#83 – Introduction to NetApp MAX Data

#83 – Introduction to NetApp MAX Data

Chris EvansData Management, Guest Speakers

On this week’s podcast, recorded live at NetApp Insight 2018, Chris talks to Greg Knieriemen and Rob McDonald about the introduction of Memory Accelerated Data, commonly called MAX Data.  The MAX Data solution is a software product that implements a local file system on a server using local persistent memory such as Intel Optane.  Of course, this is what DAS (Direct Attached Storage) used to offer 20 years ago and this is definitely not what MAX Data provides.  Protection against loss within a server is achieved with a feature called MAX Recovery that synchronously replicates …

#82 – Storage Predictions for 2019

#82 – Storage Predictions for 2019

Chris EvansGarbage Collection

The idea of this episode was to put some structure around a set of enterprise storage predictions for 2019.  As you will hear from the dialog, that’s not quite what we achieved!  However, Chris Evans, Chris Mellor and Martin Glassborow do raise some interesting points on the direction of the industry in 2019.  The conversation starts with a look at media.  QLC flash is likely to be a hot topic, but what about storage class memory?  Have hard drives had their day or is the technology moving into a state of equilibrium? The conversation moves …

#81 – Storage or Data Asset Management?

#81 – Storage or Data Asset Management?

Chris EvansData Management, Garbage Collection

This week Chris and Martin talk about the evolution from storage management to data management.  This follows from recent vendor events where data management featured highly, but still seemed to focus on infrastructure products.  Is there a definition that can bridge the gap – something like Data Asset Management? The team start by trying to get a handle on what storage and data management actually mean.  In the data protection world, for example, DLP – data leakage prevention, or data loss prevention refer to more advanced versions of simple backup.  Things get more complex when …

#80 – Discussing NetApp’s AI Strategy with Santosh Rao

#80 – Discussing NetApp's AI Strategy with Santosh Rao

Chris EvansGuest Speakers

In this podcast recorded at NetApp Insight 2018, Chris talks to Santosh Rao, Senior Technical Director at NetApp.  Santosh leads NetApp’s AI and Data Engineering efforts and has a 10-year history at the company, working on initiatives including Clustered ONTAP. This conversation covers how NetApp is developing an Edge-to-Core-to-Cloud strategy that includes collecting and processing data at the edge, storing it in the core and exploiting the AI tools of public cloud. End users want to make the most of CPU and GPU solutions, while minimising data movement.  Edge Solutions, including ONTAP Select provide the …

#79 – Learning More About QLC Storage with Steve Hanna

#79 – Learning More About QLC Storage with Steve Hanna

Chris EvansAll-Flash, Guest Speakers

This week Chris and Martin talk to Steve Hanna, Senior Product Manager for Enterprise SSDs at Micron.  Steve looks after the 5210 ION QLC SSD product line, which was introduced earlier this year.  As an evolution of existing flash technology, QLC offers greater capacities at lower cost.  But what are the issues? The conversation covers how QLC has reduced the price to 1/100th of that seen in early enterprise SSDs.  Although endurance is lower than previous flash generations, in reality for many use cases the ability to write up to 1 DWPD is enough.  However, …

#78 – Thoughts on NetApp with Greg Knieriemen

#78 – Thoughts on NetApp with Greg Knieriemen

Chris EvansGuest Speakers

Last week Chris attended NetApp Insight in Barcelona and had a chance to chat to Greg Knieriemen, Chief Technologist in the Storage Systems & Software business at NetApp.  Greg was formerly at Hitachi Vantara where he held a similar role.  This conversation touches on Greg’s reasons for choosing NetApp and exactly what he will be focusing on within the company. Elapsed Time: 00:17:07 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:30 – Why move to NetApp? 00:04:00 – Three BUs, Storage/Systems, Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Services 00:07:00 – The Data Fabric is much more real today than two years …

#77 – HPE Performance Insights with Ivan Iannaccone

#77 – HPE Performance Insights with Ivan Iannaccone

Chris EvansGuest Speakers

This week HPE announced Performance Insights, an extension to the InfoSight platform that provides storage customers with greater detail on their 3PAR array storage performance.  Performance Insights takes the knowledge of years of HPE 3PAR data and combines it with genuine machine learning and AI to give HPE 3PAR customers actionable insights on the performance characteristics of their storage arrays.  In particular this means being able to both detect performance problems and also do more accurate workload planning. A few weeks ago, Martin and Chris talked to Ivan Iannaccone, VP and GM for the HPE …

#76 – Fibre Channel and NVMe with Mark Jones

#76 – Fibre Channel and NVMe with Mark Jones

Chris EvansGuest Speakers

In this week’s podcast, Chris and Martin talk to Mark Jones from the Fibre Channel Industry Association.  This recording is an introduction to running NVMe over Fibre Channel, setting the scene on how Fibre Channel has evolved and will continue to be a storage protocol for many years. Fibre Channel reached an important milestone in 2018.  It’s been 30 years since development and 25 years since the first products were shipped.  Speeds started at 133Mb/s, while today, Gen 6 FC runs at 32Gb/s.  Higher speeds are coming in 2019 and can also be achieved with …

#75 – It’s ILM All Over Again with Chris Mellor

#75 – It's ILM All Over Again with Chris Mellor

Chris EvansData Management, Garbage Collection

Data volumes have always increased over time as we store more information with the hope that one day some of it will be useful.  Even 30 years ago on the mainframe, Information Lifecycle Management or ILM was a thing with tools like DFHSM used to move content around between disk and tape.  This week Martin, Chris Evans and Chris Mellor talk about the new range of data management or ILM products that are looking to resolve the current issues of data sprawl. How do these products work?  It is all about data ingest, or just …

#74 – All About Serial Attached SCSI with Rick Kutcipal

#74 – All About Serial Attached SCSI with Rick Kutcipal

Chris EvansGuest Speakers

Most people probably don’t think about the protocol that connects their storage device to a PC or server.  However, NVMe has changed that and become one of the storage buzzwords of 2018.  But what about existing devices not using NVMe?  SAS or Serial Attached SCSI has been a mainstay of storage connectivity for 20 years.  With 12Gb/s throughput, SAS provides back-end connectivity for almost all the enterprise storage arrays on the market today. The SAS protocol continues to be developed, with 24Gb/s speeds due in 2019.  However, SAS is not all about speed, as we …