Your questions about ISAIC, answered
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What sets us apart from other cloud providers?
No egress fees: Access and transfer your data without incurring additional costs.
Your IP rights: With ISAIC, the IP rights to your creations remain yours.
Vendor-neutral: Our services are compatible with a wide range of technologies, giving you the freedom to choose the best tools for your project.
Local presence: We're proudly based in Edmonton, providing a local option for data storage and cloud services.
Where are you located?
We're proudly Canadian! Our headquarters is located at W1-060 ECERF Building, 116 Street & 85 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R3. Our servers are securely housed in Alberta, ensuring your data stays on Canadian soil.
When's the right time to reach out to ISAIC?
ISAIC supports small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and established businesses at any stage of their AI/ML journey. Many clients find ISAIC especially valuable in three key scenarios.
For early-stage companies: ISAIC provides a secure, sovereign environment to develop and iterate without the overhead of large commercial cloud providers - and after exhausting free cloud credits from hyperscalers, ISAIC is a strong Canadian alternative to continue development on secure, local infrastructure.
For academic collaborations: ISAIC helps maintain project continuity, since projects often lose momentum after wrapping up with professors and students because the SME partner has nowhere to continue the work - ISAIC is the ideal environment to keep those projects moving forward.
For established businesses: Many clients run production operations on major cloud platforms but turn to ISAIC to accelerate AI training iteration cycles and R&D efforts, avoiding production-level pricing for development and training workloads.
Does ISAIC only work with Alberta companies?
While we're based in Alberta, we're here for all Canadian businesses! We especially love working with SMEs and innovation teams from established companies across the country.
What about my Intellectual Property?
Your IP is 100% yours - no ifs, ands, or buts!
Ready to get started?
We'd love to chat! Just fill out our contact form on the Contact page, and we'll set up a friendly Discovery call to explore how we can help bring your ideas to life.
What kind of Virtual Machine flavours do you have?
We've designed our VM options to meet industry standards while giving you the flexibility you need.
GPU flavours: NVIDIA H100 (96GB), NVIDIA A100 (80GB), and NVIDIA L40S (48GB).
CPU configurations: 16 cores with 64 to 128GB RAM and 256 to 512GB storage, 32 cores with 128 to 256GB RAM and 256 to 512GB storage, or 64 cores with 256 to 512GB RAM and 256 to 512GB storage.
Whether you're training large language models, running complex simulations, or processing massive datasets, we've got you covered. Need a custom configuration that's not on the list? Just reach out and we'll work with you to build the ideal setup for your specific project requirements.
Is it easy to move my work in and out of your servers?
Absolutely! We use open-source technologies like Kubernetes and Docker, giving you full access to virtual machines and storage, which makes it easy to transfer your models and products. Plus, there are no egress fees, so you have complete freedom to move your work as needed without paying additional fees.
What kind of support does ISAIC offer for setting up environments?
We provide technical support to help configure environments, including assistance with Docker, Kubernetes, and Linux setups. We also offer open-source LLMs for inference.
Can ISAIC support projects requiring real-time data access?
Yes! Our cloud resources are available 24/7 for real-time access, making them perfect for projects that need constant data availability. No matter when you need to access your data, we're there for you.
I'm a researcher - can I use ISAIC?
Absolutely! We love working with researchers, especially those partnering with industry on applied AI projects.
Have an industry partner?: They can apply for ISAIC resources on your behalf, allowing us to provide affordable computational infrastructure for your collaborative work.
No industry partner yet?: No worries - we'd be happy to help connect you with potential collaborators across our network. We also offer resources for joint projects, making it easier to translate your research into real-world applications.
Fundamental research?: We can point you towards free resources available through the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (DRAC) or the Rapid Access Cloud (RAC) from Cybera.
Our focus is on applied AI, but we're here to support the broader research community too - don't hesitate to reach out.
How does ISAIC compare to the Digital Research Alliance of Canada?
Unlike the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (DRAC), ISAIC provides dedicated resources through virtual machines specifically tailored to your project needs.
While DRAC operates on a competitive queue-based system where researchers must wait for their turn to access shared computing resources, ISAIC gives you immediate, guaranteed access to your own dedicated environment - no waiting in queues, consistent availability of your exact configuration (hardware and firmware), and complete control over your computing resources.
This lets you focus on innovation rather than competing for compute time, delivering faster time-to-results and a more repeatable, predictable experience for applied AI and machine learning projects.
What about the costs?
We believe in complete transparency. That's why we've created Pricing Tables, so you can plan your budget without any surprises. We offer competitive pricing, with rates approximately 50% less than those of large commercial cloud providers depending on the configuration selected.
How can we offer such competitive rates?
We're fortunate to have support from both the Federal Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta, which helps us keep our high-performance computing resources affordable for Canadian innovators like you. The rental fee that companies pay is regarded as their contribution to support such infrastructure.
Can I pay with my credit card?
Absolutely! We've made it easy to pay with your credit card through the Plastiq portal. Just remember two simple things when paying:
Payment type: Select "Commercial Payment".
Invoice number: Include your invoice number.
And that's it - you're all set, with one more flexible way to manage your ISAIC services.
Need help with funding?
Great question! Alberta SMEs can access our resources through the AI Compute Access Fund from the Government of Canada, Mitacs programs, and Alberta Innovates' Micro Voucher Program. We'll help you estimate costs for your proposal and find the right resources for your project.
Do I need to commit to a long-term contract?
Not at all! We believe in flexibility. Use our machines for as little as a month or for the duration of your project, whatever works best for you.
Ready to get started?
Book a discovery call or reach out and our team will help you find the right compute configuration.