VAST Data Upends Storage in the AI Era

The heart of AI is utilization of data, and since the first kilobit of data was stored, we’ve been challenged with movement of data to the right place at the right time. As we’ve entered the AI Era, the concept of a data pipeline has evolved which describes the steps of preparing data for AI training. Without this prep, training will be flawed at best. The data pipeline itself is not sexy work, think of it as gathering the right ingredients before one cooks a delicious meal. And like much in life, the hard work part is necessary to get to that sublime experience. Organizations are challenged with data gathering and prep at scale based on the pure limits of traditional storage solutions and distributed data locations.

Enter VAST Data. The team at VAST recognized this opportunity in the creation of their massively scalable NAS solution that provides intelligence injection and oversight for both structured and unstructured data. First gaining traction in the HPC arena whose architectural foundations have formed the structure for AI training clusters, it makes natural sense that VAST would offer the same value for the speed, scale, and structure that these clusters require. And they have the data pipeline down cold…see this image from their AIFD4 presentation, one of the clearest depictions of the AI pipeline that I’ve seen.

What makes them really stand out to me is what they’ve delivered to manage data across distributed environments with VAST Data Spaces which helps enterprises get their arms around their data across on prem, in the cloud, and at the edge.

I first engaged with the Vastronauts at SC 22 at the launch of the TechArena, and there’s a reason I started this wonderful journey with their inclusion. What VAST is building represents the future of how we’re going to compute, and their ability to arrange, organize and compile data in the way organizations want is just the beginning of the VAST Data story. The team and their partners are driving innovation on the VAST Data platform at a ridiculous pace, and I expect to be covering a lot more in this domain in 2024. If they aren’t already, place VAST Data on your must watch list, and if you’re struggling with your data pipeline, check out their solutions.