Storage Unpacked Blog

In this episode, Chris talks to Sharad Kumar, Field CTO at Qlik about the value of good-quality data when developing AI solutions. Much of the current discussion around AI and large-language models (LLMs) is focused on the infrastructure and the significant expense needed to build and train generative AI. However, as the revelation of DeepSeek shows, the industry trend will see models commoditise and become cheaper to train and run. If infrastructure and software become quickly affordable, what is the differentiator for businesses? The answer is clearly their data. Data has value to an enterprise, but only if it is in an acceptable format. That means being of high quality and in terms of how Qlik operates, a trusted resource. During the conversation, Sharad explains the six metrics of the Talend Trust Score, a methodology that measures the value of data based on Diversity, Timeliness, Accuracy, Security, Discoverability and Consumability. He explains how the Trust Score is calculated, but more importantly, how businesses can build a framework to continually improve the quality and value of their data resources. More information on Qlik can be found on the company website – here. Sharad mentions the user conference taking place in May, details of which can be found here. Finally, Sharad references the Qlik LinkedIn page, which can be found here. Elapsed Time: 00:47:47 Timeline 00:00:00 – Introductions 00:01:46 – Data is the value piece within AI, not infrastructure 00:02:27 – What is occurring within the AI market? 00:04:25 – The future will be a mix of AI model types and sizes 00:05:20 – Will businesses build or buy models? 00:07:10 – How will agentic AI architectures work? 00:10:30 – Customers need to focus on data quality 00:12:44 – Both training and RAG data needs to be high quality 00:14:40 – Agentic AI wil be intent-driven 00:16:43 – What does good data look like within an enterprise? 00:19:28 – Qlik has a 6-dimensional trust score 00:26:11 – How do customers calculate their trust score? 00:30:09 – Is AI driving better data quality? 00:34:51 – Qlik can help customers develop a data improvement programme 00:37:36 – Qlik brings “product thinking” to data 00:38:56 – Where are businesses on the AI journey? 00:41:12 – How is improving data quality driving improving AI benefits? 00:42:26 – AI could be applied to fix data quality problems Copyright (c) 2016-2025 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #ggc2

In this episode, Chris discusses the options available to storage system vendors when building modern storage appliances, with Bill Basinas, Senior Director, Product Marketing at Infinidat. The conversation derives from an observation on architectural choices, following the move to AMD processors from Intel for the latest G4 systems built by Infinidat. AMD offers a greater core count per processor compared to Intel, allowing Infinidat to move to single socket designs, while gaining improvements from PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 memory. Ultimately, this discussion highlights how modern storage system design can take standardised components and build flexible architectures, implementing most features in software. For Infinidat, that could mean expanding its range of solutions for smaller enterprise requirements, or building out products specifically for Edge use cases. Although Bill did not reveal any future plans, the implication is clear – watch this space for future evolution of the InfiniBox architecture to a wider and more varied set of hardwaree configurations. Elapsed Time: 00:37:13 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:15 – How do vendors choose the hardware components for storage systems? 00:02:30 – What are the main (storage) technology challenges for customers? 00:04:08 – Customers want predictable data features 00:05:55 – Capacity demand continues to grow relentlessly 00:07:30 – Infinidat features are built into software 00:09:35 – Most AI requirements wil run on existing performance storage 00:11:20 – Modern hardware provides significant flexibility for system design 00:15:00 – AMD gives access to single and high core-count processors 00:16:10 – PCIe 5.0 provides for faster SSDs and power efficiency 00:18:46 – Infinidat has introduced smaller form-factor solutions 00:21:32 – Multiple cores will always get used! 00:25:53 – Infinidat G4 architecture provides for in-place controller upgrades 00:28:22 – Storage arrays should become more “virtual” 00:34:10 – Data services implementations are very different between vendors 00:35:55 – Hybrid architecture still has value in the Infinidat world 00:36:20 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs Storage Unpacked 258 – Introducing Infinidat G4, InfuzeOS 8 and InfiniSafe ACP #202 – Enterprise Storage Consolidation with Phil Bullinger from Infinidat Infinidat adds customer value with SSA Express and improved SSA capacity Copyright (c) 2016-2025 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #e4dr

