Platform and Infrastructure Tools

All courses / Tools / Module 2 / Chapter 6

Learning objectives

After the lesson the participant can:

• Explain why infrastructure state is treated as sensitive and how engines that compare when run differ from engines that reconcile continuously.
• Complete a model registry entry that links a version to its run, data, evaluation and independent approvals.
• Assess a model for self-hosting against the readiness check of AI Platform and Security.
• Identify which platform tools apply at each usage mode and why the gateway is not optional.

Key concepts

Model registry entry

An immutable record from AI Platform and Security, Chapter 7, that links a model version to its run, data, model card, evaluation and approvals. Pipelines write it, except for the approvals, which name people who did not build the model.

Self-hosting readiness check

A checklist artefact, all of whose items must pass before a model is self-hosted in production. Each key has an owner or a test; the default patch times are seven days for critical vulnerabilities and 24 hours where exploitation is known.

RAG system configuration

An artefact that codifies ingestion, chunking, embedding, index and retrieval settings in one versioned file linked to an AI Decision Record. The entitlement filter runs before search, so a user's permissions limit what can be retrieved.

Gateway security configuration

A gateway policy of AI Platform and Security, Chapter 17, with a model allow-list, signed models, a client workload identity and guardrail layers that each assume the previous one failed. It is a defensive control kept in the repository.

Data product descriptor

The file the platform reads before it trains: it describes a data product's owner, schema, quality, lineage and access, including a classification block for personal data.

Interactive exercises

Do them here and get feedback at once. Choose a card and then where it belongs, or drag it.

Teaching plan

Discussion

1. The volume ties the retention of a model version to administrative law, not to storage cost: a case handled with a version can be appealed. What does that imply for the registry of a public authority?
2. The chapter says the answer to local model servers called by agentic coding tools is the gateway, not a ban. What makes a ban the weaker control?
3. Nordvik Region keeps the gateway, the registry, evaluation and the control plane but leaves training machinery to its providers. What does it still have to be able to show about a procured model?

Written exercise

Self-test

Choose an answer to see whether it is right, or open the answer below each question.

1. Why does the chapter call the gateway the single platform component that is not optional?

   1. It is the only component that a supplier cannot provide as a managed service
   2. It is the only place where logging, redaction, routing and budgets apply to every AI call
   3. It is the component in which models are trained and their weights are stored
   4. It is required by name in Article 26 of the AI Act for every deployer
   Show the answer

   B. It is the only place where logging, redaction, routing and budgets apply to every AI call
   The Summary states that the gateway is the single component that is not optional because logging, redaction, routing and budgets apply there to every AI call; in Modes 1 to 3 the effort goes into making traffic reach it.

2. In the RAG system configuration, when does the entitlement filter run, and why?

   1. After generation, so that restricted passages can be redacted from the answer
   2. During ingestion only, so that restricted sources are never embedded at all
   3. Before search, so that a user's permissions limit what can be retrieved
   4. At promotion time, so that the evaluation set covers every data class
   Show the answer

   C. Before search, so that a user's permissions limit what can be retrieved
   The volume's design point is that the entitlement filter runs before search, so a user's permissions limit what can be retrieved rather than relying on a later layer to hide it.

3. What do the approved_by fields of the model registry entry record?

   1. People who did not build the model
   2. The pipeline identity that signed the artefact
   3. The supplier that trained the base model
   4. The data protection officer of the deployer
   Show the answer

   A. People who did not build the model
   The approvals are the one part of the registry entry that pipelines do not write, and they name people who did not build the model. The chapter generalises this: every promotion has an owner who did not build what is promoted.