Scaleway

7 min read

In this article

Overview
Challenges
Solution
Results
Business Outcome
Looking Ahead

Overview

Scaleway, a European leader in cloud and AI services, needed to support its growing portfolio of AI workloads with a scalable and high-performance data platform. As AI adoption has surged, the demand for efficient, sustainable, and powerful infrastructure has continued to increase. Partnering with DDN enabled Scaleway to meet these needs, ensuring its customers have access to world-class AI training environments.

引用

We needed a top-performing data solution to complement NVIDIA’s high-end DGX GPU cluster offering. Now our clients can train very large AI models over a distributed solution that’s directly connected to the GPU clusters.
Adrienne JanChief Product Officer at Scaleway

Scaleway Accelerates AI Innovation with DDN

Challenges

As AI workloads grow in complexity, Scaleway faces several challenges, including:

Scalability Providing enough storage to support large AI models without compromising performance.
High-performance requirements Ensuring their data infrastructure could keep pace with the intense data demands of distributed GPU clusters.
Sustainability Maintaining high energy efficiency and resource conservation in line with Scaleway’s environmental goals.

引用

We’re seeing more and more companies looking for large AI infrastructures for training and computing, and we needed to scale to meet that demand.
Adrienne JanChief Product Officer at Scaleway.

Solution: Partnership with DDN

To address these challenges, Scaleway turned to DDN’s AI data platform, which is designed for high-performance environments like Scaleway’s NVIDIA DGX GPU clusters. By leveraging DDN’s solutions, Scaleway was able to provide its clients with the robust, scalable infrastructure required for advanced AI training.

Key elements of DDN’s solution include:

High-throughput storage Optimized for the demanding AI workloads Scaleway’s clients require.
Sustainable infrastructure DDN’s energy-efficient data solution seamlessly integrated with Scaleway’s sustainability-focused data center, DC5, which uses adiabatic cooling to lower energy and water consumption.
Seamless integration with AI workloads DDN’s solution was directly connected to Scaleway’s GPU clusters, ensuring smooth data access and performance across all nodes.

引用

We’ve been blown away by the quality and linearity of DDN’s solution. It allows us to maintain consistent performance across all nodes accessing data, even as demand grows.
Adrienne JanChief Product Officer at Scaleway

Results

Scaleway’s partnership with DDN has delivered powerful results, enabling the company to enhance its AI infrastructure significantly:

Scalable infrastructure With 1.8 petabytes of storage distributed across the cluster, Scaleway’s clients can efficiently train even the largest AI models.
High performance and reliability DDN’s solution ensures that AI workloads run smoothly, with no performance slowdowns as data demands increase.
Sustainability By integrating with Scaleway’s energy-efficient data center, DDN helped minimize the environmental impact of scaling AI infrastructure.

引用

Most of our clients are training large or very large AI models, so having 1.8 petabytes of capacity distributed across the whole cluster is key for ease of training and reactivity of job parallelization.
Adrienne JanChief Product Officer at Scaleway

Business Outcome

Thanks to DDN’s high-performance and scalable solutions, Scaleway is now equipped to meet the growing demands of AI development. Scaleway can confidently offer its clients cutting-edge AI infrastructure with seamless, reliable, and sustainable performance.

Operational efficiency DDN’s integration reduced the complexity of managing large AI workloads, improving system performance and efficiency.
Future-proof infrastructure Scaleway is now prepared to support future AI innovations and larger, more complex AI models.

引用

DDN has supported us every step of the way, allowing us to offer a qualitative experience to our AI clients. Their partnership is a key part of our ability to deliver world-class AI solutions.
Adrienne JanChief Product Officer at Scaleway

Looking Ahead

Scaleway and DDN will continue their collaboration to push the boundaries of AI infrastructure. As AI workloads evolve, Scaleway is poised to meet new challenges with DDN’s high-performance solutions.

Last Updated

Apr 29, 2025 5:45 AM

Helmholtz Munich Success Story

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In this article

Modernizing Data Management to Discover the Future of Health
The Challenge
The Solution
The Benefits
Looking Ahead

Modernizing Data Management to Discover the Future of Health

As part of the Helmholtz Association, Germany’s largest research organization, Helmholtz Munich is one of 19 research centers that develops solutions and technologies for the world of tomorrow.

Helmholtz Munich is also part of Helmholtz Health. Together with five other Helmholtz Health Centers, they develop solutions for a healthier society in a network of cutting-edge biomedical research that is unique in Europe.

The research integrates Artificial Intelligence (AI) methodologies and spans multiple data-intensive computational applications. Some of these applications include decoding plant genomes, tissue sample testing or creature and epidemiology cohort studies. The knowledge that the centers gain from this research forms the foundation of tomorrow’s medicine and delivers concrete benefits to society and improvements to human health.

