Ask Sage Edge Delivers Air-Gapped Generative AI for DDIL Operations

Ask Sage Edge Brings Generative AI to DDIL Operations

Ask Sage has launched Ask Sage Edge, a turnkey, field-deployable AI platform built with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NVIDIA, Meta, and Nutanix. It brings production-grade Generative AI directly to the tactical edge in denied, degraded, intermittent, and limited (DDIL) bandwidth environments.

"Ever wondered how you could get the full capabilities of Ask Sage, anywhere in the world, air-gapped? From a Humvee to a ship, submarine, to an air-gapped datacenter? Well now you can," said CEO and Founder Nicolas Chaillan. "Thanks to Ask Sage Edge, you can now get access to the HPE Edge Line 8000 with 1 blade of NVIDIA H100 to run LLMs like Llama 4 and other OSS LLM options like Whisper and text-to-speech options, and sprinkle the power of Ask Sage capabilities on top of the Nutanix Kubernetes stack!"

Why it matters for Operations

• Operational independence: Keep AI capability up when cloud access is unreliable or unavailable. Works in disaster zones, remote borders, maritime, and forward operating bases.
• Real-time decisions: Process data where it's created. No round trips to a central cloud, which cuts latency on time-sensitive tasks.
• Enhanced field ops: Run multiple models on local data-speech, imagery, text-without waiting on headquarters connectivity.

What's inside the stack

• Hardware: HPE EdgeLine 8000 class system with NVIDIA H100 acceleration for on-site inference.
• Models: Support for 150+ AI models including Llama 4, Whisper, and text-to-speech options.
• Platform: Nutanix Kubernetes stack for orchestration, with Ask Sage capabilities layered for production workflows.
• Connectivity posture: Air-gapped operation for ships, submarines, tactical vehicles, and on-prem data centers.

Security and compliance

The platform applies a zero-trust architecture and keeps classified data within secure perimeters. It aligns with government and regulated industry requirements, including FedRAMP High and DoD Impact Levels 5/6, as well as Top Secret authorizations.

• FedRAMP High overview
• DoD Cloud Security (Impact Levels)

Where Ops teams can deploy it

• Maritime and subsurface: Onboard processing for ISR triage, voice transcription, and threat reporting while disconnected.
• Tactical vehicles and FOBs: On-site analysis of sensor feeds, language tasks, and COP updates with local sharing.
• Disaster response: Local translation, summarization, and image analysis for faster coordination in comms-limited areas.
• Air-gapped facilities: Mission planning, wargaming support, and document analysis without external data movement.

Integration notes for Operations leaders

• Cloud-agnostic: Deploy in diverse environments without vendor lock-in; move workloads as mission needs change.
• Multi-modal workflows: Run speech-to-text, LLM summarization, and TTS in sequence for immediate, local briefs.
• K8s-native operations: Use familiar Kubernetes tooling for deployment, scaling, and rollback on the Nutanix stack.
• Data governance: Keep sensitive data on-site; log model prompts/outputs for audit under zero-trust policies.

Implementation checklist

• Define the first 3 use cases: e.g., ISR triage, frontline translation, or casualty reporting summaries.
• Size the hardware: Match H100 capacity to model mix, concurrency, and duty cycle; plan spares for field swaps.
• Ops playbooks: Write simple SOPs for model selection, prompt templates, and offline/online sync behavior.
• Data pathways: Map sensor and document flows into the platform; standardize formats and retention rules.
• Training and drills: Cross-train operators and maintainers; run DDIL exercises and post-action reviews.
• Sustainment: Establish patch cadence, model updates, and integrity checks for air-gapped environments.

Bottom line

Ask Sage Edge pushes AI capability to the point of need, without waiting on the cloud. For Operations teams, that means faster decisions, fewer handoffs, and resilient performance under DDIL conditions.

Upskilling your team

If you're standing up an edge AI program and need role-based training paths, explore curated options by job function here: Complete AI Training - Courses by Job.