# Spice.ai Enterprise

Spice.ai Enterprise documentation for self-hosted, production-grade deployment of the Spice runtime.

**Spice.ai Enterprise** is a self-hosted, production-grade distribution of the [Spice.ai](https://spice.ai/) runtime for organizations that need enterprise security, high availability, and dedicated support.

Enterprise extends the open-source Spice runtime with:

- **Multi-node clustering and HA**: Multi-active distributed query with automatic failover, built on Apache Ballista.
- **Distributed accelerations**: Partition-sharded accelerated datasets across executors with write-through semantics. See [Distributed Accelerations](https://spice.ai/docs/enterprise/features/distributed-accelerations).
- **Kubernetes Operator**: Automated deployment, scaling, and lifecycle management via `SpicepodSet` and `SpicepodCluster` CRDs.
- **Acceleration snapshots**: Object-store-backed snapshot, bootstrap, and recovery for accelerated datasets. See [Acceleration Snapshots](https://spice.ai/docs/enterprise/features/acceleration-snapshots).
- **Authorization policy**: Cedar-based fine-grained access control over datasets, models, tools, and endpoints.
- **Enterprise distributions**: NAS (SMB/NFS), CUDA GPU-accelerated, data-only, and ODBC connector builds.
- **Authentication**: OIDC bearer tokens, API keys, and combined auth with identity SQL functions.
- **mTLS cluster security**: Auto-provisioned certificates for secure inter-node communication.
- **SOC 2 Type II compliance**: Code and security audited.
- **Tiered security updates**: Up to 3 years of guaranteed patches.
- **24/7 premium support**: Dedicated account team via Slack Connect, email, and on-call pager.
- **99.9%+ SLA**: Enterprise uptime guarantee with on-call support.

## Deployment Options

| Option | Description |
| - | - |
| **Kubernetes (Helm)** | Deploy using the Spice.ai Kubernetes Operator with Helm charts |
| **Docker** | Enterprise container images from the AWS Marketplace ECR |
| **AWS Marketplace** | BYOL and Plan-based licensing via AWS Marketplace |
| **AWS AMI** | Pre-built Amazon Machine Images for EC2 deployments |

## Enterprise vs Open Source vs Cloud

| | Open Source | Cloud | Enterprise |
| - | - | - | - |
| **Pricing** | Free (Apache 2.0) | Subscription + usage-based | Enterprise licensing |
| **Hosting** | Self-hosted | Fully managed | Self-hosted BYOL |
| **Scale** | Single-node | Multi-node, clustering, HA | Multi-node, clustering, HA |
| **Control Plane** | Static, YAML-driven | Dynamic, remote (Portal/API) | Dynamic, remote/local (API/YAML) |
| **Distributions** | Default + Metal | All | All (incl. NAS, ODBC) |
| **Security Updates** | Latest minus-one (6-8 weeks) | Rolling, automated | Tiered, up to 3 years |
| **SLA** | N/A | 99.9% | 99.9%+ |
| **Support** | Community | Standard (email, Slack) | Premium 24/7 on-call |
| **Compliance** | N/A | SOC 2 Type II | SOC 2 Type II |

> **Warning**
>
> Spice.ai Enterprise requires a **commercial license** or an **AWS Marketplace subscription**. [Contact us](https://spice.ai/contact) to get started or request a trial.

## Production-Ready by Design

Spice.ai Enterprise is the supported path for running Spice in production. The [**Production Readiness**](https://spice.ai/docs/enterprise/production) section is the canonical reference for promoting a deployment to production:

- [**Production Readiness Checklist**](https://spice.ai/docs/enterprise/production): sign-off list covering topology, storage, observability, security, and upgrades.
- [**High Availability**](https://spice.ai/docs/enterprise/production/high-availability): multi-replica, multi-AZ, and `SpicepodCluster` topologies.
- [**Storage**](https://spice.ai/docs/enterprise/production/storage): NVMe, `io2` Block Express, Premium SSD v2, and acceleration sizing.
- [**Observability**](https://spice.ai/docs/enterprise/production/observability): Prometheus metrics, Grafana dashboard, log routing, and the recommended alert set.
- [**Security**](https://spice.ai/docs/enterprise/production/security): image pinning, Pod Security Standards, NetworkPolicy, mTLS, and secrets management.
- [**Upgrades**](https://spice.ai/docs/enterprise/production/upgrades): versioning, rolling upgrades, and rollback procedures.

## Get Started

- **Quickstart**: Deploy Spice.ai Enterprise on Kubernetes in minutes.
- **Distributions**: Choose the right runtime distribution for your workload.
- **Kubernetes Operator**: Manage Spicepods with the Spice K8s Operator.
- **Authentication**: Configure OIDC, API keys, and identity functions.