NetApp announced that it completed the acquisition of PEAK:AIO, a pioneer in next-generation metadata architecture and high-performance parallel file systems. With this acquisition, NetApp can leverage metadata services and parallel namespace innovations to power the fastest storage on the planet, NetApp Novus, to support zettabyte-scale file systems for the most demanding workloads of AI clouds and GPU-as-a-service providers.
For the best AI infrastructure economics, organisations need to keep GPU resources continuously supplied with data without bottlenecks. The acquisition advances NetApp’s strategy for the next phase of AI infrastructure by bringing PEAK:AIO’s metadata and parallel file system expertise together with NetApp ONTAP, giving customers a path to AI-scale storage that combines high concurrency and massive namespace growth with the resilience, security, and operational simplicity enterprises already trust.
“AI infrastructure is reaching unprecedented scale, demanding a new approach to storage built from the ground up,” said George Kurian, Chief Executive Officer at NetApp. “By combining PEAK:AIO’s expertise in metadata services and parallel namespace innovation with the proven scale, data management capabilities, and enterprise-grade services of the NetApp Platform, we are leapfrogging the market as we deliver our next-generation, zettabyte-scale architecture to support the growth of AI clouds and GPU-as-a-service providers.”
PEAK:AIO’s technology was designed to address some of the industry’s most demanding data-intensive computing challenges, identified by leading research institutions, including Los Alamos National Laboratory and Carnegie Mellon University.
“The AI factory is only as productive as its data pipeline,” said Syam Nair, Chief Product Officer at NetApp. “By combining NetApp’s unified storage with PEAK:AIO’s metadata architecture, we separate metadata from data so performance scales out with concurrency, and we do it with open standards rather than proprietary clients. Customers can run more AI workloads, on their existing infrastructure, with the security, resilience, and simplicity of enterprise data management.”
The acquisition will bring specialised metadata services and parallel namespace technology into NetApp’s ONTAP-based data architecture, while creating a clear evolution path for existing ONTAP customers. Together, this is expected to enable the delivery of new capabilities, such as NetApp Novus, that simplify the deployment and operation of shared storage for increasingly large AI environments.
“NetApp and PEAK:AIO were built around the shared conviction that the AI era needs data infrastructure designed to scale to extraordinary levels,” said Mark Klarzynski, Chief Technology Officer and Founder at PEAK:AIO. “With the acquisition by NetApp, we can bring our innovation together with the reach, expertise, and trusted customer relationships of a global data infrastructure leader. Together, we are well positioned to help define what comes next and deliver technology that makes managing data for the AI era more practical, efficient, and accessible.”
Discussion about this post