The Challenge

Within Helmholtz Munich, there are multiple institutes that focus on different areas of research that require the need to move, store, and process large amounts of data.

Their scientists and researchers continuously pursue new ways to solve complex problems faster and needed a storage solution that could keep up with their computational requirements.

引用

When I first joined the lab, there were several compute clusters and many non-performing NFS-based storage solutions in place that were maintained by the research groups themselves and not by the IT department,” says Dr. Alf Wachsmann, head of DigIT Infrastructure & Scientific Computing, Helmholtz Munich. “It didn’t take long for me to recognize that the storage systems were outdated and couldn’t keep up with the growing data sets and demands that the researchers required.

The current storage infrastructure was hindering compute performance as well as hardware reliability. While these systems may have been appropriate when initially deployed for modest workloads, they couldn’t scale to meet the needs of more modern and sophisticated approaches to analyzing research data. Seeing this, Wachsmann knew it was time to find a more efficient method of operation.

The Solution

Helmholtz Munich called on DDN to provide the answer.

引用

I consolidated the previous storage systems into one centralized DDN storage system using a global EXAScaler Lustre file system which can deliver the needed performance and scalability,” says Wachsmann. “Having spent 20 years implementing DDN systems successfully, it was an easy decision for me to choose DDN for Helmholtz Munich’s infrastructure rehaul.

As a starting point, Helmholtz Munich Implemented a SFA® ES7990X system attached to two disk enclosures. Today, the center has four fully populated systems that span a global namespace, thus enabling easy control and management of large data sets, streamlined workflows and the ultimate performance needed to reduce time to discovery.

Helmholtz Munich also recently purchased an SFA NVMe ES400NVX system with GPU integration that delivers faster data throughput with direct datapaths between storage and GPU specifically for its data-intensive AI applications.

The Benefits

Life Science data is difficult to reproduce if that data is lost, concurrently, the data sets are so large that archiving all data can be costly.

Helmholtz Munich needed a storage system that the researchers could rely on, and DDN stepped up to the plate. The improved performance, speed, and reliability have significantly impacted the researchers’ ability to accelerate their discovery process, while mitigating day-to-day risk associated with the ingest, distribution, and analysis of Big Data. These benefits were both immediate and continuous, helping Helmholtz Munich future-proof its infrastructure for the onslaught of AI applications in Life Science.

引用

Because we pre-emptively set up high-performance DDN systems, Helmholtz Munich was well-equipped to manage and quickly access the massive data sets generated by this new wave of AI applications. This would not have been possible with the NFS storage that we had before,
explains Wachsmann

Additionally, the DDN architecture with its global namespace allows Helmholtz Munich to expand the system at any time without adding the complexity of managing individual system instances. This allows its growing data requirements to be met in the most cost-effective and resource-efficient way.

Today, two-thirds of the Helmholtz Munich’s compute applications are AI-related and because of the combination of compute power with performance delivered by DDN, research results have been tremendous. Helmholtz Munich made many scientific breakthroughs including Inceptor, a new insulin inhibitory receptor innovation to fight against Type 2 Diabetes, a cure for sleeping sickness through a tailor-made active compound eliminating pathogens, the smallest ultrasonic detector in the world, how farm dust helps prevent asthma and the lasting effects in childhood, and more. Several of Helmholtz Munich’s research has also been published in high-ranking journals such as Cell, Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Cardiovascular Research, Science, and more.
Improved performance, speed and reliability in one unified system

Improved performance, speed and reliability in one unified system

Future-proofed architecture for new AI applications

Efficiently expand storage capacity to meet research needs

Eliminated research downtime and onboarding pains

Accelerated productivity for data scientists and researchers

A career-long partnership built on expertise and trust

Looking Ahead

DDN will continue to play a pivotal role in helping Helmholtz Munich meet its researchers’ evolving AI and data-intensive workload demands.

引用

The work that Helmholtz Munich is doing is making strides in scientific discovery and is poised to help change the world for the better. This is what motivates me to provide the best compute solutions to my researchers,” says Wachsmann. “DDN’s decades of experience, world-class customer support and high-performing and reliable architecture helped me help my researchers continue their work without disruption today, and well into the future.

Last Updated

Apr 29, 2025 5:46 AM

Black Oak Casino

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In this article

Video Surveillance North America
Business Benefits
The Challenge
The Solution
Business Results and Benefits
Looking Ahead

Video Surveillance North America

With a casino, bowling center, live entertainment, several dining venues, kids’ arcade and more, Black Oak Casino Resort, owned and operated by the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians, offers guests a resort destination for the whole family.

The Mu-Wuk people have a long, rich history that dates back thousands of years and have developed a community that encompasses not only the 148-room hotel and conference center, but an RV park, grocery store, health care center, and gas station as well.

