On reading my thoughts about the evolution of enterprise storage, culminating in what I called “The Rack Endgame” where a rack of storage, networking, and compute becomes a the basic entity of the datacenter, many pointed out that this looks an awful lot like the Facebook-led Open Compute Project (OCP). This is entirely intentional. But OCP is simply one expression of this new … [Read more...] about The Rack Endgame: Open Compute Project
scalability
Scale-Out Storage Field Day?
Let me set the record straight: Tech Field Day events don’t have official themes. We don’t select companies based on what sort of technology they are selling or tell our presenters what to focus on. But it sure seems like we do sometimes! At Storage Field Day 3 in April, it seemed like everyone was talking about flash caching. Delegates at that event saw the launch of Pernix … [Read more...] about Scale-Out Storage Field Day?
Scaling Storage Is Hard To Do
Data storage isn't as easy as it sounds, especially at enterprise or cloud scale. It's simple enough to read and write a bit of data, but much harder to build a system that scales to store petabytes. That's why I'm keenly focused on a new wave of storage systems built from the ground up for scaling! No More Monoliths Traditional storage arrays are integrated monoliths: A … [Read more...] about Scaling Storage Is Hard To Do
Qumulo: An Enterprise Storage Startup Focused on Scale, Simplicity, and Efficiency
Enterprise storage is perhaps the most innovative area of IT these days, with exciting startups springing up right and left. Today, that scene welcomes Qumulo, who are building a new storage platform focused on scalability, efficiency, and simplicity. Qumulo catches my eye for two reasons: The team is heavy with Isilon experience, and CTO Aaron Passey really impressed me with … [Read more...] about Qumulo: An Enterprise Storage Startup Focused on Scale, Simplicity, and Efficiency
Lessons From the Cloud Computing Conference and Expo Prague 2009
What is the cloud? What will become of it? I spent May 17 and 18 in Prague at the Sys-Con Cloud Computing Conference and Expo exploring these questions with some of the smartest cloud-focused folks in Europe. The consensus: The IT world is changing and remote managed services are a big part of it. Another discovery: There are many, many terrible cloud puns in all languages. … [Read more...] about Lessons From the Cloud Computing Conference and Expo Prague 2009