Couchbase integrates with Nvidia NIM to aid AI development
By joining its Capella AI Model Services environment for AI development with Nvidia's microservices suite, the database vendor aims to make building and managing AI apps easier.
Couchbase on Monday unveiled an integration with the Nvidia NIM microservices suite to enable customers to more easily develop, deploy and manage AI applications.
The Nvidia NIM set of capabilities is a microservices-based AI development toolkit. Included are integrations with popular large language models, blueprints for developing AI agents and other AI applications, and Nvidia NeMo Guardrails, an open source framework for setting controls on LLM outputs to enforce safety and ensure they match business needs.
Couchbase, meanwhile, is a NoSQL database vendor based in Santa Clara, Calif. In December, the vendor introduced Capella AI Model Services, a set of services that simplify and speed development of generative AI applications, including agents.
Capella AI Model Services and the integration with Nvidia NIM are in private preview. Pricing for the integration, meanwhile, will be based on consumption of Capella AI Model Services.
Once both are generally available, given that the integration adds capabilities that complement Capella AI Model Services, it will be a significant addition for Couchbase customers, according to Matt Aslett, an analyst at ISG's Ventana Research.
The addition of Nvidia NIM will better enable Couchbase customers to accelerate the deployment of AI-powered applications by delivering … accelerated performance for operational applications and support for a variety of LLMs and other GenAI models.
Matt AslettAnalyst, ISG's Ventana Research
"The addition of Nvidia NIM will better enable Couchbase customers to accelerate the deployment of AI-powered applications by delivering … accelerated performance for operational applications and support for a variety of LLMs and other GenAI models," he said.
Data integration specialist Nexla, which like Couchbase is among the many data management vendors adding AI development capabilities, also recently integrated with Nvidia NIM.
Meanwhile, Couchbase competitors that are adding AI development suites include database specialists such as Aerospike and MongoDB, as well as tech giants including AWS, Google, Microsoft and Oracle that offer database platforms.
The integration
OpenAI's November 2022 launch of ChatGPT represented a significant improvement in generative AI capabilities that can make businesses better informed and more efficient.
Enterprises have responded by significantly increasing investments in developing AI applications such as assistants that enable users to analyze data using natural language, rather than code and tools such as agents that take on repetitive tasks previously performed by humans.
At the core of those applications is proprietary data that, when combined with generative AI models, enables applications to understand an enterprise's operations.
Given the vital role data plays in AI development, many data management vendors have responded by developing environments that simplify data discovery, integration, pipeline development and other development tasks.
For example, archrivals Databricks and Snowflake have both made AI development their major focus, including developing their own LLMs.
Couchbase joined the fray in 2023 and continues to add new capabilities aimed at helping developers create AI applications. The introduction of Capella AI Model Services and its integration with Nvidia NIM further that effort.
The integration aims to improve workload performance and security by enabling Couchbase users to deploy applications on Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs). It also adds new agentic AI and retrieval-augmented generation capabilities that enhance those that Couchbase already provides.
Perhaps its most significant benefit will be the trusted outputs enabled by Nvidia NeMo Guardrails, according to Aslett.
Studies such as a recent survey commissioned by data management vendor Ataccama show that a lack of trust in the data used to train AI models and the ensuing AI outputs is one of the main hindrances to more widespread use of AI applications.
"In addition to accelerating the development and deployment of AI applications, Capella AI Model Services with Nvidia NIM also provides users with access to features that are designed to improve trust in the output of GenAI models," Aslett said.
Like Aslett, Stephen Catanzano, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, now part of Omdia, said Couchbase's integration with Nvidia NIM is significant.
Without the integration, Couchbase customers would have faced challenges efficiently deploying AI models, according to Catanzano. But with it, such challenges, including AI governance and scalability, are addressed.
"This integration is significant for Couchbase customers," Catanzano said. "Customers can now run AI models securely within their own data environments without worrying about data privacy risks, improve real-time AI response accuracy … as well as scale and optimize AI models without significant operational overhead."
The biggest benefits of the integration include improved model performance, including lower latency, and the governance enabled by Nvidia NeMo Guardrails, he continued.
"By leveraging Nvidia NeMo Guardrails, the integration helps prevent AI hallucinations, ensuring model reliability and compliance, which is especially critical for enterprises managing sensitive or regulatory-bound data," Catanzano said.
Regarding the motivation for adding the integration with Nvidia NIM after the introduction of Capella AI Model Services, customer feedback played a prominent part, according to Matt McDonough, Couchbase's senior vice president of product and partners.
In particular, Couchbase received requests for improved model inferences and more AI governance.
"We've received lots of feedback from our customers around a desire for optimized inference and enhanced guardrails as they are building out agentic applications," McDonough said.
Looking ahead
As evidenced by the recent introduction of Capella AI Model Services and now the unveiling of an integration with Nvidia NIM, AI development is now a significant focus for Couchbase.
Toward that end, the vendor's roadmap includes expanding its AI development ecosystem through more partnerships, according to McDonough. In addition, continuing to add new features to both its traditional Couchbase Enterprise platform for on-premises users and its Capella platform for cloud-based customers is part of Couchbase's roadmap.
Catanzano suggested Couchbase add AI-driven observability and workload optimization capabilities.
Aslett, meanwhile, noted that as Couchbase expands to provide AI development capabilities, it will be important for the vendor to show that customers are truly using the tools and having success with them.
With Capella AI Model Services and the integration with Nvidia NIM in private preview, AI development using Couchbase's capabilities is still largely theoretical.
"As [Capella AI Model Services] evolves through public preview to general availability, we will be looking for details from the company related to practical examples of customer success and use cases that provide evidence of the theoretical benefits," Aslett said.
Eric Avidon is a senior news writer for Informa TechTarget and a journalist with more than 25 years of experience. He covers analytics and data management.
