Hitachi Vantara expands VSP One with AI object storage and lakehouse tools

A smaller starting point for AI-ready storage

The company said VSP One Object now offers a four-node starting configuration and simplified deployment. Hitachi Vantara describes the changes as a more practical way for organizations to begin building AI-ready data infrastructure and scale as demand grows.

Continued small-object performance improvements support up to 5.5x faster access to data for AI, analytics and S3 workloads, according to Hitachi Vantara. The company said expanded multisite replication and regional capabilities are designed to keep data available, protected and accessible during disruptions.

The announcement comes as organizations try to move AI projects beyond experimentation. Hitachi Vantara cited McKinsey's 2026 State of AI survey, which found that nearly nine in 10 respondents say their organizations regularly use AI in at least one business function, while only 44% report that AI is scaling across the enterprise. It also cited IDC research saying that 89% of organizations globally acknowledge some level of data-quality problem.

Analytics moves closer to the data

VSP One Object can now query supported open-format data directly on the platform. The supported formats listed by Hitachi Vantara include Iceberg, Parquet, JSON and CSV.

The company said the capabilities support up to 5x faster analytical query performance with 80% fewer CPUs. By querying data where it resides, organizations may reduce the need to move or copy information into separate analytics systems, along with duplicate datasets, data pipelines and the infrastructure used to maintain them.

“AI strategy is now inseparable from data strategy,” Octavian Tanase, chief product officer at Hitachi Vantara, said in the announcement. “With VSP One, we're giving customers a practical way to build the data foundation for AI, bring analytics closer to their data and scale with confidence as demand grows.”

Hitachi iQ Studio broadens governed AI access

VSP One provides the data foundation for Hitachi iQ, Hitachi Vantara's portfolio for connecting AI applications and agents with enterprise data, models, tools and workflows. Hitachi iQ Studio is the enterprise software used to build, deploy, manage and govern those AI applications and agents.

In its latest release, Hitachi iQ Studio expands access to structured and unstructured enterprise data for retrieval-augmented generation. New filesystem and NFS knowledge sources are intended to support more context-aware AI responses and agents without requiring organizations to move or restructure all of their data first.

The release also adds Model Gateway for governed access to local and external models, governed Model Context Protocol connectivity and ServiceNow support. Role-based access, observability and lifecycle management are designed to help organizations control model access, tools and operations as they build AI agents.

Hitachi Vantara said it will showcase these capabilities at Supercomputing 2026, taking place Nov. 16-19 at McCormick Place in Chicago. Attendees can visit booth #1429 to see governed AI agents built with Hitachi iQ Studio and analytics running directly against data in VSP One Object.

What the update means for enterprise AI teams

The announcement links three parts of an enterprise AI setup: scalable object storage, analytics performed closer to stored data and software controls for connecting applications and agents to governed information. For organizations dealing with distributed or mixed-format data, the stated goal is to reduce data movement while providing more controlled access for AI workloads.

Hitachi Vantara is positioning VSP One and Hitachi iQ as a path from trusted enterprise data and analytics to production AI. The company said the combination is intended to help customers move beyond isolated deployments while retaining the resilience and control required for business-critical workloads.