Storage vendor NetApp has announced the acquisition of California-based DataPelago. The company’s technology is designed to enable GPU-accelerated data processing directly at the storage layer, without requiring enterprise data to be copied for AI use.
NetApp, a provider of intelligent data infrastructure solutions, has announced the acquisition of DataPelago. The California-based company specializes in AI data infrastructure and focuses on removing data processing bottlenecks in AI and analytics workloads. NetApp did not disclose financial details of the transaction.
With the acquisition, NetApp adds GPU-accelerated data processing directly at the storage layer to its portfolio. According to the company, the goal is to make enterprise data usable for AI applications without a separate copying step, an approach NetApp refers to as zero-copy activation.
The move addresses a broader challenge many organizations face: preparing data quickly enough for productive AI use while retaining control over that data. Accelerated computing, the companies argue, should therefore take place where data is created and stored rather than being moved to external compute clusters.
“As AI models and the chips that power them become more capable, enterprises increasingly need a powerful, intelligent data infrastructure to unlock the value of their data,” said George Kurian, Chief Executive Officer of NetApp, according to the company statement. He said DataPelago extends this capability and is intended to give customers a competitive edge.
At the core of DataPelago’s technology is Nucleus, a data processing engine that, according to the company, uses heterogeneous accelerated computing with CPUs and GPUs to process data at its storage location. This is intended to remove the need to copy data from operational systems into separate AI systems. NetApp states that the approach can reduce infrastructure costs by up to 80 percent and deliver up to ten times higher performance compared to conventional approaches; these figures have not been independently verified.
“DataPelago was founded to eliminate the data processing bottlenecks that limit the potential of AI innovation,” said Rajan Goyal, founder and Chief Executive Officer of DataPelago. He said the platform can now be combined with a broader data infrastructure portfolio through NetApp. Many enterprises have invested heavily in GPUs and AI models, he added, yet their data often remains fragmented, leaving compute resources underused.
Syam Nair, Chief Product Officer at NetApp, placed the acquisition within the company’s broader data strategy: the Nucleus engine brings software-based acceleration directly into the storage layer, he said, allowing enterprises to prepare and use their data for AI without moving it. NetApp states that it manages more enterprise data across more environments than other vendors in the industry.
Following the close of the transaction, DataPelago will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of NetApp. According to NetApp, the acquisition follows a series of recent partnerships the company has entered into with Cisco, Google Cloud, Red Hat and SK Telecom, among others.
The acquisition comes as several storage vendors seek to bring compute capabilities closer to data in order to reduce the movement of large data volumes between storage and compute systems. For enterprise customers planning AI projects on existing storage infrastructure, this could mean that data preparation and model training become more tightly integrated with existing storage assets, without the need for additional copying steps or separate compute clusters.
NetApp did not specify at the time of the announcement how DataPelago’s technology will be integrated into its existing portfolio or when it will become available to existing customers. The company said further details on product integration, pricing and timing will be announced at a later date. For channel partners, how the new capabilities fit into existing sales and licensing models is likely to be of particular interest.
Following the close of the acquisition, DataPelago is expected to be integrated into NetApp as a subsidiary. Specific details on timing and product integration are still pending; NetApp says it will provide further information at a later date.
Carolina Heyder is a business analyst and moderator with extensive experience in the German and international IT market. She has worked for many years at renowned European trade publishers such as WEKA Fachmedien, Vogel IT Medien, Springer, and Aspencore. She creates content for both web and print media and is an expert in front of the microphone and camera. Thanks to her fluency in German, English, and Spanish, as well as her Chilean roots, she brings a global and intercultural perspective to topics such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, sustainability, and other key areas of the IT sector.