Modal

What is Modal?

Modal is a cloud platform designed for developers, specifically tailored for AI, data, and machine learning (ML) teams. It enables users to execute CPU or GPU tasks for AI and data-intensive applications without the need to manage infrastructure. The platform offers features like a custom container system built in Rust for fast cold-start times and scalability, a serverless environment, comprehensive developer tools, and cost-effective pricing with free compute credits each month. Users can run various compute tasks such as generative AI models, large-scale batch jobs, and job queues on Modal.

Who created Modal?

Modal was created by a team led by Erik Jankowski. The company provides a high-performance cloud platform for developers, specializing in AI, data, and machine learning tasks. Modal's platform offers a serverless environment tailored for running generative AI models, large-scale batch jobs, and job queues efficiently and cost-effectively. The infrastructure is designed to handle CPU, GPU, and data-intensive compute tasks, allowing developers to focus on their code without worrying about managing the underlying infrastructure.

What is Modal used for?

• Running generative AI models
• Large-scale batch jobs
• Job queues
• Data-intensive compute tasks
• Efficient scaling to hundreds of GPUs
• Cost-effective compute usage charging
• Effortless deployment
• Comprehensive environments
• Built-in storage
• Job scheduling
• Generative AI models
• Data-intensive applications
• Running massively parallel GPU finetune jobs
• Training hundreds of LLMs at the same time
• Effortless deployment of functions to the cloud
• Scaling up to hundreds of nodes and down to zero within seconds
• Deploying models to Modal
• Empowering infra needs with just a couple decorators
• Run generative AI models
• AI tasks
• Machine learning tasks
• Custom container system
• Serverless platform for teams
• Scalable workloads
• Parallel GPU finetune jobs
• Custom container system deployment
• Avoiding infrastructure management
• Secure workloads
• Efficient and fast CPU and GPU compute tasks
• High-performance computing for AI, data, and machine learning teams
• Effortless deployment of code

Who is Modal for?

• AI professionals
• Data scientists
• Machine learning engineers
• AI researchers
• Developers in the field of generative AI models
• Teams working on large-scale batch jobs and job queues
• AI teams
• Data Teams
• Machine learning (ML) teams
• Machine learning teams

How to use Modal?

Modal is a powerful cloud platform designed for developers to run CPU, GPU, and data-intensive tasks seamlessly without the need to manage infrastructure. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to use Modal effectively:

1. Sign up for a Modal account on their website and choose a suitable plan based on your needs (Starter, Team, or Enterprise).
2. Access the Modal platform and familiarize yourself with the features provided, such as the custom container system, serverless environment, and flexible environments.
3. Bring your own code to Modal for tasks like running generative AI models, large-scale batch jobs, and job queues efficiently.
4. Take advantage of the serverless environment by deploying functions to the cloud in seconds without the complexity of Dockerfiles or YAML.
5. Monitor your executions, logs, and metrics in real-time to track the performance of your tasks.
6. Ensure security by using the battle-tested gVisor runtime provided by Modal.
7. Benefit from cost-effectiveness by paying only for actual compute usage based on CPU cycles, with $30 of compute credits provided monthly.
8. Explore the possibilities of running a variety of compute tasks on Modal, including tasks that require GPU computing.
9. Stay connected with the Modal Community Slack for support and updates on the platform.
10. For startups and academic researchers, take advantage of up to $25k in free compute credits for GPU compute.

By following these steps, you can leverage Modal's features effectively for your development tasks and accelerate your projects with efficient and secure cloud computing capabilities.