Hitachi Vantara has agrrements with Hammerspace and WEKA, two companies supplying fast file data delivery services. Why does it need both?
Hitachi Vantara became Hammerspace’s first major systems supplier earlier this month with Hitachi Vantara using its Global Data Platform (GDP) global namespace, in which data is placed, orchestrated, made available for use, and accessed as if it were local. Hitachi Vantara customers can now use GDP to access other suppliers’ storage in a single environment, and use it in GenAI training and inferencing applications. GDP uses parallel NFS-based file system software to manage file and object data in globally distributed locations, across SSDs, disk drives, public cloud services, and tape media.
The company also partners with parallel file system supplier WEKA, using rebranded WekaFS file system software (Weka Data Platform) in HCFS (HItachi Content Software for File). Hitachi Vantara includes HCFS in its recently launched Hitachi iQ, a set of industry-specific AI systems using Nvidia DGX and HGX GPUs and Hitachi Vantara storage.
Having set the background, we can move on to the three questions we asked Jason Hardy, Hitachi Vantara CTO for AI, about the Hammerspace and WEKA partnerships and its Nvidia server systems certification.
Blocks & Files: How does this Hitachi iQ, which uses WEKA parallel file system software in Hitachi Content Software for File, relate to the partnership with Hammerspace for its Global Data Environment?
Jason Hardy: As part of Hitachi Vantara’s ongoing strategy to streamline data management and equip our customers with the tools necessary to accomplish their AI goals, the Hammerspace partnership equips Hitachi iQ with capabilities to provide more robust data management and access methodologies, supporting many of the complex AI workflows including Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and other analytical workloads.
The new relationship with Hammerspace also extends the company’s capabilities for AI workloads, including intelligent file-granular data orchestration, multi-site global namespace, and hybrid cloud support.
Just like VSPOne is a key piece of the Hitachi iQ offering, many other storage technologies and data management capabilities will be included in the Hitachi iQ portfolio as we further develop and streamline the robustness of our capabilities.
Blocks & Files: How does this (Hitachi iQ) relate to Hitachi Vantara’s previous Nvidia BasePOD certification? I think it’s effectively a BasePOD DGX to HGX support upgrade.
Jason Hardy: Our commitment remains the same, to support those customers who choose to utilize the DGX eco-system and the Nvidia extended software capabilities, while also providing flexibility to choose alternative options depending on the customer’s requirements.
Hitachi iQ’s certification and participation in the Nvidia BasePOD program allows Hitachi Vantara to support our customers who have utilized Nvidia’s DGX compute offering and BasePOD framework, to support their AI ambitions.
The Hitachi iQ BasePOD architecture consists of the Nvidia DGX, Hitachi Content Software for File, and the necessary connectivity and software (including Nvidia AI Enterprise).
Matching much of what was designed for the BasePOD reference architecture, customers who would like to utilize the same capabilities provided by DGX but may not have access to a DGX channel partner or may be looking for a solution that is more flexible for their requirements, Hitachi’s HGX offering provides the same GPU processing capabilities while providing more flexibility to how it can be deployed.
Blocks & Files: How does this relate to Nvidia SuperPOD certification?
Jason Hardy: The release of our Hitachi iQ HGX offering doesn’t preclude us from participating in the Nvidia SuperPOD program. And while that is still a strategic goal, this is a long-term objective that requires coordination with Nvidia.
The creation of our HGX offering will allow our customers to deploy the same capabilities more flexibly while maintaining support and services through Hitachi Vantara.
