RENO, Nev., Nov. 06, 2025 – CIQ today announced expanded capabilities, adding NVIDIA DOCA OFED support to Rocky Linux from CIQ (RLC) alongside the previously announced NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit integration.
CIQ said this makes RLC the first Linux distribution licensed to deliver the NVIDIA AI and networking software stack, including CUDA Toolkit and DOCA OFED, ready to run out of the box.
CIQ is the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux designed for high-performance software infrastructure. These new capabilities position RLC for both GPU-accelerated development and enterprise-scale cluster deployments. While developers benefit from an appliance-like experience for GPU computing, enterprises gain the critical networking and interconnect capabilities needed to deploy and optimize large-scale clusters with thousands of nodes running on premium hardware from DELL, HPE, and other tier-one server manufacturers.
Accelerated computing has evolved from specialized hardware to essential infrastructure for AI, machine learning, and scientific computing. Yet organizations face a dual challenge: deploying AI software stacks with their driver conflicts and configuration complexities, then scaling from development nodes to production clusters with thousands of nodes.
This scaling challenge occurs when proof-of-concept deployments move to production. At scale, network optimization and GPU-to-GPU communication become critical bottlenecks. Enterprise-grade servers like the Dell PowerEdge XE9680 require sophisticated networking capabilities including DOCA OFED, RDMA, and IDPF to enable efficient multi-GPU communication across nodes.
Rocky Linux from CIQ solves both challenges with pre-built, validated images containing the complete NVIDIA stack: CUDA Toolkit, DOCA OFED network drivers, and supporting components. Organizations deploy production-ready environments in minutes and scale to thousand-node clusters without guesswork. CIQ eliminates complexity at every stage, accelerating innovation while dramatically lowering total cost of ownership with NVIDIA.
“If you’re building applications that leverage accelerated computing, Rocky Linux from CIQ is now the obvious choice,” said Gregory Kurtzer, Founder and CEO of CIQ. “We’ve removed every barrier between developers and GPU performance. With the complete, validated NVIDIA stack integrated directly into Rocky Linux from CIQ, teams can focus entirely on innovation rather than infrastructure. This is the appliance experience that the developer community has needed: download, deploy, and start building immediately.”
The platform features:
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Instant productivity: Move from installation to first token in minutes with pre-configured, validated environments
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Enterprise-scale readiness: Full DOCA OFED integration enables seamless scaling from development nodes to thousands of production nodes with optimized GPU-to-GPU communication
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Lower TCO: Reduced setup time, minimized troubleshooting, and optimized efficiency translate to substantial cost savings across the development and deployment lifecycle
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Zero guesswork: Every component, from GPU drivers to network stacks, is tested and certified, eliminating configuration uncertainty across the entire infrastructure
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Advanced networking: Built-in support for RDMA, IDPF, and high-performance interconnects optimizes cluster communication for demanding workloads
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Enterprise-grade security: Fully signed drivers and secure boot support built in, solving the complex challenge of GPU driver deployment in modern security-conscious environments
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Deterministic performance: Hardware-enforced resource isolation enables predictable, jitter-free execution for mission-critical workloads
CIQ will showcase this new full-stack experience at upcoming developer events, including KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America (November 10-13, 2025, Atlanta) and SC25 (November 16-21, 2025, St. Louis), where partners will demonstrate validated reference kits and real-world use cases featuring Rocky Linux from CIQ with NVIDIA AI infrastructure, NVIDIA ConnectX SuperNICs and NVIDIA BlueField DPUs.
For more information about Rocky Linux from CIQ with integrated NVIDIA support, visit https://ciq.com/partners/
