Hammerspace-Arrow appliances eye AI market
Hammerspace is prepacking its Global Data Platform software onto Arrow Electronics hardware, offering appliances to customers for easier deployment.
Hammerspace, a software-defined storage vendor, is now partnering with Arrow Electronics to bring its data orchestration, management and file system software into a series of preconfigured appliances.
The new appliances are aimed at high-performance use cases such as AI and combine Hammerspace's Global Data Platform with hardware from Arrow Electronics, a global electronic component supplier that includes data center hardware data center. While Hammerspace is entering a hardware market, it said it will continue to offer its Global Data Platform as a standalone offering to run on any hardware, even magnetic tape.
The partnership is looking to capture some of the emerging enterprise AI market, according to Mitch Lewis, an analyst at Futurum Group. High performance computing (HPC) customers often have the expertise to manage such systems, but those skills are less common in the enterprise, where deployment and configuration can be time consuming processes.
"As more enterprises are dipping their toes in, they want something they can get up and running fast," Lewis said.
The appliances are available now, with pricing dependent on configuration.
New packaging
The new appliances provide a software-defined parallel global file system, along with automated data orchestration and a global namespace, according to the vendor. Multiple configurations are available that are either throughput optimized for best performance to price or capacity optimized for best density to price and are aimed at AI, HPC and deep learning workloads.
Hammerspace focuses on data orchestration challenges such as finding ways for companies to fully utilize GPUs, according to Simon Robinson, an analyst at TechTarget's Enterprise Strategy Group. As the vendor moves more into the enterprise, it needs make its product available to customers in a way that's familiar to them.
"Software-defined is a useful capability, but when it comes down to it, most customers still want to buy a solution in a box," he said.
Other software-defined companies have a similar market strategy, Robinson said. Vast Data has partnered with hardware manufacturers to deliver its data platform, and Weka released an appliance earlier this year.
Expanding its reach
Hammerspace implemented erasure coding into its Global Data Platform, using technology it acquired from Rozo Systems in 2022. The company added the data protection capability to expand its reach to x86-based hardware or cloud platforms. Hammerspace's new partnership with Arrow provides another opportunity for the company to do the same, Lewis said.
While other companies market themselves as software-defined, they tend to offer certain appliances for optimization, Lewis said. Hammerspace's partnership with Arrow is more about simplification for its customers, he added.
"Hammerspace doesn't need a special box; they now just offer a box you can buy," Lewis said.
Robinson echoed Lewis' point, saying that the vendor's data management and orchestration capabilities are applicable to popular use cases, but that the technology has to be presented in a consumable way for customers.
"I think the appliance route is the most straightforward way," he said.
Adam Armstrong is a TechTarget Editorial news writer covering file and block storage hardware and private clouds. He previously worked at StorageReview.
