DigitalOcean has cut agent boot times from 120 seconds to 15 seconds after deploying the VAST Data AI Operating System across its AI-native cloud, the two companies said.

The deployment marks a deeper push by the 14-year-old infrastructure-as-a-service provider into the Neocloud market. DigitalOcean, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, runs 15 globally distributed data centers. It now offers GPU Droplets and bare-metal GPU servers built on Nvidia H100, H200, B300, L40s and RTX silicon, alongside AMD Instinct MI300X, MI325X and MI350X hardware. Single-GPU and multi-GPU configurations up to 8x are available, plus spot capacity at lower cost.

The deal centers on Agent Data Services (ADS), a fully managed data layer built on the VAST AI OS. Agents and AI applications read context from it and write back what they learn.

What does the partnership actually deliver?

The companies say AI agents need fast, governed access to context. Developers today assemble that context from separate object stores, vector databases and data pipelines. ADS collapses the stack into one integrated system for inference and agentic applications.

• Storage, database and vector search unified in one system
• Data indexed and queryable as it lands, with no separate vector database or ETL pipeline
• All data lands in one tenant-isolated catalog, from agent logs and traces to video, documents and images
• Built-in governance controls what each agent can read and write
• Data becomes searchable by meaning in a single call

VAST Data provides disaggregated all-flash storage with an AI-focused software layer that many Neoclouds have already adopted.

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."

How did DigitalOcean reach the AI market?

The company was founded in 2012 and built its business on Droplets, low-cost Linux virtual machines starting at roughly $4–6 per month. It positioned itself as a simpler alternative to Amazon Web Services for developers, startups and small-to-medium businesses.

The pivot to AI infrastructure began with the 2023 acquisition of Paperspace for $111 million in cash. That deal brought GPU-powered infrastructure and AI/ML tooling, letting DigitalOcean offer easier paths to train, build and deploy AI models.

DigitalOcean is upgrading facilities such as its Richmond data center with liquid cooling, high-speed non-blocking RDMA fabrics and capacity for dense GPU workloads. The company says owning its own silicon rather than renting capacity improves unit economics at scale.

What are the measured results?

According to VAST, DigitalOcean slashed boot times from 120 seconds to 15 seconds and cut operational overhead by unifying storage and databases. The deployment eliminated GPU idle time and reduced operational infrastructure overhead.

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."

The partnership tightens the link between VAST and the Neocloud segment, and it signals that mid-market AI infrastructure competition will increasingly turn on integrated data layers rather than raw GPU capacity alone.