VAST Data Unveils Major Update to Its Platform, Enabling Exabyte-Scale AI Workloads
VAST Data is quietly assembling a single unified platform capable of handling a range of HPC, advanced analytics, and big data use cases. Today, it unveiled a major update to its VAST Data Platform engine aimed at enabling enterprises to run retrieval augmented generation (RAG) AI workloads at exabyte scale.
A New Approach to Data Storage
When solid-state drives went mainstream and NVMe over Fabric was invented nearly a decade ago, the folks who founded VAST Data sensed an opportunity to rearchitect data storage for high-performance computing (HPC) at the exabyte level. Instead of trying to scale existing cloud-based platforms into the HPC realm, they decided to take a clean-sheet approach via DASE, which stands for Disaggregated and Shared Everything.
New Capabilities
The first element of the new DASE approach with VAST Data Platform was the VAST DataStore, which provides massively scalable object and file storage for structured and unstructured data. That was followed up with DataBase, which functions as a table store, providing data lakehouse functionality similar to Apache Iceberg. The DataEngine provides the capability to execute functions on the data, while the DataSpace provides a global namespace for storing, retrieving, and processing data from the cloud to the edge.
InsightEngine and Beyond
In October, VAST Data unveiled the InsightEngine, which is the first new application designed to run atop the company’s data platform. InsightEngine utilizes Nvidia Inference Microservices (NIMs) from Nvidia to be able to trigger certain actions when data hits the platform. Then, a few weeks ago, VAST Data bolstered those existing capabilities with support for block storage and real-time event streaming via an Apache Kafka-compatible API.
New Features
Today, VAST Data bolstered the VAST Data platform with three new capabilities, including:
- Vector Search and Retrieval: Enables customers to store and query vectors at exabyte scale, eliminating the need for separate vector databases.
- Serverless Triggers and Functions: Allows customers to trigger functions and events on data as it is ingested into the platform.
- Fine-Grained Access Control: Provides row- and column-level permissions for secure data management and governance.
Conclusion
VAST Data’s platform is designed to help enterprises unlock their data without having to give it away to model builders or fine-tune models. With the new capabilities, customers can consolidate their data, scale their AI workloads, and ensure secure data management and governance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is VAST Data’s platform?
A: VAST Data’s platform is a unified platform for HPC, advanced analytics, and big data use cases.
Q: What is the DASE approach?
A: DASE stands for Disaggregated and Shared Everything, a clean-sheet approach to rearchitect data storage for high-performance computing (HPC) at the exabyte level.
Q: What are the new capabilities announced today?
A: Vector search and retrieval, serverless triggers and functions, and fine-grained access control are the new capabilities announced today.