In this episode, Chris discusses the enduring benefits of centralised storage, particularly with reference to storage virtualisation, with Dan Kogan, VP of Enterprise Growth and Solutions and Cody Hosterman, Senior Director of Product Management, both from Pure Storage. Centralised or shared storage has been around for over 30 years, providing efficiencies in infrastructure and operational management. In the virtualisation context, centralisation provides the ability to abstract workloads from the hypervisor and add flexibility and data management features to a centrally managed platform. Vendors, such as Pure Storage, have invested resources in making centralised storage efficient, while also providing significant security benefits that couldn’t be achieved with an HCI model. Although this discussion was intended to focus on centralisation, the ultimate conclusion of the conversation is to realise that centralised storage is a precursor to storage-as-a-service. This is where the industry is headed, whether using on-premises or public cloud infrastructure. Elapsed Time: 00:35:34 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:17 – Shared or Centralised Storage has become a perpetual feature of the data centre 00:02:00 – Where did centralised storage come from? 00:03:03 – VMware introduced compute efficiencies, centralised storage does the same 00:05:20 – Centralised storage now incorporates block, file and object protocols 00:07:10 – HCI was probably the biggest “challenge” to centralised storage 00:13:04 – Centralisation is bringing additional consolidation benefits 00:15:55 – Centralisation provides significant operational benefits 00:17:36 – Integrated storage (HCI) is inherently insecure compared to centralised storage 00:22:31 – Data mobility is a key requirement of modern enterprises 00:29:11 – Centralised storage is driving us towards storage-as-a-service. 00:31:10 – Storage is becoming an “endpoint” 00:32:31 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs Analysis: Storage vendors assist in the optimisation of VMware workloads Copyright (c) 2016-2024 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #jjr3

In this episode, Chris is in conversation with Jeb Horton, SVP Global Services at Hitachi Vantara, discussing the capabilities of Hitachi Vantara’s Global Services offerings, which deliver infrastructure management and infrastructure as a service to its customers. In addition to EverFlex, Hitachi Vantara has a long history of managed services capabilities that span more than just outsourced storage. As Jeb explains, the company also manages storage infrastructure from other vendors, in addition to non-storage systems. The interesting aspect of this discussion is the complex nature of the interaction between customers and Hitachi. Solutions offerings aren’t merely “transactional”, but have a human aspect and are tailored to meeting the specific goals of the customer. This conversation explores some of the nuances of working with customers to transfer the burden of infrastructure management to Hitachi, enabling businesses to focus on more strategic opportunities. To learn more about Hitachi Vantara check out the Infrastructure as a Service section on the Hitachi website – https://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/services/infrastructure-as-a-service. Elapsed Time: 00:48:02 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:43 – What is “Infrastructure as a Service”? 00:03:25 – What else to customers want from a service (other than cost saving)? 00:05:20 – Public cloud has increased the appetite for service-based consumption 00:06:24 – What is the core of the Hitachi Vantara services offering? 00:07:14 – Hitachi added automation into a “services platform” 00:10:26 – The human aspect involves skills but also relationships 00:12:20 – A service contract involves a detailed commercial model 00:13:51 – Service also means service levels and agreements 00:16:53 – Cloud is transactional, what is Hitachi’s “value add”? 00:19:45 – Data has value, which is the focus of service offerings 00:22:26 – How does Hitachi help government institutions? 00:26:50 – What sort of data issues does Hitachi deal with? 00:28:33 – Data and AI will be a key issue to manage 00:30:40 – How does the engagement process work with Hitachi (and what is EverFlex)? 00:37:15 – What are real-world examples of Hitachi customers and requirements? 00:46:51 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs Hitachi Vantara Microsite Storage Unpacked 260 – Hitachi VSP One Updates with Dan McConnell Storage Unpacked 254 – Announcing VSP One and Hitachi Vantara Reorganisation Copyright (c) 2016-2024 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #4d3x

