Revolutionizing AI Data Management with VAST Data
The VAST Data Platform unifies storage, database, and containerized compute into a single, scalable software platform to power AI & deep learning in modern data centers and clouds. During an interaction with Vidushi, Jeff Denworth, Co-Founder, Vast Data discussed VAST Data’s strategic partnerships, market positioning, and innovative infrastructure solutions for AI and data management, and also highlighted their impact in India and alignment with APAC markets.
How does VAST Data’s OS for AI compare to Microsoft and Apple’s strategies?
The concept of an “operating system for AI” is quite intriguing. Historically, Apple and Microsoft established their foundations at the device level. However, tomorrow’s intelligent applications are increasingly being developed within enterprise data centers.
Organizations like NVIDIA are now building vast, large-scale infrastructures, some costing billions of dollars. These systems are pioneering new methods for preparing, training, inferring, and extracting insights from data, necessitating an entirely new infrastructure. This requires rethinking everything from the processor, an area where NVIDIA excels, to the networks, another field where NVIDIA also performs exceptionally well. The data platforms powering these new computers, which is VAST Data’s focus, are equally critical.
VAST Data aims to position its software as the essential data management and processing layer in every AI cloud data center and customer data center running generative AI applications. This involves ensuring that their software is integral to the infrastructure supporting these advanced AI systems.
What factors led VAST Data Management to India, and what trends support its operations there?
India has always been a central part of VAST Data’s global expansion plan. While the company is headquartered in New York City, we have been operating for over eight years and maintain a positive cash flow. This means we fund our global expansion without overspending venture capital.
As we expand globally, we strategically invest in regions where the rate of technology adoption is high and there is a strong appetite for new technologies. India is crucial to this mission due to its significant demand for modernization and automation driven by new artificial intelligence workloads.
We are just beginning to tap into India’s potential. Some of the most capable organizations in the market, whether technology companies or service providers, are laying down impressive plans. As these plans come to fruition, the applicability and impact of the VAST Data platform will be remarkable.
How does VAST Data’s e-infrastructure empower analytics and AI, addressing real-world challenges?
VAST Data’s e-infrastructure is designed to empower analytics and AI by addressing real-world challenges through a unique approach to data storage and processing. Unlike many organizations, VAST Data recognizes that modern applications like big data and AI are fundamentally based on applied statistical models. To achieve the highest statistical accuracy, these applications require access to vast amounts of data.
Traditional infrastructure often forces a trade-off between performance and capacity, but VAST Data has innovated to break this trade-off. By building all-flash data centers that offer high performance at a cost comparable to archival storage, VAST redefines the concept of an archive. Instead of being a slow repository for old data, an archive can now serve as a dynamic, high-performance source of truth, akin to national archives.
This approach allows for the processing of exceptionally large data sets without compromising on performance or capacity. In terms of analytics, VAST Data is pioneering a new approach to data warehousing. This method is designed to maximize query efficiency while also supporting unprecedented data streaming speeds into the warehouse.
As the world increasingly relies on IoT and real-time data streams for AI, the need for real-time data processing solutions grows. VAST Data addresses this need with its innovative VAST database, which enables real-time intelligence by efficiently managing and processing large-scale data streams. This innovation positions VAST Data at the forefront of enabling smarter, real-time decision-making in various industries.
What pivotal factors contributed to VAST Data’s market positioning?
From a general perspective, the most significant factor we pride ourselves on is addressing fundamental issues. In terms of data management infrastructure, we’ve noticed that for the past 30 years, customers have been conditioned to believe they need various systems to manage their data pipelines. Upon closer examination, we discovered that every single technology involved compromises. As technologies have evolved, they have diverged further based on these compromises. By resolving this fundamental compromise, we can create a unified system that meets all needs.
Our market positioning relies heavily on two key factors. First, we convey a message that traditional methods of data management and processing are no longer necessary. Second, we target a specific market subset rather than trying to appeal to every IT buyer. We focus on organizations that build large-scale infrastructure. By understanding our audience, we can deliver a highly technical message to customers who value innovation in infrastructure and architecture.
This strategy has resonated significantly with our target customers. We now have clients deploying exabytes of infrastructure powered by VAST software, achieving capabilities they previously thought impossible due to the trade-offs we’ve eliminated.
How does VAST Data’s Platform tackle data pipeline complexities beyond storage and ETL?
At VAST Data, we aim to address the complexities of data pipelines by integrating various elements into a unified system. Typically, a data pipeline involves several stages: data ingestion via an event bus, data capture in a data lake, processing in a data warehouse, and further data processing systems. Instead of relying on separate systems for each stage, we have created a cohesive platform that handles both raw and refined data used for analytical purposes.
Our platform is optimized for both traditional big data workloads, which have been prominent over the past two decades, and modern artificial intelligence frameworks. By combining these capabilities, we not only simplify the construction of large-scale data pipelines—allowing for seamless data streaming and processing—but also provide robust support for deep learning. This comprehensive approach is generating significant excitement among our customers.
How does VAST Data plan to grow in India and align with APAC markets?
VAST Data plans to grow in India and align with APAC markets by leveraging its presence in numerous countries within the region. The company operates in around 40 to 50 countries globally, including teams in Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Australia, as well as extensive teams in India, particularly in Mumbai and Bangalore.
Regarding advancing AI technologies like Generative AI, VAST Data is focused on building an operating system optimized for AI. Given the immense power requirements of new machinery, such as those developed by NVIDIA, most traditional data centers can’t support this new capability. Consequently, a new class of service providers has emerged, specializing in AI-centric data center infrastructure. VAST Data targets these large-scale data centers, which house extreme concentrations of GPUs. Their software architecture is specifically designed for service providers, offering features like zero trust and multi-tenancy. This enables not only large enterprises but also smaller companies to take advantage of these advanced capabilities by utilizing these new AI-focused cloud services.
How do partnerships with NVIDIA, Supermicro, and HPE help VAST Data?
Partnerships with NVIDIA, Supermicro, and HPE significantly benefit VAST Data by leveraging the strengths of these leading organizations in the market.
NVIDIA is redefining computing through its innovative software, processors, and networking solutions. We believe that VAST Data complements their business strategy by providing a data advantage. We provide a data system with enterprise-level rigour and service provider capabilities that align perfectly with NVIDIA’s advanced machines, which are ultimately used by service providers supporting enterprises.
Organizations like HPE and Supermicro further enhance our go-to-market strategy and global distribution network. They build specialized hardware appliances featuring VAST Data’s software, helping customers manage and process their data efficiently. This collaboration brings together some of the best sales teams, the biggest customers, and the most advanced technologies in the world, creating a powerful synergy between the VAST Data platform and NVIDIA’s innovations.
