WekaIO raises $31.7 million to develop file systems optimized for AI and technical workloads

No matter the domain, data-intensive apps share one requirement in common: a reliable file system that ensures data is available to them on demand. Pure Storage, NetApp, VAST Data, IBM Spectrum Scale, and Dell EMC provide this, as does San Jose, California-based company WekaIO. WekaIO's high-velocity Matrix platform takes advantage of flash storage, off-the-shelf components, and sophisticated software techniques to deliver enormous speedups at exabyte scale. In fact, the company claims Matrix is the fastest parallel file system on the market for AI and technical compute workloads, as measured by independent SPEC SFS 2014 benchmark tests. To lay the groundwork for future growth in AI and analytics, life sciences, manufacturing, media and entertainment, and financial services, WekaIO has closed a $31.7 million series C financing round led by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), with participation from a host of storage and computing industry giants including Mellanox, Nvidia, Seagate, Western Digital Capital, and Qualcomm.