bigger economic rewards. AI, IoT, cloud computing, and other emerging technologies will be the main drivers for IT spending in the future.

Inspur Empowers Computing Power Upgrade through Investment in Open Computing and Artificial Intelligence

The Report builds a comparative formula between computing power and economic development and serves as a reference for countries to improve their computing power and economic competitiveness. The digital economy is a significant component of GDP and computing is the foundation for the development of the digital economy.

As a leading force in emerging technologies, Inspur is the only server vendor who has joined all major open computing organizations, including OCP (Open Compute Project), ODCC and Open19, and is a Gold Member of OpenStack. Inspur leads the OpenRMC subproject, which focuses on next-generation data center management standards, and is an active member in OAM specification, the Scorpio Project, and the OTII for establishing edge computing standards.

In artificial intelligence, Inspur is the chair of SPEC ML, the Technical Committee on Machine Learning under the international evaluation organization SPEC. While working closely with leading tech companies in AI systems and applications, Inspur leads SPEC ML in the development of AI Test specifications and related benchmarks. As of today, Inspur has the most complete array of GPU servers in the industry with nearly 20 computing platforms supporting GPU numbers ranging from 4 to 64. Inspur also provides ultimate-design GPU servers such as the Inspur NF 5488A5, a 19-time record-setting server in the MLPerf benchmarks. Inspur currently offers full-stack AI capabilities including AI Computing Platform, AI Resource Suite, and Algorithm Toolkit.

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About Inspur Information

Inspur Electronic Information Industry Co., LTD is a leading provider of data center infrastructure, cloud computing, and AI solutions, ranking among the world’s top 3 server manufacturers. Through engineering and innovation, Inspur delivers cutting-edge computing hardware design and extensive product offerings to address important technology arenas like open computing, cloud data center, AI and deep learning. Performance-optimized and purpose-built, our world-class solutions empower customers to tackle specific workloads and real-world challenges. To learn more, please go to en.inspur.com.