VAST Data has announced a strategic collaboration with Microsoft to integrate its AI Operating System (AI OS) into Microsoft's Azure platform, aiming to propel the development of agentic AI solutions. Revealed at Microsoft Ignite, this partnership will soon enable Azure clients to deploy high-performance and scalable AI infrastructure using the VAST AI OS, thereby enhancing their cloud capabilities.
The integration will provide businesses with comprehensive access to VAST's suite of data services on Azure. This suite includes unified storage, data cataloging, and database services designed to support sophisticated AI workflows. The initiative is set to facilitate seamless data management across on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments, promoting scalability, intelligence, and automation crucial for accelerating AI advancements.
VAST AI Operating System
VAST AI Operating System will leverage Azure's infrastructure, ensuring clients can utilize familiar tools and frameworks
The VAST AI Operating System will leverage Azure's infrastructure, ensuring customers can utilize familiar tools and frameworks for governance, security, and billing. The solution promises to deliver unified management and consistent performance, backed by the reliability of Azure's infrastructure.
"This collaboration with Microsoft reflects our shared vision for the future of AI infrastructure, where performance, scale, and simplicity converge to enable enterprises to transform their business with agentic AI," stated Jeff Denworth, Co-Founder of VAST Data.
Capabilities of VAST AI OS
Azure users will harness the full potential of VAST AI OS through features such as:
- Built for Agentic AI: Utilize VAST InsightEngine and AgentEngine for intelligent, data-oriented workflows. These systems offer high-performance compute and database services, optimizing vector searches, RAG pipelines, and data preparation, alongside orchestrating autonomous agents on real-time data streams.
- Performance at Scale for Model Builders: Designed to meet the demands of model training and inference, VAST AI OS maintains data saturation in Azure GPU and CPU clusters, benefiting from Azure's latest infrastructure innovations, including the Laos VM Series.
- Seamless Hybrid AI Workflows: With an exabyte-scale DataSpace, the platform eliminates data silos, allowing for effortless data mobility and instant scalability from on-premises to Azure without the need for migration or reconfiguration.
- Unified Data Access: VAST DataStore supports file, object, and block protocols while VAST DataBase provides the performance of transactional systems with the speed and economics of data lakes, supporting diverse workloads effectively.
- Elastic, Cost-Efficient Architecture: VAST's Disaggregated, Shared-Everything (DASE) design allows for independent scaling of resources within Azure, minimalizing storage footprint and costs for extensive AI infrastructures.
Azure’s GPU-Accelerated Infrastructure
"VAST’s AI Operating System running on Azure will give Azure customers a high-performance, scalable platform built on the Laos VM Series using Azure Boost that seamlessly extends on-premises AI pipelines into Azure’s GPU-accelerated infrastructure," said Aung Oo, Vice President, Azure Storage at Microsoft.
The collaboration aims to streamline operations, reduce expenses, and expedite AI workload insights, leveraging VAST's scalable, high-performance, and AI-native capabilities.
Future of AI Infrastructure
VAST and Azure will closely align on developing next-generation platform requirements
As efforts to enhance AI infrastructure grow, including custom silicon initiatives, VAST and Azure will closely align on developing next-generation platform requirements.
This joint endeavor is poised to play a key role in Microsoft's comprehensive AI computing strategy, unlocking the full potential of emerging AI innovations through a system that embodies scalability, performance, and simplicity.
Upcoming Joint Appearances
At upcoming events such as Microsoft Ignite in San Francisco and Supercomputing 2025 in St. Louis, VAST Data representatives, including CEO Renen Hallak, will discuss opportunities with Azure and VAST AI OS for deploying agentic AI strategies on a global scale.
Andrew Jones, VAST's Engineering pioneer for Future Supercomputing & AI Capabilities, will participate in discussions on modern data strategies shaping AI cloud futures. Attendees can visit VAST Booth #3204 and Microsoft Booth #1627 for presentations and technical demos.
VAST Data, the AI Operating System company, announced at Microsoft Ignite a collaboration with Microsoft to power the next wave of agentic AI. Available soon to Azure customers, the VAST AI OS provides a simple way to deploy high-performance, scalable AI infrastructure in the cloud.
Enterprises will be able to access VAST’s complete suite of data services in Azure, including unified storage, data cataloging, and database capabilities to support complex AI workflows. This integration will enable organizations to manage data seamlessly across on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments, delivering the scale, intelligence, and automation required to accelerate AI innovation.
