NetApp announces intent to acquire PEAK:AIO to advance scalable AI infrastructure

NetApp, a leading intelligent data infrastructure company, has announced its intent to acquire PEAK:AIO, a firm specializing in next-generation metadata architecture and high-performance parallel file systems. The acquisition is expected to bolster NetApp's AI infrastructure plans by enhancing metadata services and parallel namespace innovation, addressing the growing demand for scalable AI infrastructure that can handle trillions of files and exabyte-scale environments.

George Kurian, NetApp's CEO, emphasized that the combined technology would strengthen ONTAP's resilience, security, and operational maturity while introducing new levels of scalability for AI workloads. PEAK:AIO's metadata innovations, which originated from collaborations with renowned research institutions, will be integrated with NetApp's ONTAP software, creating a differentiated architecture for AI clouds.

Mark Klarzynski, PEAK:AIO's CTO and Founder, expressed excitement about partnering with NetApp, highlighting the opportunity to shape the future of data infrastructure and deliver accessible technologies for massive-scale data management. The transaction, subject to regulatory approvals, aims to simplify shared storage deployment and operation for large AI environments while preserving the expected operational simplicity customers have come to rely on from NetApp's ONTAP software.