Hitachi, Supermicro Partner to Boost AI and Enterprise App Performance
▼ Summary
– Hitachi Vantara and Supermicro are forming a strategic partnership to combine Supermicro’s AI compute capabilities with Hitachi’s VSP One storage platform for enterprise AI infrastructure.
– Enterprises face challenges from data growth and AI scaling, with 85% using data lakehouses for AI and 67% expecting to run most analytics on them within three years.
– VSP One is a unified data platform integrating block, file, object, and software-defined storage to support AI workloads and data lakehouses with features like native Amazon S3 Tables support.
– The partnership will enable cross-selling, with Supermicro offering VSP One and Hitachi Vantara selling Supermicro servers and hardware through their established channels.
– This collaboration supports Hitachi iQ, an AI and data orchestration portfolio, providing a complete infrastructure solution for AI, analytics, and data lake environments across various industries.
A new strategic partnership between Hitachi Vantara and Supermicro aims to deliver high-performance infrastructure solutions tailored for artificial intelligence and demanding enterprise applications. This collaboration merges Supermicro’s advanced GPU and AI computing systems with the scalable architecture of Hitachi Vantara’s Virtual Storage Platform One (VSP One), creating a unified foundation capable of supporting data-heavy workloads and mission-critical operations. Under the proposed agreement, Supermicro will gain the ability to market VSP One to its client base, while Hitachi Vantara will incorporate Supermicro’s servers, storage arrays, GPUs, and hardware into its own offerings, broadening market access through established sales networks.
Businesses today confront immense pressure from skyrocketing data volumes and the urgent need for AI-powered analytics. Research indicates that 85% of organizations currently use data lakehouses for developing AI models, with 67% expecting to host most analytics on these platforms within three years, a notable rise from 55% today. Despite this momentum, many companies struggle with disconnected systems, sluggish data transfers, and escalating expenses that hinder AI expansion. By integrating high-performance computing with robust data storage and enterprise-grade support, Hitachi Vantara and Supermicro intend to simplify infrastructure management and amplify returns on AI investments.
Central to this alliance is VSP One, a unified data platform from Hitachi Vantara that consolidates block, file, object, and software-defined storage within a single framework. Organizations can leverage these capabilities across diverse storage scenarios. For instance, VSP One Block paired with Supermicro servers employs an all-flash design that provides exceptional throughput, minimal latency, and high IOPS storage, ideal for AI training and vital applications. VSP One SDS extends these advantages through software-defined deployments in hybrid cloud settings. VSP One Object introduces groundbreaking native compatibility with Amazon S3 Tables and sophisticated data intelligence tools, letting businesses convert unstructured data into structured tables. This functionality allows performance analytics to run directly on open-format data, bypassing complicated data transfers, loading steps, or extraction processes, streamlining adaptation to contemporary data lakehouse frameworks.
Sheila Rohra, CEO of Hitachi Vantara, emphasized the partnership’s strategic value, stating, “Integrating Supermicro’s AI computing expertise with the resilience and scalability of our VSP One platform establishes a critical groundwork for the future of enterprise AI. With data expanding rapidly, uniting compute and storage resources enables scalable workload support without interruption. Backed by enterprise-level service, we empower organizations to master their data, uncover fresh value streams, and excel in an AI-driven business climate.”
VSP One also underpins Hitachi iQ, the company’s AI and data orchestration suite designed to refine data workflows for sophisticated AI tasks. By combining VSP One’s unified data services with Supermicro’s high-performance computing and GPU acceleration inside Hitachi iQ, enterprises can meet varied data management needs, boosting processing, governance, and security. This close alignment between compute and data enhances workload visibility for quicker insights, offering a comprehensive infrastructure strategy to back AI projects. Consequently, Hitachi iQ emerges as a full-scale infrastructure answer for AI, generative AI, analytics, and data lake settings across numerous industry applications.
Vik Malyala, President and Managing Director for EMEA and Senior Vice President of Technology and AI at Supermicro, commented, “Our joint efforts with Hitachi are focused on accelerating enterprise AI adoption. Supermicro’s AI-optimized compute and storage servers utilize cutting-edge GPUs, CPUs, and NVMe technology. Together with Hitachi Vantara’s enterprise data management platform and Hitachi iQ portfolio, these solutions will drive compute-intensive workloads for dynamic vertical applications, delivering superior performance and efficiency to our customers.”
The companies plan to distribute these integrated technologies worldwide, covering VSP One Block, VSP One SDS, and VSP One Object. VSP One can be administered via the VSP 360 unified control plane, which brings together data management utilities across the storage ecosystem to track performance metrics like capacity usage and system health. Channel partners stand to gain as well: Supermicro’s partners will access a broader selection of enterprise block storage and support services, while Hitachi Vantara’s partners will receive timely GPU server availability through Hitachi iQ.
(Source: ITWire Australia)
