Back to posts

Machine Learning in Production: Lessons Learned

Training a model is the easy part. Putting it into production and keeping it there is where the real work begins.

The MLOps Challenge

Production ML requires:

  • Reproducible training pipelines
  • Model versioning and lineage
  • Automated retraining
  • Monitoring for drift
  • A/B testing capabilities

Serving Patterns

Batch Inference: Process large datasets periodically

Real-time Inference: Low-latency predictions for user requests

Edge Inference: Run models on devices

Monitoring Model Health

# Track prediction distribution
def monitor_predictions(predictions):
    wandb.log({
        "prediction_mean": predictions.mean(),
        "prediction_std": predictions.std(),
        "drift_score": calculate_drift(predictions)
    })

Model Governance

Who approved this model? What data was it trained on? When was it last validated? These questions need answers before production deployment.