In this recording, Chris talks to Subbiah Sundaram, SVP of Products at HYCU, Inc. about the 2024 edition of the HYCU State of SaaS Data Resilience Report. The report surveys customers to understand the gaps in perceived and actual data protection for SaaS platforms and the results are quite surprising. Subbiah walks through the top four findings, covering the understanding of the pervasive nature of SaaS in modern business, perceptions of data protection and the unexpected risks created by SaaS platforms. HYCU provides a robust and comprehensive approach to SaaS data protection, called R-Graph, part of R-Cloud. We’ve covered these products in previous podcasts, shown in the related content section below. We recommend downloading the report, which can be found here – The State of SaaS Data Resilience in 2024. Details on R-Graph can be found here – R-Graph. Elapsed Time: 00:39:59 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:39 – What is the SaaS Resiliency Report for 2024? 00:02:23 – There are over 35,000 global SaaS applications 00:04:11 – SaaS has become embedded in business process 00:05:02 – Businesses underestimate SaaS applications by 10x 00:06:29 – Businesses don’t realise SaaS data isn’t protected like on-premises 00:09:20 – 61% of data breaches occur through SaaS platforms 00:13:40 – Businesses assume cloud platforms protect their data 00:15:18 – The reasons for data restoration are multi-fold and business related 00:17:47 – 75% of critical infrastructure (identity management) was not being protected 00:19:21 – All credentials management systems operate slightly differently 00:22:30 – Business process creates historical security exceptions 00:26:09 – use R-Graph to discover your application dependencies 00:27:42 – Protect your identity management systems 00:31:09 – R-Cloud enables anyone to add data integrations for backup 00:32:26 – Protect your endpoints, protect your data, protect your customer data 00:34:18 – Where does SaaS data protection go next? Tracking behaviour 00:37:14 – R-Cloud can be used for cross-environment data seeding 00:39:12 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs Data Unpacked 006 – Introducing HYCU R-Cloud Data Unpacked 004 – Reflections on Data Management, Security & Protection With HYCU CEO Simon Taylor Research Note: HYCU extends SaaS Integration with R-Scout and Generative AI HYCU expands SaaS and IaaS backup with protection for AWS Infrastructure as Code HYCU tackles the SaaS data protection challenge with the announcement of R-Cloud Copyright (c) 2016-2024 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #vcxz

In this podcast episode, Chris is in conversation with Jeffries Briginshaw (Head of EMEA Government Relations at NetApp) and Adam Gale (CTO for AI & Cyber Security, NetApp) discussing the EU AI Act and the regulation of artificial intelligence across the world. The EU AI Act is an early introduction into the regulation of the use of AI by businesses within their engagements and interactions with customers. As explained in this conversation, there are classifications of AI types and within that, restrictions on what businesses are permitted to implement based on those categorisations. Some AI usage will be banned, while others will require human intervention and close monitoring. How should your business engage with AI and ensure compliance with the act? Listen to the discussion for more details. As mentioned in the recording, for details on what NetApp can offer, point your favourite browser to https://www.netapp.com/artificial-intelligence/ to learn more. Elapsed Time: 00:52:17 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:19 – Why should we be regulating AI? 00:02:30 – What will the impacts of AI be on personal and work life? 00:03:55 – What if we get regulation wrong? 00:05:30 – What happens if AI goes wrong, such as data poisoning? 00:09:04 – Existing EU/UK law has been successful at regulation (GDPR) 00:10:25 – What is the EU AI Act? 00:11:46 – “Prohibited Practices” will be banned from 2025 00:14:00 – How will the use of business in AI be regulated? 00:18:05 – The EU AI Act appears to focus on protection for individuals 00:20:56 – EU citizens are broadly positive to AI – if it is successfully regulated 00:21:52 – Compliance has an overhead – in terms of hard costs (developers) 00:25:20 – What are the penalties for not complying with the EU AI Act? 00:29:50 – What about the rest of the world – the US and elsewhere? 00:35:10 – Could we see “cross-border” complexity? 00:37:40 – What are the technology implications for AI regulation? 00:40:07 – Should businesses be demonstrating their AI compliance? 00:44:03 – What does NetApp offer customers to help AI compliance? 00:47:38 – AI will require a “big red stop button” 00:50:00 – Wrap Up Copyright (c) 2016-2024 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #dfsx

