Expanding on its global leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) and multi cloud data management solutions, DDN is strengthening its commitment to enterprise AI customers and channel partners with EXAScaler 6 (EXA6) and expanding its portfolio of IntelliFlash systems from Tintri, a DDN company and the leading provider of Intelligent Infrastructure for enterprises. Additionally, DDN announced a new process by which certified partners can acquire DDN's A³I with NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD with a single SKU. These new offerings allow channel partners and resellers to more easily acquire and deploy solutions for enterprise workloads and at-scale AI infrastructures.

EXA6 Enhances Efficiency and Ease of Use

DDN introduces EXA6, extending its leadership in parallel file systems. This next iteration of EXAScaler scalable software for data storage, analysis and management runs on a new EXAScaler Management Framework (EMF) with APIs for configuration and management. EXA6 simplifies managing and upgrading systems through automation by 10x over competitor solutions. New features include full support for the latest NVIDIA Magnum IO GPUDirect Storage, online upgrades, enhancements to automatic tiering, and Hot Nodes for client-side persistence. EXAScaler is the most powerful file system for AI, analytics and HPC, and EXA6 is the foundation for stronger security, enriched data services, and end-to-end data management.

EXA6 adds new acceleration technologies with Hot Nodes, which automatically caches data on the local NVMe of NVIDIA GPU systems, reducing IO latency and traffic by avoiding network round trips​. Deep Learning (DL) models often require datasets to be re-read many times - this multi-epoch learning process places a heavy load on compute, networking and storage. Developed in collaboration with NVIDIA, this new feature automatically copies DL data into GPU local storage, freeing up infrastructure to serve additional workloads, such as ingest, labelling and archive. EXA6, with this new Hot Nodes capability, underscores DDN's commitment to end-to-end efficiency of data paths within compute, networking and storage, and raises the bar for AI system performance at any scale.

DDN Insight 4.0 Provides Deeper Visibility

DDN Insight 4.0 monitors the spectrum of IO resources and workloads, bringing customers profound visibility and granular control of the entire data path to reduce time to discovery. Insight 4.0 presents an even deeper view into systems and operations with a range of data intelligence, including individual jobs, IO metrics, workload analysis, and GPU usage to comprehensive job views and lightweight profiling. Insight 4.0 allows administrators to resolve workload and infrastructure problems quickly and ultimately improve service levels.

IntelliFlash Completes DDN's End-to-End Solution Capability

IntelliFlash systems from DDN and Tintri combine the performance and attractive economics for full-service Intelligent Infrastructure that autonomously optimizes SSD-to-HDD ratios and delivers scalable performance. A variety of time-saving management features provide outstanding support for enterprise applications, and consolidates workloads with concurrent multiprotocol support for block, file and object storage, and VMs on a single system.

Complementary to A³I solutions, IntelliFlash systems satisfy a new range of use cases, delivering consistent, low latency and market leading IOPS performance. IntelliFlash simplifies operations with one secure and intelligent approach, plus comprehensive storage management. Global monitoring and cloud-based analytics maximize uptime and efficiency on systems worldwide. Hyper flexible to meet changing business needs, IntelliFlash adapts and provides an agile storage structure that allows customers to take advantage of all-flash or hybrid flash systems.

"By expanding our IntelliFlash portfolio, DDN can be the one-stop supplier of storage and data management solutions for AI at any scale," said Dr. James Coomer, senior VP of products, DDN. "As customers scale-up their AI applications, we are able to accelerate all stages of the AI development cycle."

NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD Single SKU Delivers Performance Without Compromise

DDN's solutions are integrated into NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD, which offer the fastest path to scalable enterprise AI infrastructure. The combined solution was designed and deployed in production to solve some of the most challenging AI and HPC workloads, and enables the rapid implementation of a supercomputing infrastructure. In partnership with Arrow Electronics, a Fortune 110 value-added distributor, the NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD single SKU will be available for certified resellers. Not only does the single SKU provide the accelerated compute hardware consisting of 20 NVIDIA DGX A100 systems, it also includes the NVIDIA InfiniBand networking infrastructure, all-flash storage systems and support in one integrated bundle.

"As the leader in Intelligent Infrastructure solutions, we are delighted to be building on our successful channel partnerships," said Peggy Maloney, director, Channel Programs and Marketing for DDN and Tintri. "Our new and expanded channel portfolio will bring DDN's differentiated solutions to power the success of enterprise customers."

EXAScaler 6 and Insight 4.0 are targeted for release in Q3 2021. The expanded range of IntelliFlash systems are available directly from DDN and through certified partners. The NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD single SKU is now available for DDN and NVIDIA certified partners and their customers.