With public safety a top priority for Black Oak Casino Resort, ensuring the safety of guests and team members not only provides a positive experience for everyone who visits this family-friendly destination, it also enables employees to deliver the highest levels of service.

As tribal amenities continue to expand, the security team, as leaders in surveillance, continue to look ahead and plan for growth and development in the most economical and advanced ways. All areas of the resort are monitored 24/7 via closed-circuit cameras, providing the security staff with visibility into real-time activity as well as ensuring access to video for review of any incidents of concern.

Cameras and other advanced technology continue to be added to the reservation on an ongoing basis – with the ultimate goal using the latest technology available to provide the tribal community and visitors with an exceptional experience.

Business Benefits

Eliminated downtime and data loss with improved stability and reliability

Increased storage capacity scales to meet business needs

Faster, parallel video retrieval improved real-time viewing

Smaller footprint and reduced operational costs – from 9 systems to 1 system

An 84% operational cost savings since implementing DDN

Improved efficiencies and resource allocation

引用

We wanted more stability, capacity and speed with the flexibility to seamlessly grow. It’s a lot to ask, but we have a lot riding on our storage because our data is what allows us to do our job.
Edewaa FosterGaming Commissioner | Vice Chairman

The Challenge

The Black Oak Casino has a first-class Safety and Security team consisting of a well-rounded group of agents with diverse backgrounds delivering outstanding services despite the challenges they were facing almost daily from an unstable data storage system.

The ability to retrieve videos – or provide law enforcement and other entities with footage upon request – isn’t simply important to maintaining a safe and secure environment, it has financial implications as well. Failure to maintain video in adherence with federal, state, or tribal requirements can result in fines, the revocation of the facility’s liquor license, or even a forced shut down of the resort.

Fortunately, the Black Oak Casino Safety and Security team has a strong track record. The growing instability of the storage for its surveillance system was creating concerns about the potential for data loss.

The system needed to be rebooted weekly to prevent downtime and the loss of existing content and new data capture. The reboots and downtime diverted resources and time away from other security activities, and with more than 650 video cameras and more being added every month, the ability to scale storage to accommodate growth was also driving the need to evaluate an alternate solution.

“It’s a lot to ask, but we have a lot riding on our storage because our data is what allows us to do our job,” explains Edewaa Foster, Gaming Commisioner. “We can’t afford for the system to go down or for bottlenecks to slow us down. When we’re in an emergency situation we need a system that lets us act fast.”

The Solution

Working with the casino gaming security experts at Surveillance Systems Integration, the Safety and Security team at Black Oak moved to a DDN storage solution that can easily grow to meet the growing video storage needs of the resort while also delivering the stability this business-critical function demands.

Optimized for data availability, the DDN solution was able to replace the department’s nine systems with a single DDN system.

“Because our system was only available in certain blocks, adding capacity to accommodate growth meant we were buying based upon what we could get, not what our business needs,” says Foster.

引用

DDN gives us the ability to add the right capacity at the right time, which is more operationally and financially advantageous.
Edewaa FosterGaming Commissioner | Vice Chairman

Business Results and Benefits

The improved reliability and speed have dramatically impacted the Safety and Security team’s ability to ensure the safety of guests and team members.

The system has driven efficiencies in several areas – from reducing the hardware footprint, to freeing up resources once dedicated to troubleshooting an unstable, slow system that couldn’t meet the performance demands of the job. Black Oak has calculated an 84% operational cost savings since the implementation of the DDN system.

Today’s single DDN system supplies more capacity and the performance to sync dozens of video streams going fast forward and fast reverse at speeds of 64X, 128X, 256X and beyond. Now the team can synchronize cameras and playback the video on the same screen, at the same time, faster than before.

“Before DDN there were times we needed a video and it just wasn’t there. Now we not only trust it will be there when we need it, we can get to it quickly, and that’s game changing for us,” says Dave Menezes, Information Systems Coordinator.

引用

I used to receive calls at all hours of the night and over weekends because the system was down and couldn’t deliver the performance we needed – that doesn’t happen anymore.

In addition to the operational benefits of the new DDN system, the financial advantages were both immediate and continuous.

The smaller footprint reduces power consumption for lower on-going costs, and the ability to add storage capacity to an existing system is more cost effective and less resource intensive than adding another system to address new requirements.

Looking Ahead

Today, Black Oak Casino Resort Security and Safety team is confident that they have the right storage in place to support their mission and the right storage partner to meet the resort’s growing needs into the future.

Foster concludes. “We haven’t experienced any issues, but one of the reasons we chose DDN is that we know they’re going to be there if we need them. It’s been an overwhelming positive experience with everyone involved, and especially with the system – we just set it and forget it. With DDN, the before and after is like night and day.”

Last Updated

Apr 29, 2025 5:51 AM