AI is here and now
, and enterprise leaders are expected to act on it, but the dilemma is controlling the AI cost curve. Whether the goal is to improve operations, support customer-facing innovation, or explore new revenue channels, the financial realities of AI infrastructure can’t be ignored.
GPU-heavy workloads required for training and inference are some of the most resource-intensive systems IT teams will ever run. Many organizations start their AI initiatives in the public cloud because it’s accessible and quick to get started. However, convenience often comes at the cost of control. Unpredictable billing, performance variability, and strict data compliance requirements force many companies to rethink their approach. In many cases, they are bringing workloads back on-prem.
There is a more innovative way forward. Private Cloud AI (PCAI) from HPE delivers the flexibility AI teams want with the predictability and control that enterprise IT leaders need. Powered by HPE GreenLake and backed by NVIDIA, PCAI allows organizations to run demanding AI workloads in-house without sacrificing speed or scale.
Let’s explore how PCAI helps IT leaders make AI work on their terms, within their budget.
PCAI: Built to Bring AI Back Home
Public cloud GPU instances are among the priciest SKUs in any CSP catalog. Training large language models or running inference at scale can lead to runaway costs that are hard to predict or contain. This is especially problematic in AI, where teams often don’t know upfront how much compute they’ll need.
As one of our experts shared during a recent WEI Tech Talk episode, customers regularly discover that their cloud AI bills become unsustainable before they’ve even proven their model. Despite fully committing to a cloud-first strategy, some organizations are shifting AI workloads back in-house due to the high cost of public cloud GPU consumption.
HPE Private Cloud AI was purpose-built to address these pain points. It offers a pre-configured private cloud platform optimized for enterprise AI workloads delivered with the same consumption-based model that IT teams appreciate in public cloud, but with clear boundaries and cost control.
With HPE PCAI, organizations can:
- Predict and control AI infrastructure spend. With HPE GreenLake metering and capacity planning tools, IT leaders gain full transparency into resource consumption with no surprise bills and no overprovisioned environments.
- Stop runaway GPU costs at the source. Unlike the cloud, where you can spin up GPU instances indefinitely, PCAI imposes a physical limit based on your deployed infrastructure. This introduces a natural hard stop that prevents uncontrolled spending.
- Bring compute to the data. Whether for data governance reasons (HIPAA, GDPR, PCI) or to enable real-time edge use cases, PCAI keeps sensitive data within your organization’s four walls while still supporting advanced AI processing.
- Speed time to value. With set sized deployments (small, medium, large, XL) aligned to common use cases, from inferencing and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to model training, PCAI helps teams get started fast with an architecture that's production-ready out of the box.
GreenLake and OpsRamp: Built-in Cost Control and Monitoring
Private cloud AI's significant strength lies in its integration with HPE GreenLake and OpsRamp They give IT leaders the tools to manage AI workloads with greater financial and operational precision.
HPE GreenLake provides a cloud-style consumption model for on-premises infrastructure. Instead of significant capital investments, you pay based on actual usage. What sets HPE GreenLake apart is the transparency it delivers. Metering allows you to track usage in real time, forecast future spend, and plan capacity based on actual trends rather than assumptions.
OpsRamp, which is a software-as-a-service that provides an IT operations management platform (ITOM) for modern IT environments), complements this by offering intelligent monitoring across your AI infrastructure. IT teams gain the ability to monitor system health, detect idle GPU instances, and reallocate resources to where they are needed most. This level of insight helps avoid the budget waste often seen in cloud environments, where unused instances can quietly run in the background for months.
Cost governance is essential for enterprise leaders trying to justify enterprise AI investment. Success is not just about building powerful models. It is also about deploying and managing them in a way that aligns with financial and operational goals.
Making AI Accessible for More Enterprises
There is a common misconception that meaningful AI adoption requires hyperscale infrastructure or hyperscale budgets. That is no longer true.
Private cloud AI makes enterprise-level innovation more accessible by removing the complexity of building and maintaining custom AI infrastructure. It combines validated hardware, software, and services into a modular platform that is ready for production. Organizations do not need to source and integrate separate tools. Private cloud AI delivers a curated solution backed by trusted vendors.
Included in the PCAI stack are:
- HPE AI Essentials, offering tools for data engineering, automation, and model lifecycle management
- NVIDIA AI Enterprise and NIMs, delivering pre-optimized microservices and foundational models
- EsML Data Fabric, supporting distributed data pipelines and analytics
As a Platinum HPE partner, WEI ensures that your AI infrastructure is implemented with best practices and long-term support in mind. Infrastructure teams benefit from a manageable platform while data science teams gain access to tools they already know and use.
Even better, PCAI deployments can be fully operational in just a few days. A fast start matters when organizations must prove enterprise AI's value in a compressed timeline.
Edge to Cloud AI: Power Where It’s Needed Most
AI adoption is increasingly driven by use cases that extend beyond the data center. Real-time analysis, decision-making at the point of data creation, and compliance with data residency requirements all point to a shift toward edge-to-cloud strategies.
Private cloud AI platforms like HPE PCAI make these architectures feasible. For healthcare providers, this means analyzing patient data at the bedside. For manufacturers, it enables intelligent automation on the factory floor. In both cases, inference must happen quickly, locally, and securely.
By processing data where it originates, edge-to-cloud AI reduces latency and helps meet data privacy requirements. It also keeps sensitive workloads off the public cloud when regulations or cost control demand it.
HPE GreenLake extends these capabilities by delivering consistent infrastructure and governance across locations. Whether your AI infrastructure runs in the core, the cloud, or at the edge, the platform provides a single pane of management. With WEI as your HPE partner, you have support every step of the way.
Watch: Moving From Concept to Outcomes With WEI & HPE PCAI
Designed for the Speed of AI
PCAI was built with adaptability in mind. From development to deployment, it supports modern AI infrastructure and MLOps workflows. Updates and new capabilities are delivered through HPE GreenLake, making it easy to stay aligned with the latest advancements without burdening internal IT.
This approach allows organizations to scale from basic inference to more advanced workloads without reinvesting in a completely new platform. Whether the goal is to explore retrieval-augmented generation or fine-tune a large model, PCAI provides the foundation.
With the right HPE partner, it is also easier to integrate new tools and strategies into your roadmap. WEI helps organizations future-proof their investments and align their AI initiatives with broader business goals.
Final Thoughts
AI is already on the roadmap for most enterprise organizations. The question is how to execute in a way that makes sense for both the business and the IT team. The wrong infrastructure or deployment model can lead to delays, cost overruns, and performance limitations.
HPE Private cloud AI offers an alternative to the unpredictable nature of cloud-first approaches. With a consumption model, built-in observability, and full control over your AI infrastructure, PCAI allows organizations to innovate with confidence.
WEI helps enterprise teams evaluate, deploy, and optimize PCAI based on their goals. Whether you want to implement an edge-to-cloud strategy, repatriate cloud workloads, or start your AI journey with a reliable foundation, our team can help.
Let’s talk about how to make your AI roadmap actionable and sustainable, starting with the right platform, the right partners, and the right approach.
Next Steps: Accelerate your AI roadmap. Get the full WEI tech brief: Fast-Tracking AI Implementation with HPE Private Cloud AI. Learn how WEI and HPE can help you go from stalled to scaled. Download here.
