HPE Alum Peter Ungaro to Vdura Board of Directors

VDURA, Inc. (formerly Panasas) appointed Peter Ungaro to its company board of directors.

In addition, it has established a Technical Advisory Board, bringing on-board industry pioneers Dr. Garth Gibson, founder of Panasas, and Hugo Patterson, co-Founder of Datrium and known for his work in data de-dupe at Data Domain.

These appointments will guide the future technical direction and evolution of the VDURA data platform as the company continues to prioritize innovation led growth.

Ungaro’s deep expertise in AI and HPC applications, ecosystems, and business models will be invaluable as VDURA builds out its SaaS business model and strives to achieve its vision for AI and HPC data infrastructure software leadership.

Peter Ungaro, the former president and CEO at Cray, Inc., collaborated with major tech companies like AMD, Intel, Microsoft, and NVIDIA. He spearheaded the development of the Cray XC series supercomputers, the Cray Urika-GX analytics platform, and YARC Data, cementing Cray’s reputation in the HPC sector and as a “Big Data” market leader. After HPE acquired Cray for $1.3 billion in 2019, he became SVP and GM at HPE, enhancing the company’s HPC and AI market stance and laying the groundwork for future innovation.

“From my time at Cray and HPE, this is a space I know very well. I have always recognized the impressive capabilities of PanFS technology, and I am excited to join the board at a time when the company is transitioning to a SaaS business model,” he said. “I see great potential for VDURA to innovate and lead in the era of AI data infrastructure. I have known many of the management team for years, have a lot of confidence in them, and am delighted to play a role in helping them achieve their mission.“

The Technical Advisory Board will leverage the combined expertise of Gibson and Patterson working with VDURA’s architectural leadership team to accelerate company’s path in becoming the leading data infrastructure platform for AI and HPC applications.

Most recently Garth Gibson’s return as a member of the technical advisory board signifies a blend of VDURA’s past as Panasas and its future. As the founder of Panasas and the co-author of the pNFS IETF rationale, his technological vision will help VDURA draw upon its foundational expertise as the originator of parallel file systems and pNFS as it brings its parallel NAS technology into the future. His experience will be critical as the firm further extends its capabilities to serve the needs of both AI and HPC applications in on-premises, hybrid, and native cloud environments. Throughout his career, Gibson was instrumental in the development of RAID and parallel file systems. Most recently, he served as the president and CEO of the Vector Institute, a globally AI institute that empowers researchers, businesses, and governments to responsibly develop and adopt AI.

“I am truly excited about VDURA’s trajectory and to be working with such a high-caliber team,” he said. “When I founded Panasas, I set out to build a software platform that would serve as a parallel file system with enterprise attributes, and I look forward to helping VDURA evolve the platform to meet the needs of tomorrow’s AI and HPC markets. I am delighted to bring my deep understanding of the company’s core software (PanFS) and what I have learned regarding the needs of AI from my time leading the Vector Institute, to help shape the next evolution of the VDURA data platform.”

Hugo Patterson is recognized as a pioneer in enterprise storage, particularly in data efficiency, including de-dupe and data virtualization. As the co-founder of Datrium, he has a prominent history of building multiple enterprise storage solutions. He is best known as the first chief architect and then CTO of Data Domain, which was acquired by EMC in 2009. Both his expertise in file systems and experience with enterprise solutions will support VDURA as it further solidifies itself as a vendor that prioritizes reliability, performance, and ease of use.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Pete to the board. He is one of the most respected leaders in HPC and AI, and I’m excited to have his insights shape our strategy and direction. Having Garth and Hugo work with our architecture team is critical; their expertise will ensure we adopt the right architectural approach for long-term success,” said VDURA CEO Ken Claffey. “As VDURA transitions to a software company, we remain focused on maintaining our platform’s unmatched ease of use, enhancing its flexibility, and delivering cost-effective solutions to enterprises. We have big plans in the coming months, and with the guidance of these industry pioneers, VDURA is positioning itself to become the leading data infrastructure software platform for AI and HPC applications. The expertise from each of these industry pioneers will get us there even faster.“

The news of these appointments comes on the heels of VDURA’s recent Velocity Partner Program launch.