Latest news with #DDN
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
AI and HPC Workloads Demand Highest Performance Data – DDN is the Undisputed Leader on IO500
CHATSWORTH, Calif., June 18, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DDN®, the world's leader in AI and data intelligence solutions, today announced that it has secured the #1 position against its competitors on the IO500 benchmark—the industry's gold standard for real-world storage performance in AI and HPC. If You Rely on GPUs, AI Workloads, or HPC Simulations, You Need the Best Technology to Achieve the Best Outcome. Whether your mission is curing diseases, protecting financial markets, or transforming entire industries with generative AI, your outcomes hinge entirely on Data Center and Cloud infrastructure performance. The latest IO500 benchmark confirms what top innovators already know: DDN isn't just leading the pack—we've left it behind entirely. IO500 Proves It: DDN Leads and Delivers 3x to 11x More Value Than Other Data Platform Technologies IO500 isn't just another benchmark—it's the gold standard for assessing real-world storage performance in AI and HPC environments. It plays a critical role in helping organizations determine which technologies to deploy and which vendors to trust. Unlike synthetic benchmarks that simulate hypothetical conditions, IO500 tests systems under real-world pressures—mixed workloads, complex I/O patterns, metadata-intensive operations, and concurrent tasks—exactly the kinds of challenges AI and HPC infrastructures face every day. The result? Clear, credible insights into how your infrastructure will perform when performance matters most. "AI is transforming every industry, and the organizations leading that transformation are the ones that understand infrastructure performance is not optional — it's mission-critical," said Alex Bouzari, Co-Founder and CEO of DDN. "Being ranked #1 on the IO500 benchmark is more than a technical achievement — it's proof that our customers can count on DDN to deliver the speed, scale, and reliability needed to turn data into competitive advantage. DDN is not just ahead. We have left the competition behind." In the critical 10-node production category—where real-world AI workloads operate under intense pressure and where the majority of customer use cases live—DDN isn't just ahead of the competition; it's setting a new industry standard. This leadership translates directly into tangible value for organizations: accelerating innovation, enabling the creation of superior products and services, and expanding the boundaries of what's possible with AI and HPC. [Add in final chart/scorecard] The information means that with DDN, your data center, GPU, CPU, AI, HPC infrastructure will deliver up to 11x more AI training sessions, simulations, and analytics runs per day compared to Weka or VAST. Simply put, you get a lot more done faster, save millions of dollars, while significantly accelerating your business outcomes. Why This Matters for Your AI and HPC Workloads AI and HPC cannot tolerate slowdowns—every minute of wasted compute time drains both budget and innovation momentum. Topping the IO500 rankings proves DDN delivers exceptional end-to-end performance that translates into real business benefits: Finance: A global hedge fund accelerated algorithm development 3x, reducing backtest time and cutting infrastructure costs significantly. Genomics: Researchers at TGen reduced genomics pipeline analysis from 12 hours to under 2, enabling faster, more cost-effective medical breakthroughs. Supercomputing: Leaders like CINECA, Helmholtz Munich, and Bitdeer AI maximize GPU efficiency and throughput with DDN, achieving higher utilization and lower TCO. Built for AI and HPC—From the Ground Up DDN delivers unmatched real-world performance thanks to its purpose-built architecture: Blistering Bandwidth at Scale: Multi-terabyte throughput proven in systems like NVIDIA's Selene and CINECA. Unmatched Metadata Performance: Handles billions of files, small I/O, and concurrency without compromise. Native Parallelism for AI: True parallel file access with no shim layers or rewrites. Pipeline-Aware Caching: Eliminates latency and idle GPU cycles. Enterprise Resilience: Trusted by NVIDIA, HPE, Dell, Lenovo, and national defense agencies worldwide. Why Competitors Can't Keep Up Weka requires manual tuning and fails under real-world concurrency. VAST underperforms on write-heavy and metadata-intensive workloads. Hammerspace lacks relevant deployments and trials in IO500 benchmarks. Your AI is Only as Good as Your Infrastructure In AI and HPC, every second of compute time matters. Bottlenecks don't just slow you down—they delay discovery, reduce ROI, and waste GPU resources. DDN's #1 result in the IO500 is not just a benchmark—it's proof that DDN customers are leading the future. Explore the full IO500 results: Read our latest blog: AI and HPC Workloads Demand Highest Performance Data – DDN is the Undisputed Leader on IO500. About DDN DDN is the world's leading AI and data intelligence company, empowering organizations to maximize the value of their data with end-to-end HPC and AI-focused solutions. Its customers range from the largest global enterprises and AI hyperscalers to cutting-edge research centers, all leveraging DDN's proven data intelligence platform for scalable, secure, and high-performance AI deployments that drive 10x returns. Follow DDN: LinkedIn, X, and YouTube. View source version on Contacts DDN Media Contact: Amanda LeeVP, Marketing – Analyst and Media Relationsamlee@
