---
title: "What does an enterprise local AI deployment look like?"
description: "A typical setup has four layers: machines that hold the models (one server or a cluster), inference software that serves an OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible API, a gateway that adds sign-in, quotas and logging, and the apps people use, such as a chat interface, coding agents and internal tools. Everything runs inside the company network."
url: https://exolabs.net/faq/enterprise-local-ai-architecture/
updated: 2026-10-26
---

# What does an enterprise local AI deployment look like?

A typical setup has four layers: machines that hold the models (one server or a cluster), inference software that serves an OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible API, a gateway that adds sign-in, quotas and logging, and the apps people use, such as a chat interface, coding agents and internal tools. Everything runs inside the company network.

Compute: Macs with large unified memory, or NVIDIA GPU servers. A cluster lets you run the largest open models and add capacity over time.

Inference: software that loads the models, splits them across machines and serves an API. Standard API formats mean every tool can connect the same way.

Gateway: single sign-on, per-team keys, rate limits, usage tracking and audit logs. Open-source gateways such as LiteLLM can sit in front of local and cloud models together.

Apps: a chat interface such as Open WebUI for everyone, coding agents for engineers, and internal apps that call the API directly.

Most companies start with a pilot for one team, measure real usage for a few weeks, then size the full deployment from those numbers.

**Where exo fits:** exo is the inference layer: it turns a rack of Macs into one cluster with OpenAI, Claude Messages and Ollama compatible APIs. Exo Labs helps companies design the rest around it.

Sources:
- [exo on GitHub (README)](https://github.com/exo-explore/exo)
- [LiteLLM proxy (open-source AI gateway)](https://docs.litellm.ai/docs/simple_proxy)
- [Open WebUI](https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui)

Page: https://exolabs.net/faq/enterprise-local-ai-architecture/ · Updated 2026-10-26 · Deployments: https://exolabs.net/#business (sales@exolabs.net)