Artificial Intelligence is reshaping industries at an unprecedented pace. From generative AI to real-time inference, businesses are racing to leverage AI’s power to extract insights, automate workflows, and gain a competitive edge. But behind every AI breakthrough is an invisible force—storage infrastructure—and not just any storage, but high-performance, scalable, software-defined storage that enables AI workloads to operate at full potential.
Two companies, Nebul and Crusoe, are pushing the boundaries of AI cloud computing in unique ways—one by ensuring data sovereignty in Europe, the other by tapping into wasted energy for AI innovation. At the heart of their success is a high-performance storage platform, Lightbits, that turns storage from a bottleneck into an accelerator.
Nebul: Europe’s Answer to Hyperscalers
In Europe, strict data privacy and sovereignty laws make it difficult for enterprises to use public cloud AI services from US-based hyperscalers. Arnold Juffer, CEO of Nebul, saw this challenge as an opportunity. He envisioned Europe’s largest private AI cloud, one where businesses could securely train and deploy AI models without sending sensitive data across borders.
However, AI clouds are notoriously difficult to build. They require high-performance computing infrastructure, massive GPU resources, and ultra-fast storage. Initially, Nebul believed file and object storage would be enough, but AI workloads – particularly vector databases and real-time applications – demanded something faster.
After testing multiple storage solutions, Lightbits emerged as the clear winner. The results? A 16x performance boost compared to traditional solutions, at half the cost of hyperscalers. Now, Nebul offers enterprises a powerful, sovereign AI cloud that doesn’t compromise on speed or compliance.
To learn more about how Nebul built an AI cloud with software-defined storage, read the case study.
Crusoe: Turning Waste into AI Power
While Nebul tackled sovereignty, Crusoe took on an entirely different challenge—sustainability. AI models consume enormous amounts of energy, and with power-hungry GPUs, the demand for electricity is skyrocketing. Crusoe found an innovative solution: using renewable energy and repurposing wasted energy from flaring natural gas into compute power for AI training and inference.
Crusoe needed a block storage backbone that could scale with petabyte-sized datasets while keeping costs in check. Traditional block storage solutions struggled under the load, until they tested Lightbits.
By deploying Lightbits on Micron NVMe SSDs, Crusoe Cloud achieved:
- 4x higher performance than alternatives
- Ultra-low latency (sub-0.5ms) under high IOPS loads
- Seamless AI model scaling across massive datasets
With Lightbits, Crusoe is pushing the boundaries of multi-modal AI workloads, handling text, video, and image data at lightning speed – all while reducing environmental impact.
To learn more about how Crusoe built an AI cloud with block storage, read the blog.
The Foundation of AI Clouds: A Smarter Storage Approach
Both Nebul and Crusoe discovered a critical truth: AI is only as powerful as the infrastructure behind it. Standard cloud storage architectures simply can’t keep up with the demands of AI. Lightbits solves this by providing:
- Unmatched Performance: Up to 75 million IOPS with sub-millisecond tail latency
- Cost Efficiency: Up to 80% lower TCO than legacy DAS/SAN solutions
- Scalability: Multi-Petabyte-scale storage with dynamic resource allocation
- Resilience: Clustered architecture with built-in replication and snapshots
For AI enterprises, this means faster model training, real-time inference without lag, and a storage platform that scales as AI demands grow.
The Future of AI-Optimized Cloud Computing
AI isn’t slowing down. Whether it’s private AI clouds in Europe or climate-conscious AI infrastructure in the US, the need for efficient, high-performance storage is greater than ever. Companies that invest in the right storage backbone will unlock AI’s full potential – without the limitations of hyperscaler clouds or legacy storage solutions.
At the heart of this transformation is Lightbits, empowering the next generation of AI innovators. Whether it’s sovereignty, sustainability, or scale, one thing is clear: the AI cloud of the future is here, and it’s powered by smart, software-defined storage.
