Storage Unpacked Podcast

In this sponsored episode, Chris talks to Fred Lherault and Larry Touchette from Pure Storage on the evolution of storage in the enterprise and the impacts on storage administration.

In this episode, Chris chats to Rick Kutcipal, "At-Large Director" with the SCSI Trade Association. The topic of conversation is the adoption of SAS media (both HDDs and SSDs) by hyper-scale customers that include public cloud vendors and companies such as Meta.

In this episode, Chris is in conversation with Ryan Farris (VP Product and Product Marketing) and Brandon Whitelaw (VP Cloud and Strategic Partnerships) at Qumulo. As the IT world becomes ever more focused on a hybrid cloud model, file storage becomes increasingly important, due to the legacy of applications and data already written to work with file servers.

In this live episode, recorded at Hitachi Exchange in Paris, Chris chats to Gary Lyng, VP of Products and Solutions at Hitachi Vantara. The company recently announced the VSP One platform, plus some organisational changes that will take Hitachi Vantara back to a focus on core infrastructure.

In this episode, Chris chats with Abel Gordon, Chief System Architect at Lightbits Labs, discussing the challenges and benefits of building a virtual storage area network (SAN) on public cloud infrastructure.

In this episode, Chris meets with Pure Storage co-founder John Colgrove (aka Coz) to discuss where the future of data storage lies in the enterprise.

In this episode, Chris is in conversation with Prakash Darji, VP and GM at Pure Storage. The company has just announced a new Paid Power & Rack Space offering, new SLAs for service delivery and Pure Protect //DRaaS a new disaster recovery solution delivered as a service.

In this episode Chris gets an update on new announcements from Infinidat, including SSA Express and higher-capacity SSA II systems. SSA Express is a new feature of the InfiniBox "classic" platform that allows customers to implement what looks like a virtual SSA (all-flash array) within a hybrid InfiniBox. The solution effectively pins volumes in SSD rather than allowing the data to cascade to the HDD layer, with the benefit of SSA performance for no additional cost on 95% of hardware in the field. Infinidat has also introduced a new SSA II, the F4316T with up to 6.6PB of effective capacity, doubling the previous maximum. The F4304T has been discontinued, so to meet the requirements of customers to scale from small to large systems, the existing F4308T and new F4316T can be initially deployed at 60%, 80% and 100% full. This scale-up option gives customers choice on how to deploy and extend all-flash implementations. More information on the new offerings can be found at https://www.infinidat.com/ and more details on Infinidat at our Infinidat Microsite. Elapsed Time: 00:33:51 Timeline 00:00:00 - Intros 00:01:00 - Quick update on announcements this year 00:03:30 - Vendors need to be offering value-add 00:04:25 - SSA Express is a software upgrade to add an embedded all-flash array 00:05:30 - SSA gains expansion and scale-up capabilities 00:06:40 - What is the SSA (and SSA II)? 00:08:45 - SSA Express is a free software upgrade 00:10:55 - SSA Express is similar to pinned volumes 00:13:20 - Infinidat will validate the suitability for SSA Express 00:14:50 - Most vendors don’t retro-fit a feature across all historical platforms 00:16:55 - InfiniBox is generally deployed fully configured 00:18:20 - SSA now offers double capacity with F4316T 00:24:05 - The new scalability allows customers to grow capacity more easily 00:25:35 - Partially populated SSA II still runs at 100% performance 00:28:10 - Value add for the customer is important in the current market 00:31:35 - Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs Storage Unpacked 247 - Infinidat announces InfuzeOS Cloud Edition and InfiniSafe Cyber Detection Storage Unpacked 231 - Introducing Infinidat InfiniBox SSA II Storage Unpacked 227 - Infinidat InfiniGuard Enhancements with Eric Herzog Infinidat Microsite The Quiet Success of Infinidat Copyright (c) 2016-2023 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #nf34

