If, as seems likely, Harbor is designed to integrate tightly with FileMaker databases, that opens a potential market of up to 1.3 million existing FileMaker users for this Apple approach to AI. Claris also has a community of over 30,000 developers, and it would be in keeping with FileMaker’s approach to relational database development for Harbor to be configurable in some way, making it a flexible solution for business users. We shall wait and see the extent to which that potential is realized as Harbor heads toward opening.
What we don’t know yet
Claris will have to answer some hard questions to build strong momentum once its new solution ships. Enterprise purchasers will want to know what AI models it runs and will be curious about the performance Thunderbolt 5 pooling provides when it comes to inferencing.
They’ll want to learn more about cost and seek performance comparisons against other on-premises AI setups. It’s hard to make predictions about those things, but it does feel fair to point out that AI deployment will not be a zero-sum game. In most cases, I expect people will use on-device AI for most matters, on-premises AI for confidential or slightly more complex tasks, and cloud-based models only when serious AI horsepower is required.
This story originally appeared on Computerworld