Business Wire
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
AI and HPC Workloads Demand Highest Performance Data – DDN is the Undisputed Leader on IO500
CHATSWORTH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- DDN ®, the world's leader in AI and data intelligence solutions, today announced that it has secured the #1 position against its competitors on the IO500 benchmark —the industry's gold standard for real-world storage performance in AI and HPC. "Being ranked #1 on the IO500 benchmark is more than a technical achievement — it's proof that our customers can count on DDN to deliver the speed, scale, and reliability needed to turn data into competitive advantage," said Bouzari. If You Rely on GPUs, AI Workloads, or HPC Simulations, You Need the Best Technology to Achieve the Best Outcome. Whether your mission is curing diseases, protecting financial markets, or transforming entire industries with generative AI, your outcomes hinge entirely on Data Center and Cloud infrastructure performance. The latest IO500 benchmark confirms what top innovators already know: DDN isn't just leading the pack—we've left it behind entirely. IO500 Proves It: DDN Leads and Delivers 3x to 11x More Value Than Other Data Platform Technologies IO500 isn't just another benchmark—it's the gold standard for assessing real-world storage performance in AI and HPC environments. It plays a critical role in helping organizations determine which technologies to deploy and which vendors to trust. Unlike synthetic benchmarks that simulate hypothetical conditions, IO500 tests systems under real-world pressures—mixed workloads, complex I/O patterns, metadata-intensive operations, and concurrent tasks—exactly the kinds of challenges AI and HPC infrastructures face every day. The result? Clear, credible insights into how your infrastructure will perform when performance matters most. 'AI is transforming every industry, and the organizations leading that transformation are the ones that understand infrastructure performance is not optional — it's mission-critical,' said Alex Bouzari, Co-Founder and CEO of DDN. 'Being ranked #1 on the IO500 benchmark is more than a technical achievement — it's proof that our customers can count on DDN to deliver the speed, scale, and reliability needed to turn data into competitive advantage. DDN is not just ahead. We have left the competition behind.' In the critical 10-node production category —where real-world AI workloads operate under intense pressure and where the majority of customer use cases live—DDN isn't just ahead of the competition; it's setting a new industry standard. This leadership translates directly into tangible value for organizations: accelerating innovation, enabling the creation of superior products and services, and expanding the boundaries of what's possible with AI and HPC. [Add in final chart/scorecard] The information means that with DDN, your data center, GPU, CPU, AI, HPC infrastructure will deliver up to 11x more AI training sessions, simulations, and analytics runs per day compared to Weka or VAST. Simply put, you get a lot more done faster, save millions of dollars, while significantly accelerating your business outcomes. Why This Matters for Your AI and HPC Workloads AI and HPC cannot tolerate slowdowns—every minute of wasted compute time drains both budget and innovation momentum. Topping the IO500 rankings proves DDN delivers exceptional end-to-end performance that translates into real business benefits: Finance: A global hedge fund accelerated algorithm development 3x, reducing backtest time and cutting infrastructure costs significantly. Genomics: Researchers at TGen reduced genomics pipeline analysis from 12 hours to under 2, enabling faster, more cost-effective medical breakthroughs. Supercomputing: Leaders like CINECA, Helmholtz Munich, and Bitdeer AI maximize GPU efficiency and throughput with DDN, achieving higher utilization and lower TCO. Built for AI and HPC—From the Ground Up DDN delivers unmatched real-world performance thanks to its purpose-built architecture: Blistering Bandwidth at Scale: Multi-terabyte throughput proven in systems like NVIDIA's Selene and CINECA. Unmatched Metadata Performance: Handles billions of files, small I/O, and concurrency without compromise. Native Parallelism for AI: True parallel file access with no shim layers or rewrites. Pipeline-Aware Caching: Eliminates latency and idle GPU cycles. Enterprise Resilience: Trusted by NVIDIA, HPE, Dell, Lenovo, and national defense agencies worldwide. Why Competitors Can't Keep Up Weka requires manual tuning and fails under real-world concurrency. VAST underperforms on write-heavy and metadata-intensive workloads. Hammerspace lacks relevant deployments and trials in IO500 benchmarks. Your AI is Only as Good as Your Infrastructure In AI and HPC, every second of compute time matters. Bottlenecks don't just slow you down—they delay discovery, reduce ROI, and waste GPU resources. DDN's #1 result in the IO500 is not just a benchmark—it's proof that DDN customers are leading the future. Explore the full IO500 results: About DDN DDN is the world's leading AI and data intelligence company, empowering organizations to maximize the value of their data with end-to-end HPC and AI-focused solutions. Its customers range from the largest global enterprises and AI hyperscalers to cutting-edge research centers, all leveraging DDN's proven data intelligence platform for scalable, secure, and high-performance AI deployments that drive 10x returns.
