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Storage Unpacked

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Home » Disaggregated Storage Part II with Zivan Ori from E8 Storage

Disaggregated Storage Part II with Zivan Ori from E8 Storage

3 November 2017 by Chris Evans

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 explains how shared direct access to NVMe drives can be achieved without each connected host getting in the way of another.

The conversation wraps up with a discussion on typical customers and what applications need this level of high performance and low latency.  The original podcast on disaggregation can be found here – Garbage Collection #005 – Disaggregated Storage.

Note that this podcast is a little longer than our normal shows, however it is packed with some great insights into the use of NVMe versus SAS/SATA drives and much more.

Elapsed time: 00:41:36

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 – Introductions
  • 00:01:00 – Disaggregated Storage recap
  • 00:02:00 – Separating the data and control paths, why this matters
  • 00:03:30 – How much better are NVMe drives than SAS/SATA? (Including Zivan’s laptop)
  • 00:05:30 – What about the price differential – are NVMe drives more expensive per IO?
  • 00:06:53 – Apologies for the background sneeze….
  • 00:07:23 – Betting on commodity trends – not taking the DSSD route (or Violin)
  • 00:08:20 – Getting into more technical detail
  • 00:10:00 – How can you break the dual controller model with just software?
  • 00:10:52 – Using RDMA to extend the control and data planes outside the shared array
  • 00:11:36 – How important is networking in this architecture?
  • 00:12:35 – Fibre Channel doesn’t cut it any more?
  • 00:14:06 – Why not build a server solution, rather than a storage solution?
  • 00:15:48 – Shared storage still provides an advantage over hyper-converged
  • 00:17:00 – Getting into E8 architecture in more detail
  • 00:18:52 – Client requirements, drivers, agents and emulated block devices
  • 00:20:00 – The secret sauce – splitting the data and control paths for generic I/O commands
  • 00:25:20 – and here’s the key – being able to talk to the metadata servers with very low latency
  • 00:27:00 – New architectures – driven by RDMA and NVMe
  • 00:28:48 – How is data protection within the box implemented?
  • 00:32:30 – What does a typical customer look like?
  • 00:38:00 – How does faster storage lead to better business advantage?
  • 00:39:17 – What’s next?
  • 00:40:50 – Wrap up time

Vendors/Products Mentioned In this Podcast

  • DSSD, E8 Storage, Pure Storage.

Copyright (c) 2016-2017 Storage Unpacked.  No reproduction or re-use without permission.

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Filed Under: Guest Speakers Tagged With: ChrisE, DSSD, E8 Storage, Gavin, NVMe, Pure Storage, RDMA, RoCE

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Storage Field Day 14 Preview: E8 Storage - Architecting IT says:
    8 November 2017 at 4:22 pm

    […] held off reviewing E8 Storage as we had a podcast scheduled with CEO Zivan Ori, which went live last Friday.  Rather than make assumptions about the technology, I wanted to ensure I was giving some credit […]

  2. Performance Analysis of SAS/SATA and NVMe SSDs - Architecting IT says:
    1 February 2018 at 7:54 am

    […] Disaggregated Storage Part II with Zivan Ori from E8 Storage (Storage Unpacked, retrieved 3 January 2018) […]

  3. #69 - IPExpo 2018 - Cloudian, E8 Storage, StorCentric and Zerto | Storage Unpacked Podcast says:
    5 October 2018 at 11:09 am

    […] Disaggregated Storage Part II with Zivan Ori from E8 Storage […]

  4. Performance Analysis of SAS/SATA and NVMe SSDs - Architecting IT says:
    26 June 2019 at 2:05 pm

    […] Disaggregated Storage Part II with Zivan Ori from E8 Storage (Storage Unpacked, retrieved 3 January 2018) […]

  5. Cloud Services - Build, Buy or Fork? - Architecting IT says:
    31 July 2019 at 12:32 pm

    […] NVMe SDS solutions must also be targets.  Imagine companies like Lightbits Labs, Excelero or E8 Storage that offer software-based NVMe connectivity.  A CSP could use this technology to implement […]

  6. #116 - Fixing Gaps in Cloud Storage with Andy Watson | Storage Unpacked Podcast says:
    6 September 2019 at 4:23 pm

    […] Disaggregated Storage Part II with Zivan Ori from E8 Storage […]

  7. #207 - AWS Gets a SAN Upgrade | Storage Unpacked Podcast says:
    30 July 2021 at 12:00 pm

    […] Disaggregated Storage Part II with Zivan Ori from E8 Storage […]

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