Storage Unpacked

A weekly podcast on deploying and managing enterprise storage and data

Guest Speakers

#239 – Unpacking the details of PCI Express 7.0 with Al Yanes

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The PCI-SIG recently announced the next generation of PCI Express - 7.0 - will be released in 2025. We've only just heard about PCIe 6.0 (see this recent podcast), so it's interesting to see that the working group is already committed to extending the performance and capabilities of PCIe further into the future. Chris caught up with Al Yanes (President and Chairperson of … [Read more...] about #239 – Unpacking the details of PCI Express 7.0 with Al Yanes

#238 – SAS 24Gb+ Updates with Rick Kutcipal

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Once again Chris is joined by Rick Kutcipal, board member with the SCSI Trade Association. It's been four years since episode #74 when Rick provided an update on SAS 24Gb. This time, Rick has details of new features in 24Gb+. What does the "plus" mean in this context? While the bus speed may not be increasing, new features (+) are continually being added to the SAS … [Read more...] about #238 – SAS 24Gb+ Updates with Rick Kutcipal

#237 – Flash Memory Summit 2022 in Review with Chris Mellor

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In this episode, Chris chats to friend of the show Chris Mellor from Blocks and Files. Both Chris's attended Flash Memory Summit this year, held annually in San Jose and in person for the first time since 2019. Two big technology developments stand out from this year's event. Firstly CXL, which is current flavour of the month with all vendors. The second is the diversity of … [Read more...] about #237 – Flash Memory Summit 2022 in Review with Chris Mellor

#236 – A FlashCore Module Primer with IBM Fellow & Storage CTO Andy Walls

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In this episode recorded at Flash Memory Summit 2022, Chris talks to IBM Fellow, Flash Storage CTO and FlashSystem Chief Architect, Andy Walls. In episode #235, we started the discussion on FlashCore Modules (FCM), whereas this podcast conversation talks about the technology origins and benefits. The impact of FCM has been to deliver the highest capacity drive on the market, … [Read more...] about #236 – A FlashCore Module Primer with IBM Fellow & Storage CTO Andy Walls

#235 – FlashCore Futures with IBM CMO Scott Baker

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In this episode, Chris is joined by IBM Storage CMO Scott Baker. The discussion takes place at Flash Memory Summit 2022 (FMS), being held in person in Santa Clara, USA. FlashCore Modules are IBM's custom flash drives, developed from IP acquired with the acquisition of Texas Memory Systems. Scott is presenting at FMS, discussing how FlashCore could be used for anomaly … [Read more...] about #235 – FlashCore Futures with IBM CMO Scott Baker

#234 – Introducing Pure Storage FlashBlade//S and Evergreen//Flex with CTO Rob Lee (Sponsored)

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In this episode, Chris talks to Rob Lee, CTO at Pure Storage about today's announcement covering FlashBlade//S and Evergreen//Flex. FlashBlade//S is a new hardware platform that evolves the solution into a disaggregated architecture. The design enables compute and storage resources to be scaled independently, while incorporating existing DFMs (DirectFlash Modules) that are … [Read more...] about #234 – Introducing Pure Storage FlashBlade//S and Evergreen//Flex with CTO Rob Lee (Sponsored)

#233 – Introduction to the VAST Data Ceres Hardware Platform with Jeff Denworth (Sponsored)

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In this episode, Chris is in conversation with VAST Data CMO, Jeff Denworth. The topic covers the recent announcement of Ceres, a new hardware platform combining ruler form-factor flash and BlueField DPUs. The new solution, which will eventually replace the current "Mavericks" D-boxes is a 1U system with flash, storage-class memory and network connectivity through DPU … [Read more...] about #233 – Introduction to the VAST Data Ceres Hardware Platform with Jeff Denworth (Sponsored)

#232 – Building Power-Efficient Storage Systems with Justin Emerson from Pure Storage (Sponsored)

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In this episode, Chris talks to Justin Emerson from Pure Storage about modern design considerations for power-efficient storage. The cost of powering data centres has increased massively over the last 12 months, driven by the global economy and recovery from COVID-19. At a component level, servers are increasing their power usage, with faster processors and memory, plus the … [Read more...] about #232 – Building Power-Efficient Storage Systems with Justin Emerson from Pure Storage (Sponsored)

#231 – Introducing Infinidat InfiniBox SSA II (Sponsored)

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In this episode, Chris talks to Eric Herzog, CMO at Infinidat about the announcement of SSA II, the second generation all-flash InfiniBox platform. The first generation SSA (solid state array) was developed to address a customer requirement that all long-tail latency I/Os must be delivered at all-flash levels of performance. The InfiniBox architecture is capable of delivering … [Read more...] about #231 – Introducing Infinidat InfiniBox SSA II (Sponsored)

#230 – Seagate NVMe Hard Drives

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In this episode, Chris and Martin discuss NVMe hard drives with Tim Walker and Mohamad El-Batal from Seagate Research. The concept behind the NVMe HDD is simple - provide a native NVMe interface to traditional enterprise nearline hard drives. Does this approach make sense and what can be gained, other than standardising on an interface? With SMR, multi-actuator and other … [Read more...] about #230 – Seagate NVMe Hard Drives