In this episode, Chris talks to Derek Dicker, CEO at Nyriad about the UltraIO storage array. Nyriad has developed a new storage architecture using GPUs that accelerate the calculations needed to store data using erasure coding. This enables UltraIO to implement system-wide data protection using erasure coding at the block level. In contrast to most storage vendors in the market today, the UltraIO platform uses hard disk drives, with a GPU to process data ingested by the system, while data is presented back through the CPU route. This dual processor architecture enables Nyriad to deliver a product with 20GB/s of throughput, scale to multiple petabytes of capacity and provide dynamic data protection defined by the customer. Nyriad sees UltraIO being used across four industries - HPC, Media & Entertainment, Backup and Recovery, and Active Archive. Essentially the solution excels at handling large volumes of unstructured data that needs high throughput processing. Learn more about Nyriad, the origins of the solution with the Square Kilometre Array and customer examples at https://www.nyriad.io/ Elapsed Time: 00:32:28 Timeline 00:00:00 - Intros 00:01:40 - UltraIO was introduced in 2022 00:02:25 - Why is UltraIO different to traditional storage systems? 00:03:30 - GPUs can be used within data storage systems 00:04:10 - The Square Kilometre Array was an early customer 00:06:15 - UltraIO fits a specific set of requirements around data ingestion throughput 00:06:55 - UltraIO uses hard disk drives and erasure coding 00:08:00 - Ingested data is processed via GPU, then accessed by CPU 00:10:00 - Erasure coding allows customer-based resiliency settings 00:12:00 - The hardware for UltraIO uses standardised off the shelf hardware 00:14:50 - What markets does UltraIO fit? (HPC, M&E, Backup/Recovery & Active Archive) 00:16:15 - The UltraIO architecture has strong sustainability characteristics 00:18:45 - Most vendors have moved away from HDDs 00:23:00 - Digital Image replaced three systems with an UltraIO 00:24:20 - Don’t keep data forever! 00:26:35 - UltraIO helped Digital Glue deliver a media asset management solution 00:27:30 - System capacities are from one to three petabytes raw 00:29:15 - Nyriad works through the channel 00:31:00 - Wrap Up Copyright (c) 2016-2023 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #3erd

In this episode, Chris talks to Dan Kogan from Pure Storage about the upgraded FlashArray R4 systems and new FlashArray//E platform.

In this episode, Chris discusses the latest announcements from Infinidat with CMO Eric Herzog, including a cloud version of the Infinidat platform and new cyber detection capabilities.

In this episode, Chris has a wide-ranging conversation with Fermyon co-founder and CEO, Matt Butcher. The main essence of the discussion is to look at serverless technologies and how storage features are integrated into that ecosystem.

In this episode, Chris talks to Shawn Rosemarin (VP, R&D, Customer Engineering) from Pure Storage about the evolution towards 300TB direct flash modules, the custom-designed SSDs used in FlashArray and FlashBlade.

In this episode, Chris catches up with Omer Asad (SVP & GM) from HPE and Phil Manez (Director of Channel Sales) from VAST Data to discuss the recent announcement of HPE GreenLake for File Storage, powered by VAST Data's Universal Storage platform.

In this episode, Chris chats to Pure Storage International CTO, Alex McMullan, about the announcement of FlashBlade//E.

In this episode, Chris chats to Matt Hamilton, Developer Advocate at Protocol Labs about the Filecoin decentralised storage network.

In this podcast episode, Chris reviews the results from a recent project with Ondat, which examines the relative efficiency of container-native storage solutions running common database platforms on Kubernetes.

In this episode, Chris is joined by Phison CTO Sebastien Jean to discuss the transition from HDD to SSD. As pricing for the two media types comes close to reaching parity, this conversation looks at how the two media are evolving and how NAND flash SSDs are set to become the de facto choice for the enterprise data centre. The transition to an all-flash data centre has been predicted for some time, however end game could be on the horizon as soon as 2025 or 2026. The Phison blog discussed by Sebastien can be found here - https://phisonblog.com/ Elapsed Time: 00:44:01 Timeline 00:00:00 - Intros 00:02:45 - Predictions of the death of the hard drive are overdone 00:04:15 - Enterprise SSD prices continue to drop - but don’t HDDs do that too? 00:05:30 - 2020 was the cutover year for units produced (SSD vs HDD) 00:06:45 - HDD capacity growth has slowed 00:07:50 - SSD growth is being achieved with 3D techniques 00:09:15 - Floors could be used to increase layer count 00:11:00 - Latency is increasing in newer flash designs 00:13:05 - What is the “acceptable” limit for SSD capacity? 00:14:15 - Dense SSDs will be the norm with NVMe connectivity 00:15:30 - New form factors will drive greater drive capacities 00:17:00 - Is $/GB too simple a measure? 00:19:40 - SSD rebuilds are quick, avoiding the need for RAID-6 00:20:45 - SSD failure is not predictable 00:25:00 - Are HDD shipping costs relevant? 00:26:30 - How are the hyper-scalers using HDDs and driving change? 00:29:15 - Where do we go next - PLC? 00:32:00 - Could an entire SSD be dynamic between SLC and QLC? 00:35:45 - What about new technology Optane 4.0 or MRAM? 00:40:30 - Look out for CXL-enabled SSDs 00:42:40 - 2Tb NAND dies will bring HDD parity Copyright (c) 2016-2022 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #34ee.

