Google Cloud Managed Lustre Powered by DDN EXAScaler Now Available for AI and HPC Workloads
DDN®, the global leader in AI and data intelligence solutions, has announced the general availability of Google Cloud Managed Lustre, a fully managed, high-performance parallel file system service powered by DDN’s industry-leading EXAScaler® technology. This groundbreaking offering brings the scalability and speed of Lustre—the world’s most advanced parallel file system—directly into the Google Cloud ecosystem, enabling organizations to tackle their most demanding workloads in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), and data-intensive enterprise environments.
With this launch, Google Cloud Managed Lustre is now accessible globally, empowering businesses across industries to accelerate innovation without the complexity of managing on-premises infrastructure. By combining DDN’s decades of expertise in high-performance storage with Google Cloud’s robust global infrastructure, this collaboration delivers a seamless, scalable, and cost-efficient solution tailored for modern computational challenges.
Accelerating Innovation Without Infrastructure Overhead
For organizations seeking to leverage AI and HPC, the ability to manage massive datasets efficiently is critical. However, building and maintaining high-performance storage systems can be resource-intensive and complex. With Google Cloud Managed Lustre, these challenges are eliminated. The service provides a fully managed experience through the Google Cloud Console, CLI, and APIs, allowing users to focus on driving innovation rather than managing infrastructure.
“By bringing our EXAScaler technology to Google Cloud customers as a fully managed service, we’re enabling organizations across industries to accelerate innovation without the overhead of managing complex infrastructure,” said Paul Bloch, Co-Founder and President at DDN. “This partnership underscores our commitment to delivering unmatched performance and scalability to enterprises worldwide.”
The integration of DDN’s EXAScaler technology ensures that Google Cloud Managed Lustre delivers unparalleled speed and reliability. With read throughput of up to 1 TB/s and latency under 1ms, the service is purpose-built to handle the most demanding workloads, from large language model (LLM) training to genomic analysis and climate research.
A Strategic Collaboration for AI and HPC Excellence
The collaboration between DDN and Google Cloud represents a significant milestone in the evolution of cloud-based storage solutions. By deeply integrating DDN’s expertise in Lustre with Google Cloud’s AI ecosystem, the partnership addresses one of the biggest bottlenecks in AI and HPC: storage performance.
“Partnering with DDN allows us to bring their industry-leading parallel file systems to Google Cloud as a deeply integrated, first-party service,” said Asad Khan, Senior Director of Product Management, Google Cloud Storage. “By combining DDN’s decades of expertise in high-performance Lustre with Google Cloud’s global infrastructure and AI ecosystem, we are delivering a foundational capability that removes storage bottlenecks and helps our customers solve their most complex challenges in AI and HPC.”
This collaboration also aligns seamlessly with NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platform, further enhancing its value for AI workloads. According to Dave Salvator, Director of Accelerated Computing Products at NVIDIA, “Enterprises today demand AI infrastructure that combines accelerated computing with high-performance storage solutions to deliver uncompromising speed, seamless scalability, and cost efficiency at scale. Google and DDN’s collaboration on Google Cloud Managed Lustre creates a better-together solution uniquely suited to meet these needs.”
By leveraging DDN’s enterprise-grade data platforms alongside Google Cloud’s global capabilities, organizations can unlock the full potential of AI, reduce time-to-insight, maximize GPU utilization, and lower total cost of ownership.
Tailored Performance for Diverse Workloads
Google Cloud Managed Lustre is designed to meet the unique requirements of various industries and use cases. With multiple performance tiers ranging from 125 MB/s/TiB to 1000 MB/s/TiB, organizations can customize the service to match the specific demands of their workloads. Whether it’s AI/ML training, financial modeling, rendering, genomic analysis, or scientific simulations, the service ensures optimal performance and scalability.
Key features of Google Cloud Managed Lustre include:
- Fully Managed Operations: Simplified management through the Google Cloud Console, CLI, and APIs.
- Native Integration: Seamless compatibility with Google Cloud services such as Compute Engine, Kubernetes Engine (GKE), IAM, VPC Service Controls, and Vertex AI.
- Enterprise-Grade Reliability: Backed by a 99.9% SLA to ensure consistent uptime and performance.
- Scalability: Effortlessly scales from 18 TiB to 8 PiB+, accommodating even the largest datasets.
- Advanced Tooling: Support for Terraform, bulk data movement with Google Cloud Storage, and a Managed CSI Driver for GKE.
These capabilities make Google Cloud Managed Lustre an ideal solution for organizations looking to streamline operations while maintaining peak performance.
Driving Impact Across Industries
From life sciences to financial services, media and entertainment to public sector initiatives, Google Cloud Managed Lustre is already making waves across diverse industries. For example, researchers at Helmholtz Munich have successfully consolidated their storage infrastructure using DDN’s EXAScaler Lustre file system, achieving the performance and scalability needed for cutting-edge scientific research.
“I consolidated the previous storage systems into one centralized DDN storage system using a global EXAScaler Lustre file system, which can deliver the needed performance and scalability,” said Dr. Alf Wachsmann, Head of DigIT Infrastructure & Scientific Computing at Helmholtz Munich. “Having spent 20 years implementing DDN systems successfully, it was an easy decision for me to choose DDN for Helmholtz Munich’s infrastructure rehaul.”
Similarly, in financial services, the service enables real-time risk analysis and algorithmic trading by providing ultra-low-latency access to massive datasets. In media and entertainment, it accelerates rendering pipelines for visual effects and animation projects, ensuring faster time-to-market.
Unlocking the Future of AI and HPC
The introduction of Google Cloud Managed Lustre marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of cloud-based storage solutions. By combining DDN’s leadership in high-performance storage with Google Cloud’s global reach and AI ecosystem, this service empowers organizations to overcome traditional storage limitations and unlock new possibilities in AI and HPC.
Whether it’s accelerating drug discovery, advancing climate science, or powering next-generation AI models, Google Cloud Managed Lustre is poised to become the go-to solution for enterprises seeking speed, scalability, and simplicity. As the demand for high-performance storage continues to grow, this collaboration sets a new standard for what’s possible in the cloud.
With Google Cloud Managed Lustre, the future of AI and HPC is here—and it’s faster, smarter, and more accessible than ever before.
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.
