The AI tasked with keeping the metaverse safe comes with a lot of GPU firepower

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AI-powered servers with Nvidia GPUs will give potential metaverse hackers a few things to think about.

The Nvidia BlueField-2 data processing unit that will power vSphere 8.
(Image credit: Nvidia)

At yesterday's VMware Explore 2022 conference in San Francisco, server giant VMWare announced the vSphere 8—a metaverse-ready data center platform with artificially intelligent security.

vSphere 8 combines recent Dell PowerEdge solutions, Nvidia BlueField-2 data processing units (or DPUs), and super high-end Nvidia server GPUs. All that tech is packaged together under the watchful eye of some boss-grade AI enterprise software known as NSX Intelligence, ZDnet reports.

"With this package, we are protecting workloads with next-generation firewalls. Now you will see firewalls in every single server. So we are no longer confined to how previous data centers were built," says VMware's vice-president of security engineering, Brad Doctor.

Switching from the conventional singular, external firewall solution to having VMware's NSX firewall (PDF warning) on every server will mean better security across the board. As Nvidia's Head of computing, Manuvir Das notes, isolation is the name of the game here.

"Security has always been a focus of VMware NSX platform, and now hosting that on the Bluefield gives us a new layer of isolation between the application processing domain and the infrastructure processing domain."

Essentially, it'll be easier to enable intrusion detection and protection to keep the server safe, and in turn the metaverse, as we move into an increasingly digital age.

"Security has always been a focus of VMware NSX platform, and now hosting that on the Bluefield gives us a new layer of isolation between the application processing domain and the infrastructure processing domain."

Essentially, it'll be easier to enable intrusion detection and protection to keep the server safe, and in turn the metaverse, as we move into an increasingly digital age.

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The AI can even go as far as recognising when a password is being typed in too slowly—an indicator of the presence of a potential hacker. We all know AI doesn't always know best, though, and someone's sure to get a shock being locked out after logging in one henpecked letter at a time.

On a more serious note: AMD, Dell, HPE, Intel, Nvidia and Lenovo have all given statements in support vSphere 8, with Nvidia's Das noting that “AI and zero-trust security are pushing the boundaries of computing and networking for enterprise data centers."

So comes another step in the process of making the world more AI-centric. Let's hope when the machines turn, our meatbag metaverse owners don't automatically get locked out for being human.

I'm sorry, Zuck. I'm afraid I can't do that. 

Katie Wickens
Katie Wickens
Hardware Writer

Having been obsessed with game mechanics, computers and graphics for three decades, Katie took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni and has been writing about digital games, tabletop games and gaming technology for over five years since. She can be found facilitating board game design workshops and optimising everything in her path.