Business Wire
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
DDN's Alex Bouzari and Paul Bloch Named EY US Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2025 Greater Los Angeles Award Winners
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- DDN, the global leader in AI and data intelligence solutions, today announced that Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) has named Co-Founders Alex Bouzari, CEO, and Paul Bloch, President, the Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2025 Greater Los Angeles Award winners. Entrepreneur Of The Year is the preeminent competitive awards program for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies. For 40 years, EY US has celebrated ambitious entrepreneurs who are transforming industries, impacting communities, and creating long-term value. Bouzari and Bloch were selected by an independent panel of judges composed of past winners, leading CEOs, and industry luminaries. Candidates were evaluated on criteria including long-term value creation, entrepreneurial spirit, purpose-driven commitment, and demonstrable impact and growth. 'For us, this recognition is not just about individual achievement — it's a celebration of the company and community we've built together over nearly three decades,' said Bouzari. 'DDN started with a simple belief — that if you harness data the right way, it can change the world. Today, that belief drives everything we do, from advancing AI to enabling medical breakthroughs and powering the fastest supercomputers on the planet. This award belongs to our extraordinary team, our customers and partners, and especially to Paul — my friend, co-founder, and fellow entrepreneur.' 'This award is deeply meaningful because it reflects the power of enduring partnership and shared purpose,' said Bloch. 'From day one, Alex and I set out to solve some of the world's most complex data challenges — not for the sake of technology alone, but to enable real-world impact. Today, our solutions drive breakthroughs in AI, science, healthcare, and industry. I'm incredibly proud of what we've built together, and honored to share this recognition with Alex, our extraordinary DDN team, and the innovative customers who push us to keep evolving.' From their beginnings as Caltech classmates, Bouzari and Bloch founded DDN with a vision to unlock the full potential of data at scale. That vision has since evolved into a global AI and data intelligence powerhouse, supporting innovation across industries including healthcare, life sciences, climate science, energy, and autonomous systems. As Greater Los Angeles award winners, Bouzari and Bloch are now eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025 National Awards, to be announced at the Strategic Growth Forum® in November. The overall national winner will then advance to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Award in June 2026. Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates diverse types of leadership — from original founders and transformational CEOs to multigenerational leaders redefining legacy businesses. The program has honored innovators such as Reed Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn, Sheila Mikhail of AskBio, Eric Yuan of Zoom, and Howard Schultz of Starbucks Coffee Company. For more information, visit About DDN DDN is the world's leading AI and data intelligence company, empowering organizations to maximize the value of their data with end-to-end HPC and AI-focused solutions. Its customers range from the largest global enterprises and AI hyperscalers to cutting-edge research centers, all leveraging DDN's proven data intelligence platform for scalable, secure, and high-performance AI deployments that drive 10x returns. Follow DDN: LinkedIn, X, and YouTube. Sponsors Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards include presenting sponsors PNC Bank, Cresa, LLC, Marsh USA, and SAP. In Greater Los Angeles, sponsors also include ADP, Cooley, Los Angeles Business Journal, Vaco, and Big Picture. About Entrepreneur Of The Year Founded in 1986, Entrepreneur Of The Year has celebrated more than 11,000 ambitious visionaries leading dynamic businesses in the US and nearly 60 countries around the world. The US program includes 17 regional programs whose winners advance to national recognition at the Strategic Growth Forum® in November. The overall national winner represents the US at the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ competition. Learn more at About EY EY is building a better working world by creating new value for clients, people, society, and the planet, while building trust in capital markets. Enabled by data, AI and advanced technology, EY teams help clients shape the future with confidence and develop answers for the most pressing issues of today and tomorrow. EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited. For more information, please visit
Business Wire
10-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
DDN Launches Next-Gen Data Intelligence Platform at ISC 2025 to Power AI and HPC at Enterprise Scale
