#188 – Is Intel Optane Ready for Primetime?

#188 – Is Intel Optane Ready for Primetime?

Chris EvansAll-Flash, Garbage Collection, Intel, NVMe, Persistent Memory

This week, Chris and Martin dig deeper into the adoption of Intel Optane technology in both the consumer and enterprise markets. Optane is a new persistent memory technology that offers greater performance and lower latency compared to NAND flash, but currently is more expensive and offers smaller capacity devices. As Optane becomes more prevalent in both markets, how is it being adopted and what needs to change to increase adoption levels? Note: Since recording, Chris has tried out the Intel H10 device and the results were disappointing. Read more here. Elapsed Time: 00:31:49 Timeline 00:00:00 …

#187 – End of the Year Show 2020 – Part Two

#187 – End of the Year Show 2020 – Part Two

Chris EvansGarbage Collection

This week, Martin and the two Chris’s conclude their end of year discussions. This episode covers “Turkeys” of 2020, Missing in Action companies and those technologies that should be put into Storage Room 101. These are the products we never want to see darken our doors again. Finally, the team finish on a discussion of what to expect in 2021. And for your delight, here are some Hitachi Mr T videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW1S2tsxVHg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boZyHDJ5qCs Elapsed Time: 00:49:54 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:00 – What are the Turkeys of the Year? 00:01:40 – Is secondary data re-use …

#186 – End of the Year Show 2020 – Part One

#186 – End of the Year Show 2020 – Part One

Chris EvansGarbage Collection, Guest Speakers

This week, Martin and the two Chris’s look back at 2020 for the highlights and lowlights of the storage industry. What’s been hyped and what’s been a success? Will we be travelling in 2021 and what impact has the lockdown had on 2020 sales? This episode is the first of a two parter over the next couple of weeks before we close down for the Christmas period. Elapsed Time: 00:43:10 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:00:56 – Chris has not been to China 00:01:55 – Chris M is on a health kick! 00:02:48 – Gartner analysts …

#185 – Pure-as-a-Service 2.0 (Sponsored)

#185 – Pure-as-a-Service 2.0 (Sponsored)

Chris EvansAll-Flash, Guest Speakers, Pure Storage, Sponsored, Storage Hardware

This week Chris and Martin talk to Rob Walters, GM for Pure-as-a-Service at Pure Storage. The company has recently announced upgrades and expansion of the “as-a-service” model, formerly known as Evergreen storage. The name change and the widening of the portfolio represents an opportunity for customers to see transparent pricing and a greater depth of service offerings. In this sponsored episode, we review the origins of the service and look at how that has evolved into the capability for customers to consume Pure block and file products as true services. We discuss the challenges in …

#184 – MCAS – Memory Centric Active Storage

#184 – MCAS – Memory Centric Active Storage

Chris EvansGuest Speakers, In-Memory Computing, Persistent Memory

This week, Chris and Martin talk to Daniel Waddington, Principal Research Staff Member in the Global Storage Research Group at IBM Research. Daniel is developing MCAS – Memory Centric Active Storage – a high-performance key-value store designed for persistent memory. The aim is to create a platform that can be used to bring storage and compute closer together. Persistent memory has been a regular topic on Storage Unpacked (see related podcasts below) and we’re always interested to understand exactly how it can be fully exploited in the enterprise. PMEM offers byte-level addressing and is particularly …

#183 – Magnetic Tape AMA (Ask Matt Anything)

#183 – Magnetic Tape AMA (Ask Matt Anything)

Chris EvansData Protection, Storage Hardware, Storage Unpacked Podcast

This week Chris and Martin take the opportunity to grill (not broil) Matt Starr from Spectralogic to learn everything about magnetic tape. This episode came out of a discussion with Chris Mellor (episode #176) in which we asked the question why tape media doesn’t wear out. The answer is obviously within the podcast so you’ll need to listen to find out! In this conversation, the team look back at the evolution of tape but more importantly what we can expect in the future. Magnetic tape is more of an archive offering these days (although ransomware …

#182 – FaunaDB – Client Serverless Computing

#182 – FaunaDB – Client Serverless Computing

Chris EvansCloud, Databases, Fauna, Storage Unpacked Podcast

This week, Chris and Martin chat to Evan Weaver, CTO and co-founder at Fauna. The company has developed a database as a service, available simply through a globally available API. Fauna calls the platform “client serverless”. How can a database be made globally available and still guarantee performance, resiliency and most important, data consistency? Of course, you will need to listen to find out. As we learn in this podcast, a database accessible via API provides the ability to write applications that talk directly to the platform, with application use cases for mobile and IoT. …

#181 – Is There a Future for Storage Infrastructure Companies?

#181 – Is There a Future for Storage Infrastructure Companies?

Chris EvansGarbage Collection, Storage Hardware, Storage Unpacked Podcast

This week Chris and Martin debate the future of on-premises storage infrastructure companies in light of announcements and events from IBM, Dell and NetApp. IBM is splitting in two, while Dell and NetApp have recently held virtual versions of their annual conferences. Is the on-premises infrastructure business shrinking and becoming too low-margin to be worthwhile? Martin mentions Lou Gerstner’s book – linked here – Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? The Simpson’s episode where Mr Burns runs for Governor is “Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish” – without a doubt a …

#180 – SmartNICs – Pliops Storage Processor

#180 – SmartNICs – Pliops Storage Processor

Chris EvansGuest Speakers, Pliops, Storage Hardware, Storage Unpacked Podcast

This week Chris and Martin chat to Steve Fingerhut, CMO at Pliops. Pliops has developed a “Storage Processor” in the form factor of an AIC (add-in card) that offloads storage functions from application software. This discussion looks at why the technology is needed and how Pliops has implemented the solution to drop into an existing server. The Pliops Storage Processor acts as a high-speed key-value store, implementing in the first instance features such as data compression. As a hardware accelerator, the technology reduces CPU core overhead, saves on storage and can reduce application licensing costs. …

#179 – The Myth of Cheap Cloud Storage

#179 – The Myth of Cheap Cloud Storage

Chris EvansCloud

Everyone thinks cloud storage is cheaper than on-premises, but is that really true? When cloud storage like AWS S3 was first introduced, vendors dropped their $/GB prices on a frequent basis. However, AWS hasn’t reduced the base price of S3 in five years, instead preferring to offer cheaper tiers of storage. In this week’s episode, Chris and Martin debate the reasons for the lack of reductions, especially in light of continuing growth in HDD capacities and reducing costs. Elapsed Time: 00:30:58 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:02:00 – Is cloud storage cheaper than on-premises? 00:05:05 – …