VAST AI Operating System
The VAST AI Operating System will run on Azure infrastructure, enabling customers to deploy and operate it using the same tools, governance, security, and billing frameworks they have become accustomed to. The solution will deliver unified management, consistent performance, and Azure-grade reliability.
“This collaboration with Microsoft reflects our shared vision for the future of AI infrastructure, where performance, scale, and simplicity converge to enable enterprises to transform their business with agentic AI,” said Jeff Denworth, Co-Founder at VAST Data.
“Becoming an Azure Partner represents the first milestone in that journey. Customers will be able to unify their data and AI pipelines across environments with the same power, simplicity, and performance they expect from VAST, now with the reach, elasticity, and reliability of Microsoft’s global cloud.”
Advantages of the capabilities of the VAST AI OS
Azure customers will be able to take full advantage of the capabilities of the VAST AI OS running on Azure, including:
- Built for Agentic AI: Leverage VAST InsightEngine and AgentEngine to run intelligent, data-driven workflows directly where data lives. InsightEngine delivers stateless, high-performance compute and database services that accelerate vector search, RAG pipelines, and data preparation. AgentEngine orchestrates autonomous agents operating on real-time data streams, enabling continuous AI reasoning across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
- Performance at Scale for Model Builders: Designed for the demands of model training and inference, VAST AI OS keeps Azure GPU and CPU clusters saturated with high-throughput data services, intelligent caching, and metadata-optimized I/O to ensure predictable performance from pilot to multi-region scale. VAST benefits from the latest Azure Infrastructure solutions including the Laos VM Series using Azure Boost Accelerated Networking.
- Seamless Hybrid AI Workflows: An exabyte-scale DataSpace creates a unified global namespace that eliminates data silos and enables effortless data mobility. Customers can instantly burst from on-premises to Azure for GPU-accelerated workloads without migration or reconfiguration.
- Unified Data Access: VAST’s DataStore supports file (NFS, SMB), object (S3), and block protocols, while the VAST DataBase combines transactional performance with the query speed of a warehouse and the economics of a data lake, allowing diverse workloads to run on one platform without compromise.
- Elastic, Cost-Efficient Architecture: VAST’s Disaggregated, Shared-Everything (DASE) design enables independent scaling of compute and storage resources within Azure. Combined with built-in Similarity Reduction, the platform minimizes storage footprint and reduces cost for large-scale AI infrastructure.
Azure’s GPU-accelerated infrastructure
“VAST’s AI Operating System running on Azure will give Azure customers a high-performance, scalable platform built on the Laos VM Series using Azure Boost that seamlessly extends on-premises AI pipelines into Azure’s GPU-accelerated infrastructure,” said Aung Oo, Vice President, Azure Storage at Microsoft.
“Many AI model builders in the world leverage VAST for its scalability, breakthrough performance, and AI-native capabilities. This collaboration can help our mutual customers streamline operations, reduce costs, and accelerate time-to-insight for AI workloads of every size.”
Future of AI infrastructure
As Microsoft continues to invest in the future of AI infrastructure, including its own custom silicon initiatives, VAST will work closely with the Azure team to align on next-generation platform requirements. This collaboration positions VAST as a strategic element of Microsoft’s broader AI computing strategy, helping to unlock the full potential of emerging innovations in compute.
Together, the companies will aim to ensure that future AI systems, regardless of the processor or model architecture, are fueled by an AI operating system built for scale, performance, and simplicity.
Upcoming joint appearances
Renen Hallak, VAST Data Founder and CEO, will be at Microsoft Ignite in San Francisco and available for joint customer meetings, to discuss how Azure and the VAST AI Operating System will enable enterprises to operationalize agentic AI at global scale.
At Supercomputing 2025 in St. Louis, VAST Data will host Andrew Jones, Engineering Leader, Future Supercomputing & AI Capabilities, on November 19 in a conversation exploring how Azure AI and modern data strategies are shaping the AI cloud. Register to join the breakfast session and be part of the discussion on the future of AI infrastructure.
Representatives from both VAST and Microsoft will also deliver technical presentations and demos in their respective booths throughout the event. Learn more by visiting VAST Booth #3204 and Microsoft Booth #1627.
