HPE acquires BlueData, Strengthens AI/ML deployment As-a-Service Capabilities

HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) has acquired BlueData, a company that uses Docker containers to deploy large-scale machine learning and big data analytics environments in a cost-effective way. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Santa Clara based BlueData was founded in 2012. HPE is planning to integrate BlueData’s software platform into its own software-defined infrastructure.

Recently, HPE also acquired Plexxi, a software-defined data fabric networking technology company capable of bolstering the vendor’s hybrid cloud capabilities.

AI/ML Deployment Simplifications

Customers demand more agility for their data science teams and deploying big data and AI/ML solutions involve a lot of complexity/time thereby increasing the cost. Installing AI/ML frameworks are also complicated and time-consuming. To quote specifically,  TensorFlow, PyTorch, MXNet, TensorRT, Cloudera, Hortonworks, MapR, Spark, Kafka, H2O, are some of the tools for AI/ML, deep learning and Big Data. This limits AI researcher's ability to exploit new features from the frameworks. The complicated and time-consuming process of installing framework can be simplified with containers. Simple pull and run commands come in handy in using the latest applications. Thus containers can reduce overall deployment complexity, leading to cost savings.

As pointed out in the announcement, the TAM (Total Addressable Market) for artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) and big data is forecasted to reach USD $160 billion. However, organizations are not equipped with AI/ML skills to extract business value from ever-growing data and there is a demand for faster and cost-effective solutions that can easily deploy AI/ML and big data analytics.

Executive Opinion

SVP and GM, Storage and Big Data Global Business Unit at HPE, Milan Shetti, said, “BlueData has developed an innovative and effective solution to address the pain points all companies face when contemplating, implementing, and deploying AI/ML and big data analytics. Adding BlueData’s complementary software platform to HPE’s market-leading Apollo Systems and professional services is consistent with HPE’s data-first strategy and enables our customers to extract insights from data – whether on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid architecture. We are excited about the significant value we can deliver for our customers by working with the talented team at BlueData.”

Co-founder and CEO of BlueData, Kumar Sreekanti, said, “Growth in the volume and the types of data in the market continues to accelerate, as does the demand for a fast, easy, and unified consumption experience for AI and big data analytics. From our perspective, data is fuel, and BlueData’s software is the engine that helps businesses consume their data and deliver insights in the most effective and efficient way. We’ve had tremendous customer success by providing a turn-key solution that delivers an as-a-service experience for AI and big data, and are excited to reach even more customers as part of HPE.”

In a blog post, HPE has listed four key areas where BlueData’s technology adds a value to customers.

• Launch containerized AI/ML and big data environments within minutes, through an as-a-service experience
• Deliver the agility and efficiency benefits of Docker containers, while ensuring comparable performance to traditional bare-metal deployments
• Quickly deploy AI/ML and big data analytics applications either on-premises, in a multi-cloud model, or in a hybrid architecture
• Provide the enterprise-grade security necessary to keep data safe, with a multi-tenant platform proven in production at scale

To draw a parallel, NVIDIA GPU Cloud is another such service leveraging well tested and certified containers AI/ML, HPC and visualization containers which also simplifies AI/ML software deployments. However, the execution is inside NVIDIA GPU Cloud.

The acquisition is expected to close by HPE’s first fiscal quarter, ending January 31, 2019.