#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 …

#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 …

#61 – Introduction to NVM Express with Amber Huffman

#61 – Introduction to NVM Express with Amber Huffman

Chris EvansGuest Speakers, NVMe, Standards, Storage Unpacked Podcast

This is the second of a series of podcasts recorded at Flash Memory Summit 2018 in Santa Clara.  In this episode, Chris talks to Amber Huffman, Intel Fellow and President and founder of NVM Express Inc.  NVM Express is the standards body that governs the development of the NVMe base standard, NVMe-MI (Management Interface) and NVMe over Fabrics.  Amber explains how standards’ bodies are initially established, including the ongoing ownership of intellectual property.  The discussion continues, looking at how NVM Express standards are developed by committee, how the body is funded and how the process …

#58 – Storage Vendor Hero Numbers

#58 – Storage Vendor Hero Numbers

Chris EvansGarbage Collection

This week, Chris Mellor is back and the team take a dive into the subject of storage vendor hero numbers.  What are hero numbers?  We’ve all seen them, they’re the huge performance figures quoted by all-flash storage vendors aimed at putting their products forward in the best light possible. Are hero numbers believable or should we be looking at certified vendor benchmark testing as a guide to capability?  Do users even look at benchmark or hero numbers in the first place?  Could the whole exercise be a waste of time?  The conversation moves to talk …

Disaggregated Storage Part II with Zivan Ori from E8 Storage

Disaggregated Storage Part II with Zivan Ori from E8 Storage

Chris EvansGuest Speakers

In this podcast, originally recorded on 30 October 2017, Chris and Gavin follow up on the subject of disaggregated storage with Zivan Ori, CEO at E8 Storage.  E8 is a start-up that markets and sells a storage array that uses a disaggregated architecture. The conversation covers what disaggregation really means and how E8 focuses on splitting the data and control paths of traditional I/O commands.  With NVMe and RDMA, the E8 architecture allows direct access to metadata on dual controllers within the E8 hardware.  This piece was actually a revelation during the conversation as it …

Garbage Collection #005 – Disaggregated Storage

Garbage Collection #005 – Disaggregated Storage

Chris EvansGarbage Collection

In this podcast, recorded on 6th September 2017, Chris, Martin and Gavin discuss the subject of disaggregated storage.  With the move to NVMe, traditional dual controller architectures are hamstrung by the need for all data to go via the processor(s).  Disaggregation takes the component parts and makes them scalable, while removing the controller bottleneck.  The guys discuss why these solutions are needed, who the players are in the market and what we can expect to see as this section of the storage industry develops. Elapsed time: 00:21:02 Timeline 00:00:00 – Introductions – What do we …