Lloom Announces Databricks Partnership
We are thrilled to announce that Lloom, Inc. has officially joined forces with Databricks, a global pioneer in data, analytics, and artificial intelligence. This exciting collaboration marks an important step forward in our mission to empower businesses with cutting-edge AI and machine learning solutions.
By combining Databricks' innovative platform with Lloom's expertise in delivering bespoke generative AI solutions, we aim to revolutionize how organizations of all sizes drive insights, make informed decisions, and optimize productivity. Together, we look forward to unlocking new possibilities and empowering our clients to thrive in today's data-driven world.
One could even say Lloom is a product of our Databricks experience. Lloom CEO Kevin Coyle and Chief Strategy Officer Joshua Cook are both former ‘Bricksters’ (with almost a combined decade of Databricks tenure). The two intimately know the platform and best practices. Upon founding Lloom, Coyle and Cook quickly sought a Databricks partnership, knowing the platform would be key to their client projects.
As Cook explains, “It’s huge, especially in the ML and generative AI space. In the past year and a half I’ve been using Databricks to build generative AI solutions that support back office and front office use cases– it supports employees of a company with the back office while the front office will support customers.”
Coyle chimes in to agree: “The model serving layer that Databricks makes available is a great interface to where you can collect all of your models in one place. And then there's an API layer built for you that's just really easy to work with and manage.”
The CEO also loves Databricks’s flexibility: “You can use Databricks products with models like Llama 3 or DBRX, the Databricks foundation model. But you could also put, like, let's say, a shallow neural network or even something old school, like Random Forests or something. You can put that right there in the same model serving layer. And they're all available in one place behind the single authentication.” This flexibility and scalability allow us to build the right-sized solution for our clients.
Coyle and Cook also highlight the flexibility of Databricks’ API layer. Cook says,“In this new era where Machine Learning practitioners are transitioning from a heavy emphasis on training models to building software and custom solutions using the foundation model, the work is about managing your API connection. That’s one of the things I love most about Databricks; it’s a really nice, clean way to manage all of your model API.”
Coyle adds, “You've also got the MLFlow tool built in right there. In addition, with Databricks notebooks, there will still be experimentation, which I think makes it fun to work with. Even if you're using foundation models, you're experimenting with prompts. You're potentially doing some fine tuning of a model. And it’s the best experience having the serving layer be in the exact same place as you have your notebooks, your experiment tracking, and your model registry.”
Such an ability allows us to easily work with clients who come to us at ground zero. Cook elaborates, “When we give a client Databricks and set up the serving layer, clients are excited that they have access to everything else. They can see their data in different models. They have a unified way to access everything.”
This new partnership better positions Lloom as Generative AI experts and a firm that truly knows the platform far better than any competitor. This familiarity enhances our ability to deploy really robust model endpoints. “As we engage with clients, we will be able to quickly spin up solid and really robust, battle-hardened ways to deploy models,” says Coyle.
In other words, Lloom develops reliable ML and AI solutions with an intimate understanding of how the Databricks platform works, what it's capable of, and the various product features. AnUnlike any run-of-the-mill services agency, we can locate that familiarity on a lattice of how a company might want to utilize Databricks’ numerous capabilities.
In joining forces with Databricks, Lloom, Inc. embarks on an exciting journey. Our partnership with Databricks opens new horizons for empowering businesses with cutting-edge data solutions. The flexibility and unified experience offered by Databricks' platform, coupled with Lloom's expertise in generative AI and machine learning, position us as leaders in building optimized solutions.