HAMBURG, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--At the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) 2025, DDN, the global leader in AI and data intelligence solutions, announced the official launch of its next-generation appliance: AI400X3 and enhancements to its end-to-end AI software, Infinia 2.1. Together, these innovations form the core of the DDN Data Intelligence Platform, purpose-built to meet the performance, security, and scalability demands of modern enterprises accelerating AI and HPC deployments. This milestone reinforces DDN's leadership in high-performance data infrastructure, offering enterprises a unified solution to accelerate SLA timelines, lower TCO, and unlock data-driven innovation at scale. Accelerating Enterprise AI and HPC with the DDN AI400X3 Powered by DDN EXAScaler® software, the AI400X3 delivers: Up to 70% higher write throughput and 55% higher read throughput over the previous generation Seamless integration with NVIDIA DGX™, NVIDIA GB200, Spectrum-X™, and BlueField® DPUs for future-ready AI infrastructure Enterprise-grade multi-tenancy with per-tenant isolation, VLANs, quotas, and access controls Proactive drive failure management and online upgrades with zero downtime, ensuring unmatched availability Real-time health monitoring, automated orchestration via EMF APIs, and seamless integration with enterprise collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams By simplifying deployment and reducing software complexity, the AI400X3 slashes operational costs and streamlines management—freeing IT teams to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure. NVIDIA-approved reference architectures featuring the AI400X3—validated for both NVIDIA GB200 and NVIDIA HGX B200 platforms—are available now at Introducing Infinia 2.1: Intelligent Data Services for AI Workflows The latest release of Infinia 2.1 expands support for complex, high-throughput data pipelines. New features include: Infinia Hadoop Connector (in preview) for high-performance Hadoop and Spark workloads using native S3-compatible access Expanded observability through native integrations with Datadog, Chronosphere, and OpenTelemetry These capabilities enable enterprises to gain deeper visibility into their infrastructure, reduce issue resolution times, and maintain data pipeline efficiency from edge to core. Built for Business Outcomes: Speed, Simplicity, and Scale The combination of AI400X3 and Infinia 2.1 delivers clear advantages for enterprise IT leaders: Accelerated time-to-value for AI model training, inference, and complex simulations Improved SLA compliance with multi-tenant performance guarantees and real-time diagnostics Lower operational cost with simplified architectures and fewer VMs to manage Enhanced data security and tenant isolation for CSPs and internal business units Future-proof infrastructure built to scale with emerging AI and HPC workloads 'DDN is empowering enterprises to run AI and HPC at scale with confidence,' said Sven Oehme, CTO at DDN. 'The AI400X3 and Infinia 2.1 give organizations the tools to meet the demands of AI-driven transformation—delivering performance, control, and cost-efficiency in a single, unified platform.' Meet DDN at ISC 2025 Join DDN at Booth #E01 at ISC 2025 in Hamburg to see live demonstrations of the DDN Data Intelligence Platform in action. Learn how leading enterprises, CSPs, and research institutions are using DDN to accelerate innovation and reduce time to insight. For more information, visit About DDN DDN is the world's leading AI and data intelligence company, empowering organizations to maximize the value of their data with end-to-end HPC and AI-focused solutions. Its customers range from the largest global enterprises and AI hyperscalers to cutting-edge research centers, all leveraging DDN's proven data intelligence platform for scalable, secure, and high-performance AI deployments that drive 10x returns. Follow DDN: LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Venture capital investment is rising in Los Angeles — and not just for AI startups
Early this year, private equity firm Blackstone bet big on the future of artificial intelligence by investing $300 million in a Chatsworth company that's been around for more than two decades. The company, DDN, helps businesses store and manage the massive trove of data that powers AI systems — the lifeblood needed for chatbots, self-driving cars and more. DDN's high-profile customers include chipmaker Nvidia, Elon Musk's AI startup xAI, Google Cloud and Ford. DDN, short for DataDirect Networks, has roughly 1,000 employees. 'They have a trillion dollars of assets under management, and it's a company that we thought would really move the needle for us in terms of extending our reach,' said Jyothi Swaroop, DDN's chief marketing officer. The investment was among the largest this year in the Greater Los Angeles region, which remains a hot spot for investments in both old and new tech companies poised for growth. All told, venture capital investors and private equity firms poured $3.1 billion to fund 144 deals in the L.A. area in the first quarter of this year, up 15% from a year ago, according to research firm CB Insights. The area encompasses Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. While investment levels can fluctuate, funding in the greater L.A. region has steadily increased since 2023, when investment cooled following the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Along with AI, investors also financed startups and established businesses in healthcare, e-commerce and defense technology, underscoring how investment in the L.A. market has diversified in recent years beyond ad tech businesses and video apps. "Today it's going into much more ambitious projects," Mark Suster, a general partner at Santa Monica-based Upfront Ventures. "It's going into satellites, alternate energy, national defense, drones, shipbuilding and