Ahead of the highly anticipated SC24 supercomputing conference in Atlanta, VMblog sat down with Gal Naor, CEO and Co-Founder of StorONE, to get an insider's look at how the company's groundbreaking storage platform is poised to revolutionize the high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) landscapes.

In this exclusive Q&A, Naor shares how StorONE's unified, software-defined storage solution addresses critical industry challenges around data accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and energy efficiency - all while delivering the performance and versatility required by today's most demanding workloads. As the convergence of HPC and AI continues to reshape the supercomputing industry, Naor outlines StorONE's unique approach to bridging these two powerful domains and provides a glimpse into the innovative capabilities they'll be showcasing at SC24.

Attendees looking to gain a competitive edge would be wise to visit StorONE at Booth #731 and discover firsthand how this pioneering technology can transform their HPC and AI initiatives.

VMblog: If you were giving an SC24 attendee a quick overview of the company, what would you say? How would you describe the company?

Gal Naor:  StorONE developed the innovative ONE Enterprise Storage Platform that redefines data storage by delivering unmatched performance, versatility, and cost-effectiveness. Our ONE Enterprise Storage Platform supports all storage use cases and workloads into a single, simplified solution that leverages both Flash (SSD, NVME) and HDDs. With capabilities from high-performance databases to large-scale data lakes, we enable organizations to meet their evolving storage needs without compromise.

VMblog: What kind of message will an attendee hear from you this year? What will they take back to help sell their management team and decision makers? Explain your technology.

Naor:  Attendees will hear about StorONE's ability to reduce costs while maximizing storage performance and efficiency. Our ONE Enterprise Storage Platform lets organizations consolidate and simplify their storage infrastructure, eliminating the need for multiple solutions while providing the resilience, scalability, and speed that HPC and AI workloads demand.

VMblog: Thinking about your company's technologies, what are the types of problems you solve for an SC24 attendee?

Naor:  We tackle the challenges of data storage inefficiency, high infrastructure costs, and complex management. Our solution optimizes both performance and storage density, making it ideal for HPC workloads. Additionally, we address critical issues in data protection, security, and energy efficiency to align with the high demands of modern computational environments.

VMblog: While thinking about your company's technology and solution offerings, can you give readers a few examples of how your offerings are unique? What are your differentiators? What sets you apart from the competition?

Naor:  StorONE stands out through our ONE Enterprise Storage Platform approach, where all storage workloads are consolidated, which reduces management overhead and TCO. Unlike competitors, we have re-engineered the storage stack from the ground up, resulting in a highly efficient solution that maximizes drive utilization and significantly lowers costs. 

Our platform also provides robust data protection and performance that meets or exceeds HPC standards without performance degradation. 

Organizations require immediate, high-performance access to vast amounts of data-not just storage capacity. The ONE Enterprise Storage Platform ensures that data remains readily available and rapidly accessible, even during high-demand scenarios or intensive processing and after cyber incidents. By eliminating latency issues and minimizing storage costs, we enable organizations to achieve the performance they need without compromise.

VMblog: How can attendees of the event find you? What do you have planned at your booth this year? What type of things will attendees be able to do at your booth?

Naor:  Attendees can find us at Booth #731. We will offer live demonstrations of the ONE Enterprise Storage Platform, highlighting specific HPC use cases. Our team will be available to discuss attendee-specific challenges, and we're also hosting short talks on optimizing storage for AI and HPC environments.

VMblog: What major industry challenges or technological bottlenecks do you see your solutions addressing in the high-performance computing (HPC) landscape, particularly in relation to emerging AI/ML workloads?

Naor:  Our solution addresses critical bottlenecks in data accessibility and cost-effectiveness. In HPC and AI/ML environments, organizations require immediate, high-performance access during the training and processing stages while maintaining rapid access to vast amounts of data. By eliminating latency issues and minimizing storage costs, we enable organizations to achieve the performance they need without compromise. This approach is essential for managing the massive and complex data volumes in today's AI/ML workloads.

VMblog: With the increasing focus on sustainable computing, how is your organization innovating to deliver better performance per watt, and what new energy-efficient technologies will you be showcasing at SC24?

Naor:  StorONE's storage software optimizes drive utilization, allowing organizations to achieve maximum performance with dramatically fewer drives, which reduces energy consumption. We will showcase our platform's efficiency metrics at SC24, demonstrating how we help clients lower their carbon footprint without sacrificing performance.

VMblog: The convergence of HPC and AI continues to reshape the industry. How are your solutions enabling organizations to bridge traditional HPC workloads with new AI/ML demands, and what unique capabilities will you be demonstrating at the event?

Naor:  Our platform supports traditional HPC and AI/ML by providing a storage solution for AI with flexible storage performance and scalability, which is essential as these workloads increasingly merge at an affordable cost. Our demo will showcase this adaptability, with a focus on real-time data processing and management for AI applications.

