As data sovereignty and computing power become strategic factors for enterprises adopting AI, the demand for private on-premises AI infrastructure is growing. Responding to this trend, QNAP® Systems, Inc., a leading innovator in computing, networking, and storage solutions, today introduced QAI-h1290FX, a next-generation Edge AI storage server designed to support private deployments of large-scale language models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) engines, and generative AI applications.
Built on an AMD EPYC™ server processor, with support for NVIDIA® RTX™ GPU acceleration and twelve slots for U.2 NVMe/SATA SSDs, the QAI-h1290FX provides a high-performance on-prem AI infrastructure for organizations that demand low latency inference, full data protection and control over operations – without relying on cloudu.
Powered QuTS hero operating system based on ZFS From QNAP, the QAI-h1290FX offers enterprise-grade data integrity, nearly unlimited snapshots, and inline deduplication. It supports native GPU access in containers via Container Station and GPU passthrough for virtual machines via Virtualization Station. IT teams, developers, and research groups can efficiently run inference models, generative AI applications, and RAG pipelines (data streams) with full control over performance and resource allocation.
The QAI-h1290FX comes with a carefully selected set of pre-installed AI tools such as AnythingLLM, OpenWebUI and Ollama, enabling rapid deployment of private LLM workflows. Additional AI applications such as Stable Diffusion, ComfyUI, n8n and vLLM are gradually integrated to extend functionality. This allows users to quickly build on-prem AI platforms and automate workflows in a secure, scalable and fully controlled environment.
“The QAI-h1290FX meets the growing demand for local AI infrastructure,” said Oliver Lam, Product Manager at QNAP. “We wanted to remove the barriers of building GPU workstations, installing tools, and configuring complex environments. With the QAI-h1290FX, users can deploy and run their AI models right out of the box – with full control over their data and no dependency on cloudat."
Key features of the QAI-h1290FX
- All-flash storage: Twelve U.2 NVMe/SATA SSD slots allow ultrafast I/O for high-frequency AI model execution and data streaming.
- AMD EPYC™ 7302P 16-core processor: It provides 32 threads of server computing power – ideal for AI inference, virtualization, and demanding parallel workloads.
- GPU-ready architecture: Supports optional NVIDIA RTX PRO™ 6000 Blackwell GPU workstation graphics card Max-Q with up to 96GB of GPU memory and support for CUDA®, TensorRT™, and Transformer Engine acceleration – dramatically increases performance for LLM local inference, image generation, and deep learning workloads.
- Containerized AI environment and GPU resource management: Supports Docker and LXD with intuitive GPU allocation. Users can quickly launch AI tools through the integrated AI application center and allocate GPU resources without configuration via the command line.
- Fully local deployment without dependencies cloudu: Run AI chatCreate AI-powered assistants, document search engines, or knowledge bases fully locally. Keep sensitive data in-house while accelerating AI workflows.
- High-speed network and scalable architecture: It features two 25GbE ports and two 2,5GbE ports. PCIe slots support optional 100GbE expansion. Compatible with QNAP JBOD expansion drives for large-scale AI data storage.
Use case overview
- Internal AI assistants / local chatovation application
Deploy conversational AI interfaces for knowledge retrieval, employee training, and company policy queries – all under your full control. - RAG Enterprise Search
Use a private RAG pipeline for fast and contextual search in contracts, reports, and internal documents. - Image generation for creative teams
Run Stable Diffusion or ComfyUI for AI-powered design workflows and visual content generation. - AI-driven IT automation
Use n8n to automate inference tasks, content generation, or alerts – easily integrate AI into business processes.
With the QAI-h1290FX, QNAP offers a practical and powerful path to deploy generative AI across the enterprise. Whether in legal, HR, creative, or IT operations, it helps teams work faster, comply with regulations, and have full control over AI strategy – right at the edge of the network.
More infomacYou can find the complete QNAP product range at www.qnap.com.