pharmaceutical drug discovery. So it's a lot more exciting than it ever has been." Read more: AI startup funding hit a record in the L.A. area last quarter. Here's who got the most money Los Angeles-area companies that received the most money in the first quarter include Torrance-based defense company Epirus with $250 million; and Thousand Oaks-based Latigo Biotherapeutics, which received $150 million, according to CB Insights. Latigo Biotherapeutics develops non-opioid pain treatments, while Epirus makes technology that helps defend against attacks from drone swarms. Economic consulting firm Econic Partners raised the most funding with $438 million, according to CB Insights, which relied on a report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Econic disputed the total, saying it raised nine figures in the first quarter, but the company declined to say how much. Masha Bucher, founder and general partner at Day One Ventures, said she views El Segundo as the most promising hub for 'deep tech' startups tackling complex issues, such as, helping humans live healthier and longer lives. Businesses in the L.A. area have access to a highly qualified workforce from aerospace and defense tech companies. The tech hub known as Silicon Beach also is close to the airport, making it easy for entrepreneurs to hop on a plane to raise funding in San Francisco. 'There is a power of community, and it's definitely like a power spot on the map,' Bucher said. The firm's investments include various AI startups and an eye-scanning crypto project backed by OpenAI's Sam Altman in which people verify they're human. Investors aren't interested in only AI, however. Culver City-based Whatnot raised $265 million, one of the biggest deals in the L.A. area this year. The live shopping app allows people to buy and sell items such as clothing and collectibles. Potential customers can ask questions about products in real-time, find deals and bid for products shown in live videos. Whatnot says it surpassed more than $3 billion in sales in 2024, and the company expects that figure to double this year. The startup, founded in 2019, says it isn't profitable yet, but the TikTok rival has shown investors it's growing fast. Read more: Sam Altman's eye-scanning orbs have arrived, sparking curiosity and fear 'Live and social shopping has the potential to be an absolutely monstrous market,' Whatnot Chief Executive Grant LaFontaine said. The company has roughly 750 employees across the United States and Europe. The funding will help market Whatnot to attract more users and hire people to improve the shopping experience, he said. Read more: AI is changing shopping. Will consumers buy in? Like other businesses, Whatnot uses AI for customer service and to moderate content on the platform. 'I tend to be sort of a purist, which is that consumers don't care about AI. They care about problems being solved,' LaFontaine said. Businesses have been using AI long before the rising popularity of chatbots such as ChatGPT that can generate text, images and code. But the frenzy surrounding what's known as generative AI has meant that various industries are confronting how technology will disrupt the way they live and work. Read more: There's one bright spot for San Francisco's office space market Not surprisingly, investor interest in AI drove much of the nation's venture capital commitments in the first quarter. San Francisco-based OpenAI secured the largest funding round of $40 billion, placing its valuation at $300 billion, according to CB Insights. "There's a ton of opportunity to rewrite the playing field on which people do business in everything from across verticals, across industries," said Jason Saltzman, head of insights for CB Insights. "Everyone recognizes the promise, and ... no one wants to miss out on the promise." Globally, $121 billion of venture capital was raised in the first quarter, with 20% of the deals received by AI companies — the highest amount ever, according to CB Insights. Nationally, $90.5 billion in venture capital was raised last quarter, with the bulk of the money going toward startups in Silicon Valley, which brought in $58.9 billion, the research firm said. San Francisco has experienced a surge in AI startups expanding or opening up offices, drawn to the city's swath of talent and the Bay Area's universities. AI leaders including OpenAI and Anthropic also are based there. OpenAI said it would use the money raised in the first quarter toward building its tools and investing in talent. "People understand that this is a transformative technology," said Chris Lehane, OpenAI's vice president of global affairs in an interview. "It's going to permeate virtually every aspect of life." Silicon Valley remains the far leader in venture capital AI investments, but other cities such as New York have attracted AI funding. There's also global competition from countries such as China. As legislators weigh whether to introduce laws that could regulate AI, some tech lobbying groups have raised concerns on how those bills could affect innovation in the state. Suster said he doesn't think venture capital dollars will leave California. "The opportunity set is so great here," Suster said. "Do we occasionally get backwards-looking bills that try to overregulate how industry works in California? Of course, we do. We find ways to work around them." Sign up for our Wide Shot newsletter to get the latest entertainment business news, analysis and insights. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
