At this year’s NVIDIA GTC, AI infrastructure took center stage — and VAST Data captured a lot of the spotlight. From expanded partnerships to buzzworthy product launches, VAST proved once again why it’s a foundational player in today’s AI ecosystem.
I had the delightful opportunity to sit down for a TechArena Fireside Chat with John Mao, VP of Global Business Development at VAST, and Tony Paikeday, Senior Director of Product Marketing for AI Systems at NVIDIA. Together, they shared a behind-the-scenes look at their continued collaboration and introduced the VAST Insight Engine for NVIDIA DGX systems — a new solution purpose-built for enterprise AI adoption.
If you’ve been tracking the evolution of AI in the enterprise, you know the story: Proofs of concept (POCs) have run their course. The next chapter is volume deployment. But moving from experimentation to real-world application utilization isn’t as easy as flipping a switch. Infrastructure complexity, skillset gaps, inference orchestration, and data security all stand in the way. VAST and NVIDIA are tackling that challenge head-on.
Their answer is the Insight Engine — a full-stack solution combining NVIDIA’s DGX compute platform with VAST’s intelligent data infrastructure. The result is a turnkey solution that enables real-time data ingestion, vector embedding, model inference, and search across unstructured datasets — running securely and reliably, 24/7.
This isn’t just another hardware launch – it’s a blueprint for the modern AI factory. The Insight Engine reflects a new reality: Enterprises don’t want to build from scratch. They want to plug in and go. And increasingly, they want to do so without hiring an army of machine learning engineers to stitch together half a dozen open-source tools.
As John put it in our conversation, “This isn’t a science project anymore. It has to be turnkey. It has to be enterprise-grade. And it has to be secure by design.”
That last point — security — is critical. As organizations start indexing terabytes (or petabytes) of internal data to train and fine-tune AI models, protecting that data is non-negotiable. VAST has embedded enterprise-grade security into the fabric of the Insight Engine, ensuring that the right people see the right information — and only the right information. That level of fine-grained access control is table stakes for AI to succeed in regulated industries and privacy-sensitive environments.
Another standout theme from the conversation was operational simplicity. As Tony noted, “You feed this thing data — and knowledge comes out.” It’s a great soundbite, but it’s also a bold promise. One that reflects the deep engineering work that’s gone into integrating NVIDIA’s AI software stack with VAST’s scalable data platform. The Insight Engine isn’t just capable — it’s usable.
At GTC, that usability was on full display. Attendees at VAST’s booth were treated to live demos of the Insight Engine running enterprise search, real-time video summarization, and intelligent document extraction. For customers, it was an “aha” moment — a real-time glimpse of what production AI could look like in their own business.
But VAST didn’t stop there. The company also made waves with its expanding partner ecosystem. Its collaboration with Deloitte focuses on helping customers scale AI across the enterprise — from strategic consulting to secure, compliant deployment. And its partnership with Nebius, a global AI cloud provider, brings VAST’s storage performance to on-demand GPU cloud environments, delivering powerful AI capabilities to organizations of all sizes.
What ties it all together is a vision for AI that’s practical, powerful, and ready for the enterprise. Whether it’s running inference pipelines at the edge, managing real-time data ingestion, or scaling across cloud and on-prem environments, VAST is building infrastructure that AI needs to thrive.
As we look ahead to the rest of 2025 and beyond, one thing is clear: The demand for enterprise AI is real — and it’s only going to grow. Organizations are looking for ways to move faster, do more with their data, and turn insights into action. With the Insight Engine, VAST and NVIDIA are providing just that — without the complexity that’s held so many back.
The future of AI is here. It’s not experimental. It’s not academic. It’s business-critical. And with tools like the Insight Engine, it’s ready to scale.
Want to see it in action? Check out the VAST Insight Engine at vastdata.com, or watch the full Fireside Chat on TechArena.ai.