VAST Data has built software to find, catalog, and capture file and object data in other suppliers’ storage and data management systems, bringing it into VAST’s private, AI‑focused universe. VAST says SyncEngine is “a universal data catalog and high‑performance onboarding solution.” It is a so‑called universal router, providing a real‑time, searchable catalog across file systems, object stores, and SaaS apps like SharePoint, Google Drive, and Salesforce. This makes billions, even trillions, of files and objects in petabyte‑to‑exabyte data sets instantly discoverable.

Co‑founder Jeff Denworth said: “The future of AI belongs to those who can harness all of their data, not just what’s conveniently available. Data sprawl is the silent killer of enterprise AI strategies, and SyncEngine ends that problematic era.” The company declares: “SyncEngine eliminates the friction of discovering and mobilizing distributed unstructured datasets and enterprise SaaS platforms, so organizations can simplify their infrastructure and move faster from raw data to real‑world AI outcomes.”

It seems self‑evident that AI models or agents can provide better responses to an organization’s user requests if they have access to as much of the organization’s data as possible. VAST wants an all‑encompassing single pool of data, virtual or physical. VAST wants it to be physical, and stored in its own disaggregated, shared‑everything storage system and software environment, the VAST AI OS as it’s now called. This includes VAST’s InsightEngine and DataEngine for feeding and supporting AI pipelines. The company has now built its own data vacuum cleaner, capable of discovering and ingesting data stored in competitors’ systems. It says the biggest constraint to using AI at scale “isn’t just model complexity or GPU supply, but the data itself – scattered across outdated file and object systems, siloed inside enterprise SaaS applications, and invisible to AI pipelines.”

Invisible to VAST AI pipelines, but Dell, HPE, NetApp, Komprise, Hammerspace, and enterprise SaaS app suppliers like Salesforce may well argue it’s not invisible to their AI pipelines. The SyncEngine utility’s discovery and migration replaces external and standalone cataloging and migration tools, such as those from, we understand, Datadobi, Data Dynamics, Diskover, Komprise, and other suppliers. The discovered files and objects are cataloged in the VAST database where they can be searched at the hundreds‑of‑trillions level. It says the catalog has multiple namespaces and “deep metadata indexing.”

The cataloged files and objects can be migrated to the VAST Data system and kept synchronized with the sources. Bi‑directional data flow is included, implying the VAST system can feed data to the discovered source systems. The migration does not need external extract, transform, and load (ETL) procedures nor custom scripts. That functionality is built‑in and includes data integrity verification and automated recovery. AI pipelines on the VAST system can be fed with data from this migration, with it being chunked and vectorized for RAG and made available for agentic workflows, including any LangChain‑based application.

A VAST blog states:
- **SyncEngine (Unify Data):** Acts as a powerful data router, tackling the “last mile” problem head‑on. It is a data discovery and migration tool for unstructured and SaaS data designed to connect your scattered enterprise data to your AI ambitions. Included in the VAST AI OS, it provides a universal data catalog to see your entire data estate and a high‑performance migration engine to move that data effortlessly onto the VAST platform.
- **InsightEngine (Transform Data):** Once SyncEngine securely synchronizes your data, InsightEngine takes over to handle the AI ETL. It prepares the raw, unstructured data by triggering essential transformation processes like chunking and vectorizing. This step is vital for enabling advanced AI operations like RAG and any LangChain‑based application to gain insight from endless amounts of unstructured data, turning your information into a format that AI models can readily use.
- **AgentEngine (Act on Data):** The final step is to act. While any LangChain based application can directly leverage vectorized data provided by InsightEngine, AgentEngine serves as the Agent runtime and data retrieval tools layer for agentic AI. It utilizes the AI‑ready data prepared by InsightEngine to perform tasks, answer queries, and drive intelligent workflows, with upcoming releases extending inference time data retrieval to additional sources via agent tool kits.

VAST claims that SyncEngine offers the world’s fastest data migration services, “delivering record‑breaking speeds from ingest to insight,” but without quoting numbers. There is unlimited ingest throughput, it says, by scale‑out node addition, with network line rate performance. What target systems are covered by SyncEngine? VAST mentions legacy POSIX and S3‑compatible sources, as well as enterprise apps such as Confluence, Microsoft SharePoint, Google Drive, and Salesforce. It asserts that SyncEngine: “replaces expensive standalone tools and complex open source options, dramatically simplifying data cataloging and migration, with integrated intelligence. Customers benefit from a consolidated stack with no additional licensing fees, reducing complexity, operational burden, and total cost of ownership.”

Denworth said: “Legacy IT created silos, and we’re tearing them down. Whether your data is buried in on‑prem systems or hidden in SaaS apps, SyncEngine makes it all accessible, visible, and valuable. We’re giving customers a direct path from where their data lives today to where AI transformation begins, inside the VAST AI Operating System.”

SyncEngine is available at no charge to VAST customers. Find out more at VAST’s blog site and product webpage.

VAST’s SyncEngine appears not to be connected to the SyncEngine open source data synchronization and API integration manager.

VAST targets data sprawl with new SyncEngine utility

VAST Data has launched SyncEngine, a universal data catalog and migration tool that discovers, catalogs, and synchronizes unstructured file and object data from other vendors’ storage systems and SaaS applications into its own AI‑focused platform. The product promises real‑time search across file systems, object stores, and services such as SharePoint, Google Drive, and Salesforce, and it eliminates the need for external ETL pipelines. SyncEngine is offered free to VAST customers and is positioned as a replacement for costly standalone tools from competitors like Datadobi and Komprise.