VDURA (formerly Panasas) is an American software-defined storage company that develops data infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC). It is headquartered in San Jose, California, with additional offices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Boulder, Colorado.[1]
Panasas was founded in 1999 by computer scientist Garth Gibson, co-inventor of RAID and creator of the PanFS parallel file system.[1] The company introduced its first parallel network-attached storage system in 2004.[1]
On May 7, 2024, Panasas rebranded as VDURA, a name derived from "velocity" and "durability," marking its transition from proprietary hardware appliances to a software-defined, subscription-based model.[2][3]
In 2025, the company announced updates to the VDURA Data Platform, including Version 11.2 with Kubernetes CSI integration, end-to-end encryption, and a premium support program. The release also previewed V-ScaleFlow, a tiering technology designed to move data between QLC flash and high-density HDDs.[4]
Products and technology
VDURA develops the VDURA Data Platform (VDP), a modular software-defined storage system designed for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. The platform employs a microservices architecture and the VeLO (Velocity Layer Operations) metadata engine, which manages parallel performance at scale and provides key-value operations for billions of files.[5][6]
The platform supports erasure coding, automated load balancing, and unified management across flash and disk media. It is designed for concurrent read/write performance and includes policy-driven tiering between high-performance flash and high-capacity hard disk drives.[6]
VDURA Data Platform v11.2 (2025): Introduced support for Kubernetes CSI integration, end-to-end encryption, and the "VDURACare Premier" support program; also previewed V-ScaleFlow, a tiering technology to optimize use of QLC flash and high-density HDDs.[4]
V5000 all-flash appliance (2025): An all-flash system optimized for AI/ML throughput with erasure-coded scalability and high IOPS performance.[7]
VDURA markets its solutions for diverse data-intensive domains including life sciences, energy exploration, finance, government research, and media production, alongside AI training and simulation environments.[8]
Partnerships and recognition
In April 2025, VDURA was included in the CRN Storage 100 list of software-defined storage vendors, noting the platform’s AI-oriented architecture and metadata engine.[7]
In August 2025, VDURA announced a research partnership with New Mexico State University to explore integrating NIST-standard post-quantum cryptography into its data platform for GPU-accelerated workflows.[9]
At ISC 2025, Goethe University Frankfurt discussed using VDURA’s platform alongside a large AMD GPU cluster for AI and scientific research workloads, reporting performance and scalability characteristics for 24×7 operation.[10]
In September 2024, VDURA announced a strategic partnership with Jeskell Systems, aimed at enhancing IT modernization efforts across federal, public sector, and commercial clients.[11]
VDURA also maintains collaborations with multiple technology partners in AI, data protection, HPC, and simulation, including AMD, ANSYS, Altair, Atempo, Autodesk, Cadence, and Agiga.[12]
Events and industry presence
In March 2025, VDURA participated in NVIDIA GTC, showcasing real-world use cases such as Toyota’s use of large language models for traffic analysis and Valley Water’s application of AI for water-flow forecasting.[13]
In June 2025, the company hosted the VDURA AI Data Challenge @ ISC 2025 in Hamburg, demonstrating its data infrastructure for AI and HPC workloads (Booth G21).[14]
In July 2025, VDURA recapped AI demonstrations and webinars, emphasizing applications across transportation, environmental management, and scientific workloads.[15]
In August 2025, VDURA sponsored the Monterey Data Conference (MDC), presenting updates to the V11 platform and noting a contract with a U.S. federal systems integrator.[16][17]
In mid-2025, CEO Ken Claffey was named to Channel Insider’s list of "AI Leaders in the Channel".[18]
Later in 2025, VDURA is scheduled to exhibit at several additional international conferences, including:
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