Hitachi Vantara & Supermicro unite to boost AI infrastructure

Hitachi Vantara and Supermicro have announced a collaboration aimed at helping enterprises in Southeast Asia modernise their AI infrastructure by integrating their respective data storage and compute solutions.

The partnership seeks to address the increasing challenges faced by organisations deploying AI and generative AI workloads, particularly those related to data fragmentation and infrastructure bottlenecks. By combining Supermicro's AI-optimised compute and GPU systems with Hitachi Vantara's Virtual Storage Platform One (VSP One) and Hitachi iQ data orchestration portfolio, the companies aim to provide more efficient operations across AI, analytics, and data lakehouse environments.

Infrastructure alignment

Hitachi Vantara and Supermicro are working towards an agreement that would allow each company to resell the other's core technologies. This arrangement is set to increase the availability of VSP One and Supermicro's GPU and storage systems through established distribution channels globally.

The volume and complexity of enterprise data continues to grow rapidly. According to a recent survey referenced by the companies, 85% of organisations are already utilising data lakehouses for AI model development, with 67% anticipating that most of their analytics will run on lakehouses within three years, a rise from 55% today. Scalability remains a challenge, with organisations struggling to manage fragmented systems, slow data movement and escalating costs.

By integrating their offerings, Hitachi Vantara and Supermicro intend to bring compute and data closer together, which the companies state will help streamline infrastructure and maximise returns on AI investments.

Technical focus

VSP One, the unified data platform from Hitachi Vantara, supports block, file, object and software-defined storage under a single architecture. When paired with Supermicro servers in the VSP One Block configuration, customers can leverage high throughput, low latency and high input/output operations per second storage to support mission-critical applications and AI training workloads.

VSP One SDS expands on these capabilities for software-defined deployments in hybrid cloud environments. Additionally, VSP One Object offers native support for Amazon S3 Tables and advanced data intelligence services. This enables enterprises to move unstructured data into structured tables and conduct performance analytics on open-format data without the need for complex data movement or extraction processes, supporting modern data lakehouse architectures.

Leadership perspectives

"The convergence of Supermicro's leadership in AI compute with the scale and resiliency of Hitachi Vantara's VSP One platform marks an important step in building the foundation that will guide the future of enterprise AI," said Sheila Rohra, Chief Executive Officer at Hitachi Vantara. "As data volumes explode, bringing compute and data closer together will enable scalable workload support without disruption. Coupled with enterprise-class service and support, we are helping organisations gain better control over their data so they can unlock new sources of value and lead in the era of AI-driven business."

VSP One also serves as the foundation for Hitachi iQ, the company's portfolio for AI and data orchestration, which is designed to optimise data workflows for advanced AI scenarios. By combining the unified data services of VSP One with Supermicro's high-performance compute and GPU acceleration within Hitachi iQ, businesses can manage data processing, governance and protection more efficiently. This approach is intended to ensure compute and data remain in close alignment while maintaining visibility across workloads for faster insights.

Vik Malyala, President and Managing Director, EMEA, and Senior Vice President, Technology and AI at Supermicro, said, "Supermicro and Hitachi are collaborating to help enterprises accelerate their adoption and use of AI. Our AI-optimized, compute, and storage servers leverage advanced GPUs, CPUs, and NVME's. Combined with Hitachi Vantara's enterprise data management platform and Hitachi iQ portfolio options will support compute-intensive workloads for dynamic vertical applications yielding better performance and efficiency for customers."

Channel availability

The companies expect to make these technologies available through global channels, including VSP One Block, VSP One SDS and VSP One Object. VSP One can be managed using the VSP 360 unified control plane, integrating data management tools to monitor metrics such as storage capacity and system health. Channel partners will be able to offer an expanded range of storage and GPU server solutions, enhancing support for enterprise customers developing their AI infrastructure.