VAST Data Adds Block Storage to Unify Enterprise AI and Hybrid Workloads

NEW YORK, Feb. 19, 2025 — VAST Data today announced the addition of Block storage capabilities to its VAST DataStore, expanding it into a multiprotocol storage platform. The new functionality will be available next month.

By having all data accessible in a single system, organizations can now address all workloads within one unified architecture without trade-offs in performance, scalability, or economics – allowing them to accelerate their journey to real-time insights and seamless AI adoption.

According to Gartner, “Multiprotocol storage platforms… are designed to support multiple storage access protocols and address the growing needs of businesses. These platforms are versatile, allowing data to be stored and accessed using different protocols, such as Network File System (NFS), Server Message Block (SMB), block and object. This flexibility enables seamless integration with diverse IT environments and ensures that the storage system can meet the varied requirements of applications and users with different protocol preferences or compatibility needs.”

By incorporating Block storage, VAST is enhancing data management for large-scale enterprises, consolidating siloed infrastructure into one platform with a full suite of enterprise data services such as snapshots, multi-tenancy, quality of service (QoS), encryption, and granular Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).

These new features allow VAST to meet the demands of modern enterprise IT infrastructure:

• Seamless Integration with Virtualization Platforms: The VAST Data Platform now provides robust support for environments such as VMware, Hyper-V, and other hypervisors. Features such as multi-tenancy and QoS allow IT teams to isolate workloads, guarantee performance, and simplify resource management across hundreds or thousands of virtual machines.
• Optimized for Kubernetes and Containerized Applications: For organizations leveraging Kubernetes, Openshift or other container orchestration platforms, the addition of Block storage enables persistent storage for containerized workloads. From transactional databases in containers to stateful microservices, the platform delivers the scalability and performance required for DevOps workflows, test environments, and production-grade applications.
• Unified Infrastructure for Hybrid Workloads: In modern enterprise environments, virtualized and containerized workloads often coexist, creating challenges in managing disparate storage systems. The VAST Data Platform eliminates this complexity by consolidating both workload types onto a single, unified storage architecture. This approach reduces operational overhead, simplifies provisioning, and ensures optimal performance across diverse application environments.
• Boot from SAN for Simplified Management and High Availability: With support for Boot from SAN, enterprises can streamline server deployment and management by eliminating reliance on local disks. This approach enhances disaster recovery, improves redundancy, and enables rapid provisioning of new virtual or bare-metal servers while ensuring consistent performance across IT environments.

“Our vision for the VAST Data Platform was always to enable organizations to process, analyze, and act on data in real-time, empowering them to scale effortlessly, reduce their infrastructure costs, and innovate faster by unifying AI data infrastructure within a single, powerful platform,” said Aaron Chaisson, Vice President, Product & Solutions Marketing at VAST Data. “With today’s announcement, we’re eliminating the data silos that once hindered AI and analytics initiatives, affording customers faster, more accurate decisions and unlocking data-driven growth.”

About VAST Data

VAST Data is the data platform company built for the AI era. As the new standard for enterprise AI infrastructure, organizations trust the VAST Data Platform to serve their most data-intensive computing needs. VAST Data empowers enterprises to unlock the full potential of all of their data by providing AI infrastructure that is simple, scalable, and architected from the ground up to power deep learning and GPU-accelerated data centers and clouds. Launched in 2019, VAST Data is the fastest growing data infrastructure company in history.

Source: VAST Data