VAST & CrowdStrike ally to secure enterprise AI data

VAST Data and CrowdStrike have agreed to a strategic partnership to secure enterprise AI, analytics and multi-tenant environments at the data layer, as organisations across Asia-Pacific increase investment in AI projects and cyber defences.

The deal links VAST's platform controls and governance with CrowdStrike's threat detection and response. Together, the companies say, the approach covers the AI lifecycle, from data ingestion and model training to runtime operation.

The partnership centres on integrating capabilities within the VAST AI Operating System and connecting telemetry to the CrowdStrike Falcon platform. The goal is coordinated visibility and response across the environments that run data pipelines and AI workloads, including containerised runtimes.

Security teams warn that AI initiatives can widen the attack surface, especially when data moves across multiple systems, teams and locations. VAST and CrowdStrike position the partnership as a response to risks that emerge as organisations shift from pilots to production deployments and more autonomous AI systems.

In Asia-Pacific, the agreement comes as cyber budgets rise alongside AI spending. The companies cited research indicating that 84% of organisations across the region increased cybersecurity budgets in the last year.

Data-layer focus

The partnership targets threats against data and AI infrastructure, including attempts to access sensitive training data or interfere with workflows. It also addresses operational risks such as unauthorised access and data leakage, affecting both analytics environments and AI systems.

VAST's built-in controls are combined with CrowdStrike's continuous detection and automated response. The companies describe the result as a security model spanning development through production, with monitoring and workflow scanning embedded in the environments where AI systems are built and run.

CrowdStrike Chief Executive George Kurtz said attackers increasingly treat AI and data infrastructure as high-value targets.

He said, "Adversaries are increasingly targeting data and AI infrastructure as high-value assets. By integrating CrowdStrike's threat intelligence and automated response capabilities with VAST's AI and data platform, we are extending protection to where enterprise value is created. This partnership delivers real-time, data-layer security that helps organisations stop breaches and securely innovate with AI."

Operational integration

Telemetry-sharing is a key element of the partnership. Security operations teams often rely on endpoint and network data for detection and investigation; the companies argue that adding signals from the data layer and AI pipeline activity can enable earlier detection and more precise response.

The partnership also emphasises multi-tenant and shared environments, which are common in large enterprises and service providers. Because multiple users and applications share underlying infrastructure, these architectures place greater demands on access controls, monitoring and segregation.

The companies also point to coordinated detection and response across platforms, aiming to reduce disruption by containing threats closer to the source-where suspicious data access or workload activity first appears.

VAST Data founder and chief executive Renen Hallak said the platform was designed with security and governance in mind. "VAST was built to be the operating system for AI, with security and governance designed into the platform. This partnership with CrowdStrike extends continuous threat detection and coordinated response into AI workflows and runtime environments-helping customers operate enterprise AI with greater confidence as they scale."

Nvidia link-up

According to the announcement, the partnership also builds on the companies' existing collaboration with Nvidia. The three organisations describe a shared effort to protect AI across infrastructure, workloads and data foundations, spanning compute platforms, orchestration layers and storage systems.

The companies say the combined approach pairs Nvidia AI infrastructure with CrowdStrike's threat detection and runtime protection, and VAST's data-layer enforcement. They describe coverage from model training through inference, when trained models process live inputs and generate outputs for applications and users.

Kurtz said the partnership targets foundational security for enterprise AI. "AI is becoming the operating system of the modern enterprise. VAST operates at the data layer where AI comes to life, and CrowdStrike secures where enterprise value is created. Together, we're securing AI at its foundation."

The companies said the partnership will continue to evolve through joint integrations, with an emphasis on AI pipelines and production environments where organisations run analytics and AI systems alongside other business-critical workloads.