VAST Data has announced an ambitious partnership with SK Telecom (SKT) to create Korea’s most advanced sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, utilizing the latest NVIDIA Blackwell accelerated computing platform. This collaboration aims to not only virtualize graphics processing unit (GPU) resources but also enhance AI data pipelines, paving the way for national-scale AI model training and inference.
Dubbed the Haein Cluster, this cutting-edge infrastructure has been selected for the Ministry of Science and ICT’s ‘AI Computing Resource Utilization Enhancement (GPU Rental Support) Program.’ It is set to play a pivotal role in the development of national AI foundation models, positioning Korea at the forefront of AI innovation.
The partnership combines VAST Data’s AI Operating System with SKT’s Petasus AI Cloud to deliver a fully-virtualized GPU-as-a-service (GPUaaS) solution. This innovative framework significantly reduces GPU provisioning time to under 10 minutes—a stark contrast to traditional bare-metal deployments that can stretch into days or weeks, all while retaining near bare-metal performance.
The infrastructure is powered by Supermicro’s NVIDIA HGX server architecture, synergized with VAST’s disaggregated, shared-everything (DASE) storage platform. The outcome is a high-throughput, secure, multi-tenant environment capable of efficiently handling the AI workloads of government entities, research institutions, and enterprise customers, all safely within the borders of Korea.
DK Lee, Vice President and Head of the AI DC Lab at SK Telecom, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration, stating:
“VAST Data’s unified architecture has been instrumental in helping us move from legacy bare-metal deployments to a fully-virtualized, production-grade AI cloud. The VAST AI OS powers the performance, simplicity, and flexibility needed to support the next generation of sovereign AI workloads and gives us the confidence to scale fast and securely.”
He noted that this platform is tailored to meet the specific demands of government, research, and enterprise AI customers in South Korea, fundamentally changing the landscape of how AI infrastructure is perceived in the country.
The architecture distinguishes itself with its secure, multi-tenant framework that isolates workloads while maintaining strict data privacy standards. A unified AI pipeline seamlessly integrates training and inference processes. Furthermore, its elastic scalability permits dynamic allocation of GPU and storage resources as demand fluctuates, ensuring both carrier-grade uptime and operational efficiency.
Supermicro is also crucial to the deployment of this groundbreaking infrastructure. Cenly Chen, Chief Growth Officer at Supermicro, conveyed their commitment to supporting SKT’s vision of a national AI infrastructure:
“Supermicro supports SK Telecom’s vision of a national AI infrastructure and is proud to collaborate with VAST Data on deploying its AI Operating System, and with NVIDIA Blackwell platforms, to make this a reality.”
Sunil Chavan, Vice President for APAC at VAST Data, remarked on the impact of SKT’s initiative, saying:
“From our earliest conversations, it was clear that SKT needed cutting-edge infrastructure to match the speed and complexity of enterprise-grade uptime and nation-state inference and training. By eliminating traditional bottlenecks around data movement, provisioning, and security, VAST is enabling SKT to launch a sovereign and secure AI infrastructure that offers speed and flexibility at scale for Korea.”
What is the main goal of the collaboration between VAST Data and SK Telecom?
The partnership aims to create a sovereign AI infrastructure in Korea, enhancing GPU virtualization and streamlining AI data pipelines for national-scale model training and inference.
How does the Haein Cluster improve AI resource management?
The Haein Cluster allows for under-10-minute provisioning of GPU resources, dramatically improving deployment times compared to traditional setups, which can take weeks.
What role does Supermicro play in this collaboration?
Supermicro provides the server architecture that powers the Haein Cluster, collaborating with VAST Data to support the development of this national AI infrastructure.
