Strongman Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson Lifts Over 282.624 PB of Data

Leading AI and HPC infrastructure company VDURA and Phison, an innovator in NAND Flash technologies, collaborated in an industry-standard setting show of strength at this year’s SC24 in Atlanta on Tuesday. In a record-setting feat, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, perhaps best known as "The Mountain" from Game of Thrones, lifted a capacity of 282.624 PB of data weighing in at 996lbs*.

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Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson cheers after lifting a capacity of 282.624 PB of data weighing in at approximately 996 pounds with VDURA and Phison at SC24. (Photo: Business Wire)

Phison supplied Pascari D205V drives for the lift, and the bar for this impressive lift, as well as additional equipment, was provided by Rogue Fitness Equipment. To celebrate the occasion, 2017 America’s Strongest Man, Jerry Pritchett, built customized Silver Dollar Boxes to hold the drives during the lift.

The feat marks a new era of growth for VDURA, formerly known as Panasas. Taking place just over a year after Ken Claffey’s appointment as CEO, the lift is a testament to VDURA’s dynamic leadership and forward momentum. Days before the conference, Claffey also led the company’s first major product update since its rebranding last May. This latest update includes a move to a fully parallel, microservices-based architecture, a new flash-optimized metadata engine and an enhanced object storage layer.

“With our latest product update, VDURA can offer our pioneering, legacy industry expertise with a new agility to meet the evolving needs of AI and HPC infrastructures,” said VDURA CEO Ken Claffey. “We are excited to make our mark in a big way as a leader in the industry known for our strength and durability. Today, we set a new record for the largest amount of data ever lifted. Going forward, we are setting the industry standard for reliability and scalability, with the strength to support our customers and their evolving workloads.”

Combining strength, technology, and community impact, VDURA also set out to support the local Atlanta community during SC24. VDURA and Phison donated $1,000 each to the Atlanta Community Food Bank. This contribution will help provide over 6,000 meals for local families in need.

“We’re proud to partner with VDURA to support this record-setting lift with our ultra-capacity Pascari drives,” said Michael Wu, General Manager and President, Phison US. “Phison recently unveiled the first PCIe Gen5 122.88TB class drives, and now alongside VDURA we are again pioneers in a new milestone to showcase the true impact of mixing optimal strength, durability and capacity.”

You can visit VDURA and Phison for the remainder of SC24 at booths 2209 and 4541, respectively.

About VDURA

VDURA is at the forefront of AI and HPC data storage and management, catering to on-premises, public cloud, and hybrid environments. Renowned for its unparalleled blend of performance, durability, and reliability, VDURA's Data Platform builds upon a legacy of pioneering work in unlocking the full potential of data.

VDURA recently launched the Velocity Partner Program, empowering partners with comprehensive tools, resources, and support to accelerate growth and drive customer innovation. By joining the program, partners gain access to exclusive training, marketing materials, and joint go-to-market opportunities, ensuring they can deliver the highest value solutions to their clients. Learn more at VDURA.com.

About Phison

Phison Electronics Corp. (TPEX:8299) is a global leader in NAND Flash controller IC and storage solutions. We provide a variety of services from controller design, system integration, IP licensing to total turnkey solutions, covering applications across SSD (PCIe/SATA/PATA), eMMC, UFS, SD and USB interfaces, reaching out to consumer, industrial and enterprise markets. As an active member of industry associations, Phison is on the Board of Directors for SDA, ONFI, UFSA and a contributor for JEDEC, PCI-SIG, MIPI, NVMe and IEEE-SA. Learn more at phison.com.

*The actual Petabyte value is a data estimate, theoretical based on the number of SSD drives lifted, and represents a best-case estimate.

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