Vast Data Inc. has a starring role in the evolving AI ecosystem. The company, which recently partnered with Nvidia Corp. to enhance its infrastructure, has expanded beyond storage to offer a comprehensive platform that integrates advanced processing capabilities.

“I think we’re moving from … the old world of batch processing and of numbers and rows and columns of a database, to natural information — to pictures and video and sound,” said Renen Hallak, founder and chief executive officer of Vast Data. “That requires a very different type of infrastructure in order to support it.”

Hallak spoke with John Furrier, executive analyst at theCUBE Research, for an exclusive conversation with theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. The interview was part of theCUBE’s inaugural broadcast from its just-launched CUBE East New York Stock Exchange studio. They discussed how Vast Data’s platform is reshaping data infrastructure, helping enterprises unlock the full potential of AI.

Thinking bigger: From building a storage solution to creating a unified data platform

Vast Data began with a mission to create storage systems capable of managing data’s massive growth but quickly realized it needed to take a broader approach. Listening to its clients led the company to develop a next-gen data platform that integrates storage with powerful processing capabilities, according to Hallak.

“We started by building a storage system to address this extreme size of data … and the fact that you need very fast access to it for GPUs,” he said. “What we ended up building is not a storage system, but an operating system.” He added that the OS has all the pieces required: unstructured and structured data, the compute framework and a geo-distributed piece, because “data should reside where it originates.”

The platform helps enterprises manage and use complex, unstructured data types, such as videos and images. Its versatility makes it a must-have for companies that want to reap optimal benefits from AI and cloud computing, according to Hallak.

“We now have all of those parts that end up abstracting away the latest and greatest in hardware technology from these new AI applications,” he said. “We’re making it easy for enterprises, for clouds to leverage the benefits of this new era.”

Traditional infrastructure models are designed for more static, predictable workloads, Hallak noted. These models often can’t handle the dynamic, resource-intensive processes AI and data-driven applications require.

“The GPUs that we’re leveraging for our database abilities and to find similarity across datasets — all of that could not be done without the underlying infrastructure layer,” Hallak said. “A lot of it is coming from companies like Nvidia that are obviously innovating and advancing the … state of the art.”

Vast’s Renen Hallak is live on set at theCUBE’s NYSE CUBE East studio, talking about how the company’s data platform is helping enterprises unlock the full potential of AI.

Data redefined: Vast Data’s journey beyond storage to a next-gen data platform

Vast Data’s infrastructure unlocks enterprises’ ability to manage large datasets and handle complex computations efficiently, according to Hallak. By abstracting these advanced capabilities, companies can scale their AI applications without requiring specialized expertise.

“We’re trying as much as we can to make it easy for everybody to use without being a Ph.D. in computer science,” Hallak said. “The underlying hardware that we get to use today is what allows us to build this stuff. It’s what allowed us eight years ago to build this new architecture. The data processing units are now allowing us to build a new type of data center and to run our software in ways that weren’t possible before.”

Enterprises have amassed enormous amounts of data over the years, but much of it remains untapped, Hallak added. Vast Data’s next-gen data platform provides the tools required to harness this data’s full potential.

“It’s a big treasure chest, and it’s full of data that’s accumulated over the last 20 years,” Hallak said. “Now, we finally have the key that opens that chest and unlocks the value of all that information.”

The platform bridges the gap between unstructured and structured data, allowing businesses to perform sophisticated queries and analyses. This capability is vital as AI becomes more integrated into enterprise operations, Hallak explained.

“You don’t need people to manipulate the data, to catalog the data, to understand what’s in it,” he said. “What we built is the ability to bridge the gap between unstructured data … and [we’re] giving it structure such that you can ask intelligent questions about it to our database — and again, making it very, very easy for organizations that don’t have that expertise.”

Tomorrow’s cloud: Vast Data’s role in high-performance infrastructure

Specialty cloud providers are challenging traditional cloud providers, offering tailored solutions designed for demanding workloads. Vast Data supports these new entrants by providing the software backbone that enables them to operate at scale, according to Hallak.

“These new guys have 200 kilowatts in a rack,” he said. “They’re full of GPU servers and superfast networking.”

Unlike legacy cloud providers, which are often burdened by outdated infrastructure, these new companies are designed from the ground up. Vast Data’s next-gen data platform plays a central role in optimizing data flows within these environments, ensuring enterprises gain the full capabilities of modern cloud architecture, Hallak noted.

“They’re built for this era of large-scale, high-performance computing,” he said. “They leverage our software stack to provide all the cloud services that customers expect.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video with Renen Hallak:

Image: SiliconANGLE/Bing