Overview
Despite the rapid adoption of public cloud, many organizations maintain compelling reasons to invest in on-premises infrastructure — data sovereignty requirements, predictable long-term cost profiles, ultra-low-latency workloads, and the specialized hardware demands of AI training and inference. The emergence of enterprise AI has accelerated this trend: training large language models, running GPU-intensive inference at scale, and processing sensitive data locally all require purpose-built on-premises environments that public cloud alone cannot optimally serve.
Nextbrick's On-Premises Hardware & Data Center Consulting practice helps organizations design, procure, deploy, and operate physical infrastructure that meets the demands of modern enterprise workloads — with particular depth in GPU cluster deployment for AI and high-performance computing. Our infrastructure specialists bring experience across data center facility design, server and storage architecture, high-performance networking, NVIDIA DGX and HGX systems, and the operational practices needed to run on-premises environments reliably at scale.
Data Center Design & Facility Engineering
Nextbrick designs data center environments that balance capacity, efficiency, resilience, and future expandability. Our facility-engineering services cover site selection and power-availability assessment, electrical design including redundant utility feeds, UPS systems, PDUs, and generator backup (N+1 or 2N redundancy), cooling architecture — including direct liquid cooling (DLC), rear-door heat exchangers, and in-row cooling units for high-density GPU racks, raised-floor and hot-aisle/cold-aisle containment design, physical security including access control, surveillance, and environmental monitoring, and fire suppression systems appropriate for electronics environments.
For organizations building new data center capacity, Nextbrick produces detailed design documents, single-line electrical diagrams, cooling-load calculations, and rack-elevation drawings. For existing facilities, we assess available power and cooling headroom, identify infrastructure bottlenecks, and design upgrades that accommodate new workloads — particularly the high power densities (30-100+ kW per rack) that GPU clusters demand.
GPU Cluster Deployment for AI
AI model training and high-throughput inference require dense GPU compute clusters with specialized networking and storage. Nextbrick designs and deploys GPU clusters optimized for AI workloads, covering hardware selection — NVIDIA H100, H200, B200 GPUs in DGX, HGX, or OEM server form factors, with AMD MI300X as an alternative, high-bandwidth GPU interconnect — NVLink, NVSwitch, and InfiniBand NDR (400 Gbps) or HDR (200 Gbps) fabrics that eliminate communication bottlenecks during distributed training, high-performance storage — parallel file systems (GPFS/Spectrum Scale, Lustre, WEKA, VAST Data) and NVMe-oF storage that deliver the throughput AI data pipelines require, cluster management software — NVIDIA Base Command Manager, Slurm workload manager, Kubernetes with NVIDIA GPU Operator, and container runtimes optimized for GPU workloads, and MLOps and experiment tracking integration with the AI software stack.
Nextbrick has deployed GPU clusters ranging from single-rack DGX configurations to multi-rack, InfiniBand-connected training environments. We design for both current workloads and future scaling, ensuring that network fabric, power distribution, and cooling are architected to accommodate cluster expansion.
NVIDIA DGX Systems
NVIDIA DGX systems are purpose-built AI supercomputers that integrate GPUs, CPUs, networking, storage, and software into validated, turnkey platforms. Nextbrick is experienced in deploying DGX A100, DGX H100, and DGX B200 systems, and we provide end-to-end services including site readiness assessment — verifying that your facility can support DGX power (up to 10+ kW per node), cooling, and networking requirements, rack and network design — planning rack placement, InfiniBand leaf-spine fabric topology, and management-network architecture, installation and commissioning — physical installation, cabling, BIOS configuration, Base Command Manager setup, and validation testing, and storage integration — connecting DGX systems to high-performance parallel file systems for large-scale dataset access.
For organizations evaluating DGX vs. custom-built GPU servers, Nextbrick provides TCO analysis that compares validated DGX platforms against equivalent OEM configurations, factoring in hardware cost, deployment time, support, and operational complexity.
Network Architecture
High-performance networking is critical for on-premises AI and HPC workloads. Nextbrick designs network architectures that serve both traditional enterprise traffic and the specialized demands of GPU clusters. For GPU-to-GPU communication we design InfiniBand fabrics with leaf-spine topology, using NVIDIA Quantum switches with adaptive routing and congestion control. For enterprise and management networks we design Ethernet fabrics (25/100/400 GbE) with spine-leaf or CLOS topology, redundant paths, and network segmentation.
We implement out-of-band management networks for BMC/IPMI access, storage networks optimized for NVMe-oF or RDMA traffic, and integration with enterprise DNS, DHCP, NTP, and monitoring systems.
Power & Cooling for High-Density Compute
GPU-intensive infrastructure presents unique power and cooling challenges. A single rack of eight NVIDIA H100 GPUs in HGX configuration can draw 10-15 kW, and DGX-scale deployments push rack densities well beyond traditional enterprise norms. Nextbrick designs power and cooling solutions that handle these densities reliably.
On the power side, we design redundant power feeds with automatic transfer switches, appropriately sized UPS systems, busway or overhead power distribution, and per-rack power monitoring. On the cooling side, we design solutions that match the deployment's heat load: traditional air cooling with containment for moderate densities, direct-to-chip liquid cooling (cold plates) for high-density GPU racks, and rear-door heat exchangers or in-row cooling for existing facilities that cannot accommodate full liquid-cooling retrofits. We calculate PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) targets and design for energy efficiency without compromising availability.
Rack Design & Cable Management
Nextbrick produces detailed rack-elevation diagrams, cable-management plans, and labeling standards for every deployment. We specify rack models, rail kits, PDU placement, cable pathways, and fiber/copper patch-panel layouts. For GPU clusters with dense InfiniBand cabling, we design structured cabling architectures that maintain signal integrity, accessibility for maintenance, and airflow for cooling.
Hybrid & Edge Infrastructure
Not all on-premises infrastructure lives in a central data center. Nextbrick designs hybrid architectures that connect on-premises GPU clusters and data stores with public cloud resources for burst capacity, backup, and data distribution. We also design edge-computing deployments for scenarios where latency-sensitive inference must run close to the data source — factory floors, retail locations, hospitals, and field installations.
Managed Operations & Support
Nextbrick offers managed operations for on-premises infrastructure, including 24/7 hardware monitoring and alerting, firmware and driver management for GPUs, NICs, and BMCs, preventive maintenance scheduling, spare-parts management and break-fix coordination, capacity planning and upgrade roadmaps, and environmental monitoring for power, cooling, and physical security. We deliver monthly infrastructure health reports and quarterly capacity reviews to keep your on-premises environment aligned with evolving workload demands.
Why Choose Nextbrick for On-Premises Infrastructure
Nextbrick's infrastructure consultants combine data center facility expertise with deep knowledge of modern AI and HPC hardware. We don't just rack servers — we design complete environments where power, cooling, networking, compute, and storage work together as an integrated system. Whether you're building a new GPU cluster for AI training, expanding an existing data center, or designing a hybrid architecture that balances on-premises and cloud, Nextbrick delivers infrastructure consulting that is practical, rigorous, and aligned with your long-term strategy. Contact us to discuss how we can help you build and operate world-class on-premises infrastructure.