HPE and WekaIO sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g

HPE is planning to beef up its supercomputing and HPC filer credentials by cuddling up to WekaIO, multiple sources have told The Register.

Filer startup Qumulo is already working with HPE - its Core software runs on HPE's Apollo servers, with a focus on enterprise-style HPC applications. Witness this Dreamworks special effects with Qumulo wares running on Apollo 4200 servers.

Our impression is that the WekaIO file system software is for pure HPC use cases, scaling out further and performing faster than Qumolo's Core software, although benchmark data will be needed to confirm this is the case.

WekaIO has two sessions booked for the HP-CAST gig in Denver on 9 to 11 this month, and days later - from 13 to 16 - will appear on the HPE stand at the SuperComputing 2017 (SC17) conference in the same city.

The scheduled presenter is WekaIO co-founder and CTO Liran Zvibel: he is expected to cover a number of areas:

• Next-generation NVMe-native parallel file system accelerating HPC workloads,
• Making machine learning compute-bound again.

Weka has previously said it will announce an OEM deal at SC17.

We understand HPE is going to validate WekaIO's Matrix product for its Apollo HC server line. HPE declined to comment.

+RegComment

Meg Whitman's much-slimmed down HPE has two levels of engagement with storage and other technology companies. It loves them to bits and buys them on the one hand; witness SimpliVity and Nimble.

On the other hand it is friendly enough to partner and OEM but not buy, and we have Qumulo, Scality, and WekaIO as examples. In each case HPE has run those suppliers' software on its servers.

With Qumulo and WekaIO partnerships, HPE has moved to fortify its filer tech against competing kit from Dell EMC's Isilon (Qumulo) and Elastifile (WekaIO). ®