Question: Can you suggest a cloud-based platform that allows me to build and manage smart machines at scale, regardless of the hardware or software used?

If you need a cloud-based foundation for programming and managing smart machines at large scale, Viam is a good option. Viam spans the software and hardware domains, providing services like clean data and insights, AI, predictive fleet maintenance and a unified view of all machines. It works with any hardware, software or programming language, so it can be used across many industries. The platform's open-source architecture and user interface are designed to improve operations and speed up development.

Another contender is Salad, which specializes in running and managing AI/ML production models on a fleet of thousands of consumer GPUs around the world. It offers scalability, a managed container service and multi-cloud support, which makes it a good option for GPU-accelerated tasks like text-to-image and computer vision. Salad has a simple interface and SOC2 certification for security, and it's a cheap way to run AI at large scale.

If you're looking for a more general-purpose IoT foundation, Cloud IoT Core from Google Cloud lets you connect, manage and ingest data from devices around the world. It's integrated with other Google Cloud services like AI and ML for richer analysis and automation. It's good for many industries, and can be used for things like optimizing supply chains and improving manufacturing processes.

Last, Anyscale is a platform for developing, deploying and running AI applications. Based on the open-source Ray framework, Anyscale supports many types of AI models and offers services like cloud flexibility, intelligent instance management and optimized resource usage. With native integrations and automated workflows, Anyscale is designed to increase productivity and lower costs for AI operations.