VMblog: As we see growing demand for "AI supercomputers," how is your company adapting its product strategy to address this evolving market segment? What differentiates your approach from others in the space?

Naor:  StorONE's strategy uniquely combines ultra-high performance with cost-effective data accessibility. Unlike solutions that rely on costly, high-performance hardware to keep data available at all times or deep storage that's affordable but slow to access, our approach balances both. The ONE Enterprise Storage Platform allows organizations to access data instantly, with exceptional speed, while maintaining low storage costs. This provides an optimal solution for AI supercomputing environments, where immediate data availability and efficiency are crucial. Our single, adaptable platform seamlessly supports diverse workloads as needs evolve, without requiring additional expensive hardware investments.

VMblog: What role do you see quantum computing playing in the future of supercomputing, and how is your organization preparing for this potential paradigm shift?

Naor:  Quantum computing holds the potential to revolutionize processing capabilities, creating unprecedented demands on data storage and retrieval. StorONE is well-positioned for this shift thanks to our software-defined approach that maximizes hardware performance. As our software continues to evolve, we can deliver increasingly powerful solutions, enabling customers to leverage their existing hardware for higher efficiency and performance. This flexibility and scalability make StorONE uniquely equipped to meet the data-intensive requirements of quantum workloads, ensuring our clients stay ahead as computing paradigms advance.

VMblog: With the rise of cloud-native HPC solutions, how is your company helping customers navigate the balance between on-premises, cloud, and hybrid deployments? What new tools or services will you be introducingat SC24 to address these needs?

Naor:  For StorONE, cloud deployment is simply an extension of our software-defined storage capabilities, offering the same advantages as on-premises hardware. Our single, unified platform allows customers to seamlessly manage both on-premises and cloud environments, providing full flexibility without additional complexity. This approach ensures consistent performance and functionality across deployments and reduces costs by allowing customers to leverage a single solution for all storage needs. At SC24, we'll showcase new tools that further simplify hybrid deployments, making it easier and more cost-effective for customers to balance on-prem and cloud resources to meet their evolving HPC requirements.

VMblog: Data movement and storage continue to be critical challenges in HPC. What innovations is your company bringing to market to address these bottlenecks, and what performance improvements can customers expect?

Naor:  StorONE's solution addresses data movement bottlenecks with a highly optimized storage stack that maximizes drive performance. Our unique approach enables customers to achieve peak performance during both data writing and retrieval. When data is written, it moves directly to the high-performance tier, ensuring rapid access. As data is stored long-term, it transitions to the lower-cost tier, where it remains readily available with strong performance for retrieval. This balance allows our customers to enjoy top-tier performance when data is active and cost-efficiency when data is less frequently accessed-providing the best combination of speed and affordability for HPC environments. Attendees can expect insights into how our technology delivers faster data throughput, lower latency, and seamless data accessibility to meet the intense demands of HPC workloads.

VMblog: How is your organization contributing to democratizing access to HPC resources, particularly for smaller organizations and research institutions? What initiatives or solutions will you be highlighting at SC24 in this area?

Naor:  StorONE is focused on making HPC storage cost-effective and accessible for organizations of all sizes, providing high-performance solutions without the high price tag. We'll highlight our affordable storage options that allow smaller entities to compete with larger organizations.

VMblog: As security concerns continue to grow in the HPC space, especially with the integration of AI workloads, what approaches and technologies is your company developing to ensure both performance and protection?

Naor:  StorONE's solution is built from the ground up to address today's advanced security challenges and threats, providing customers with a holistic, single-platform approach to data protection. By consolidating all security features within one platform, StorONE eliminates the need for multiple security solutions and complex integrations, often increasing costs and management complexity. Our platform offers comprehensive security features-encryption, snapshots, replication, and more-designed to maintain high performance even in HPC environments, so customers don't need to compromise between security and speed. StorONE's security capabilities deliver seamless, high-performance protection that enables HPC workloads to run at optimal speeds without any security trade-offs. This integrated approach ensures that customers can enjoy a secure, efficient, and cost-effective solution tailored to meet the rigorous demands of modern HPC and AI workloads.

VMblog: Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, what major trends do you see shaping the future of supercomputing, and how is your company positioning itself to lead in these areas?

Naor:  By 2025, the supercomputing landscape will be driven by three critical trends: cost management amid exponential data growth, the need for high performance to support AI workloads, and comprehensive data security without compromising on speed. StorONE is uniquely positioned to lead in each of these areas with our innovative technology. 

Our platform provides a scalable, cost-effective solution that keeps pace with data growth, ensures high performance for AI-driven applications, and integrates robust, all-encompassing data security-all within a single, cohesive system. StorONE's technology is designed to meet the evolving demands of HPC, delivering maximum efficiency, protection, and performance so organizations can address these future challenges with confidence.

VMblog: Are you giving away any prizes at your booth or participating in any prize giveaways?

Naor:  Yes, we'll be hosting a giveaway at our booth. Attendees who engage in our demos and sessions will have a chance to win some exciting tech gear.

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