Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.sdxcentral.com
Lambda, the Microsoft-backed neocloud, poached Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) director of network and software engineering.
Fiachra Groarke revealed in a LinkedIn post that they were joining the neocloud as VP of cloud and AI networking. Having recently departed the hyperscaler after more than a decade, the exec is set to build engineering teams interconnecting Lambda’s AI infrastructure.
“The networks behind AI are some of the largest and most demanding systems being built today. Thousands of GPUs have to act as one, and that pushes bandwidth, latency, and reliability at every layer of the stack. Getting to engineer networks at that scale is a big part of what drew me here,” Groarke wrote.
The exec enjoyed two stints at Amazon. The first was a little over a year long, serving as a network engineering manager from 2012 to 2012.
After departing for Digicel, Groarke would return to AWS, spending around a decade across a handful of roles, culminating in their director position.
Upon departing at the end of the summer, they said: “It’s hard to put a decade into a few words. The opportunity to invent, build, and operate one of the world’s largest networks is a lifetime point of pride. The formula for success was simple: hire and grow great talent, run toward the hardest problems, push hard to find novel solutions, give smart people the latitude to do their best work – then deliver quickly so customers experience the benefit.”
Groarke has now joined one of the top-tier neoclouds looking to disrupt his old employer.
Named among the neoclouds coming closest to challenge hyperscalers in Gartner’s inaugural Magic Quadrant for cloud AI infrastructure alongside CoreWeave, Lambda enjoys backing from some pretty big names, including Nvidia, Microsoft, and Andrej Karpathy of OpenAI and Tesla fame, alongside a host of venture capital firms.
Groarke’s new employers are already making strides in networking; it was among the first firms to be given access to Nvidia’s upcoming co-packaged optic (CPO) networking switches.
Lambda was given an early look to try out the InfiniBand-based Quantum-X Q3450-LD switch in its GB300 NVL72 systems. The liquid-cooled switch offers up to 115.2 terabits per second (Tb/s) of non-blocking switching capacity and houses 144 x 800G ports.
Revealing his move to Lambda, Groarke wrote: “I’m just as excited about the chance to help build a great company. Great infrastructure comes from great teams: people who are curious, take ownership, and care about getting things right. Lambda supports this culture. I want to build a team where engineers do the best work of their careers, and a culture that rewards delivery.”