The PCI-SIG recently announced the next generation of PCI Express - 7.0 - will be released in 2025. We've only just heard about PCIe 6.0 (see this recent podcast), so it's interesting to see that the working group is already committed to extending the performance and capabilities of PCIe further into the future. Chris caught up with Al Yanes (President and Chairperson of PCI-SIG) earlier this year at Flash Memory Summit to get an update. This podcast was recorded after the event and goes into the detail about the improvements. The timeline for PCI Express means we're seeing new PCIe 5.0 devices on the market today, with PCIe 6.0 devices expected in 2025 and PCIe 7.0 supported hardware in 2028. With a certain future for PCI Express, vendors can develop products and have confidence that forward and backward compatibility will be maintained until the end of the decade. For more information on PCI-SIG, go to https://pcisig.com/. Elapsed Time: 00:22:53 Timeline 00:00:00 - Intros00:01:25 - PCIe 6.0 was discussed last March, now we’re discussing PCIe 7.000:02:00 - PCIe 7.0 in 2025, a three year cadence.00:03:15 - Compliance is a big benefit of the PCIe standard00:04:00 - PCIe devices are backwards and forwards compatible00:07:00 - Throughput is important but low latency is critical too00:08:30 - PCIe 7.0 will evolve as the standard is developed00:09:15 - PCIe continues to improve in power efficiency00:11:20 - Using next gen PCIe could be to gain cabling or power efficiencies00:13:25 - PCISig is working on standardisation of cabling00:14:05 - Technology is becoming more integrated00:17:30 - Timelines - PCIe 5.0 devices now, announced 201900:18:40 - PCIe 6.0 - announced 2022, devices expected 202500:19:00 - PCIe 7.0 - ratification in 2025, devices expected 202800:20:30 - ESG will put a focus on the ability to use a range of PCIe speeds00:21:30 - Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs #229 - Exploring the PCIe 6.0 Specification with Al Yanes#217 - Introduction to CXL with Jim Pappas Copyright (c) 2016-2022 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #pci7.

Once again Chris is joined by Rick Kutcipal, board member with the SCSI Trade Association. It's been four years since episode #74 when Rick provided an update on SAS 24Gb. This time, Rick has details of new features in 24Gb+. What does the "plus" mean in this context? While the bus speed may not be increasing, new features (+) are continually being added to the SAS protocol, hence the additional designation. In this episode, Rick discusses some interesting enhancements to drive management, mainly driven by the demands of hyper-scalers. These include Command Duration Limits, Format with Presets and Logical Depopulation. There are also additional features still in discussion that may yet be added in future releases. To learn more about the work of the SCSI Trade Association, hop over to www.scsita.org, or of course, simply listen to our next podcast after Flash Memory Summit 2023. Elapsed Time: 00:00:24:19 Timeline 00:00:00 - Intros 00:01:45 - How has the SCSI/SAS standard evolved? 00:03:00 - There’s no need (currently) to go faster than 24Gb 00:03:50 - What features keep SAS relevant in the market? 00:05:35 - Hyper-scalers are driving the use of HDDs and SAS 00:06:50 - What’s new in 24Gb+? 00:09:45 - Enterprise customers will use new features (driven by hyper-scalers) 00:10:15 - What is Command Duration Limits (CDL)? 00:11:25 - What is Format with Presets? 00:13:25 - What is Logical Depopulation? 00:17:30 - Drive failure is a part of “normal” operations 00:17:50 - What features are under consideration? 00:20:15 - How will 24Gb+ features be rolled out? 00:22:30 - Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs #74 - All About Serial Attached SCSI with Rick Kutcipal #161 - Seagate MACH.2 Dual Actuator Drive Deep Dive #174 - Introduction to Zoned Storage with Phil Bullinger Copyright (c) 2016-2022 Storage Unpacked. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #fveh.