Neocloud-like CSP DigitalOcean is deploying the VAST Data AI Operating System wiithin its AI-native cloud.
DigitalOcean is a 14 year-old Infrastructure-as-a-Service CSP offering cheap virtual machines in its cloud that’s expanded into offering AI IaaS services to its customers, ranging from GPU hardware to agent development services. VAST Data provides disaggregated all-flash storage with a substantial AI-focussed software superstructure called the AI Operating System which has been adopted by many Neoclouds. The companies say that AI agents need fast, governed access to context, but developers today assemble it from separate object stores, vector databases and data pipelines. Together, they are collapsing that stack into one integrated system for inference and agentic applications.
Renen Hallak, Founder and CEO of VAST Data, said: “Agents are only as good as the context they can reach. They require an integrated environment where compute, data and security work together as one system. VAST and DigitalOcean are building that platform for agents. By combining DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud with the VAST AI OS, we're creating an optimized path without forcing developers to stitch together disconnected services. Together, we're giving models and agents the context they need in real time, with the simplicity and economics enterprises need to operate AI at scale.”
DigitalOcean is a publicly-traded American cloud service provider founded in 2012 and offering IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) facilities. it says it focuses on making cloud hosting affordable and straightforward for developers, startups, and small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) and is positioned as a simpler alternative to larger providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS). The flagship service is Droplets; easy-to-spin-up virtual machines (VPS-style Linux servers) available in various sizes and regions, starting at low monthly prices (e.g., around $4–6/month for basic ones). DigitalOcean is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, US, with 15 globally distributed data centers.
It’s pivoted from a traditional developer-focused cloud (centered on simple Droplets/VPS) into an “AI-Native Cloud” aimed at inference and agentic workloads. This was exemplified with its 2023 acquisition of Paperspace for $111 million in cash to obtain GPU-powered infrastructure and AI/ML tooling, helping DigitalOcean offer easier ways for developers and SMBs to train, build, and deploy AI models.
DigitalOcean now offers high-end GPU compute: GPU Droplets and bare-metal GPU servers with Nvidia (H100, H200, B300, L40s, RTX series) and AMD (Instinct MI300X, MI325X, MI350X, etc.) hardware. Options include single-GPU and multi-GPU (including 8x) configurations, plus spot/interruptible capacity for lower costs.
Its datacenters, such as its Richmond facility are being upgraded with liquid cooling, high-speed non-blocking RDMA fabrics, and capacity for dense GPU workloads. It says owning its own silicon instead of renting capacity improves unit economics at scale.
In effect, DigitalOcean has has moved from basic cloud hosting into the Neocloud market, providing a full AI stack centered on making agent deployment and inference practical and affordable for its core customers.
With VAST Data, DigitalOcean delivers Agent Data Services (ADS), a fully managed data layer where agents and AI applications read the context they need and write back what they learn, leveraging the reliability and scale of the VAST AI OS. Every piece of a customer's data, from agent logs and traces to video, documents, and images, becomes agent-ready the moment it arrives and searchable by meaning in a single call.
ADS unifies storage, database and vector search in one system. Data is indexed and queryable as it lands, with no separate vector database or ETL pipeline to manage. VAST says everything lands in one tenant-isolated catalog, with built-in governance controlling what each agent can read and write so every agent operates only within the data it is permitted to access.
According to VAST, DigitalOcean slashed boot times from 120 seconds to 15 seconds and cut operational overhead by unifying storage and databases. It eliminated GPU idle time and reduced operational infrastructure overhead.
A Youtube video tells you more. Paddy Srinivasan, DigitalOcean CEO, said: “The inference and agentic era needs a cloud where every layer is built to work together. Expanding our partnership with VAST brings the VAST AI OS into the DigitalOcean AI-Native Cloud, so our customers get the performance and scale of a world-class data platform with the simplicity and scale they expect from DigitalOcean. Together, we're making it easier and more cost-effective for developers and businesses to run AI in production.”