In this podcast episode, Chris discusses the platform update announcements from Pure Accelerate 2024 with Prakash Darji, VP and GM of the Digital Experience BU at Pure Storage. The new features focus on usability and operational enhancements, including AI-based features and support for AI workloads. Highlighted in this discussion are: Fusion automation enhancements for fleet management and individual arrays New Generative AI Copilot for storage to provide querying capabilities and advice Evergreen//One for AI – an AI-level tier of Storage-as-a-Service NVIDIA SuperPOD Ethernet Certification Secure application Workspaces using Portworx Cyber Recovery and Resilience SLAs Security Assessment SLA AI-Powered Anomaly Detection enhancements Site Rebalance SLA AI-Powered Reserve Expansion recommendations As the list shows, there are lots of new updates to make the management and operation of a Pure Storage fleet more efficient and easy. As Prakash explains the reasoning behind the features, it is clear that AI is being used to deliver simplicity, while the platform will provide support for customers wanting to build AI-focused workloads. To learn more, follow the news from Pure Accelerate 2024 here (link). Prakash mentions two blog posts, which can be found here – Ransomware is a Darwinian Problem That Will Never Be Solved and Editorial: Why Centralised Storage Refuses to Go Away. Elapsed Time: 00:38:33 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:00:51 – It’s not all about AI! 00:01:34 – What changes have been announced to the Pure Storage platform? 00:02:37 – New features include cybersecurity enhancements and simplicity of management 00:03:30 – How do we manage systems at scale? 00:04:27 – Applications need policy management 00:05:08 – Fusion has been enhanced to enable array or fleet management at the same time 00:08:10 – Pure is introducing a GenAI Copilot in preview 00:12:19 – Evergreen now has an AI storage-as-a-service tier 00:14:00 – Pay for performance and capacity is a feature of Evergreen 00:15:55 – SuperPod certification for Ethernet is coming to Pure Storage arrays 00:16:40 – There must be many Jensen clones 00:18:27 – Pure is introducing secure application workspaces using Portworx 00:22:32 – New cybersecurity features include a security assessment for configuration settings 00:23:19 – There is also a security SLA for fixing and certificating security settings 00:24:01 – The AI Copilot will also recommend security improvements 00:24:32 – Anomaly detection is now performance-based, looking at typical profiles 00:30:45 – Reserve expansion recommendation is now AI-powered 00:31:55 – Reserve commit across sites can now be rebalanced once per year 00:33:40 – It’s easy for storage to become fragmented between sites 00:36:27 – When will the new features be made available? 00:37:45 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs Storage Unpacked 259 – Sustainable Storage in the World of AI with Shawn Rosemarin Storage Unpacked 257 – The Future of Data Storage in the Enterprise Storage Unpacked 252 – A Vision of Storage Future with Coz from Pure Storage Storage Unpacked 251 – Modernising Storage as a Service with Prakash Darji Pure Storage Microsite X-Ray: Pure Storage, Inc. Copyright (c) 2016-2024 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #

In this podcast episode, Chris catches up with Dan McConnell, Senior VP for Product Management at Hitachi Vantara. The company recently announced VSP One Block, a new mid-range appliance for block storage. This follows on from two product announcements in April, which we covered in this Research Note, and the restructuring of Hitachi Vantara announced towards the end of last year (see this Research Note). Dan discusses VSP One Block, an appliance that targets mid-range storage requirements. He also covers VSP One SDS, a software-defined solution which runs in AWS and on-premises. The third product announcement covers file, with VSP One File, the latest iteration of the technology that came from the BlueArc acquisition over a decade ago. You can find out more about the Block Storage Appliance here (link and here). Details on the VSP One SDS announcement can be found here (link), which includes details on VSP One File. Elapsed Time: 00:15:29 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:18 – April 2024 announcement – VSP One SDS & VSP File 00:02:00 – Hitachi blog products use SVOS 00:03:13 – VSP one SDS is scale-out 00:03:51 – VSP File is the evolution of previous file-based products 00:05:16 – The VSP One family introduces consistent management & hybrid support 00:06:24 – EverFlex introduces multiple consumption models 00:08:30 – VSP Block 20 is the next generation mid-range storage array 00:10:10 – Dynamic Carbon Reduction optimises power usage by workload demand 00:12:03 – What comes next? 00:13:15 – Cloud storage products shouldn’t be a “lift and shift” 00:14:47 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs Research Note: Hitachi Vantara VSP One reaches GA Research Note: Hitachi Vantara reorganises and announces VSP One Platform Hitachi Vantara Microsite X-Ray: Hitachi Vantara Storage Unpacked 254 – Announcing VSP One and Hitachi Vantara Reorganisation with Gary Lyng Copyright (c) 2016-2024 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #4dcx

In this episode, Chris discusses the topic of building sustainable storage solutions with Shawn Rosemarin, Global VP of Customer Engineering at Pure Storage. AI and specifically Generative AI (GenAI) has become a hot topic over the past 12 months. Businesses are looking at projects to use AI internally for productivity gains, but also to drive additional business. However, AI is still relatively expensive and requires huge volumes of training data. Training is an ongoing process that must react to changes in the data landscape, such as rights and permissions, and government regulation. With AI hardware being so expensive, it’s important to get the storage piece right, and that means having a scalable and cost effective solution. Shawn details how Pure Storage has focused on two aspects. First, the hardware, where DFMs (direct flash modules) have reached 75TB, with commitments to deliver 150TB and 300TB drives in the next few years. Second, the software management capability delivered through Purity, the operating system of Pure Storage hardware. It’s clear that building cost and power-efficient flash devices will be a challenge for the wider industry, where the focus lies with consumer devices. Pure Storage believes it is well positioned to help customers and potentially hyper-scalers in their goals to deliver efficient storage for AI. As Shawn highlights, this topic and more will be discussed at Pure Accelerate, to be held in Las Vegas from 18-21 June 2024. Check out the website where you can learn more. Elapsed Time: 00:52:08 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:44 – We’ve been quiet on the topic of AI 00:03:10 – AI has become cost-effective (sort of) 00:04:00 – Efficient AI is a 10-15 year journey 00:05:22 – AI technology needs to be efficient due to the resource demands 00:06:41 – Data growth is currently growing at 30% per annum 00:07:31 – Early mover may not be the best move with AI 00:08:16 – 149 foundational models were released in 2023 00:09:10 – Businesses will want to merge public and private data 00:10:40 – Results accuracy is super-important 00:13:30 – Trusted AI will be adopted in areas like security & vehicle evasive manoeuvres 00:15:10 – Where will AI models be developed? 00:16:37 – Model retraining will be required due to changing data ownership & permissions 00:18:30 – Model training also needs to be resource efficient 00:19:49 – $100 million to do the basic training of an AI model 00:22:26 – How do you feed GPUs with adequate data to run at 100% 00:24:10 – Edge devices could be used for AI processing 00:25:18 – How will data centres need to evolve for AI? 00:28:08 – Sustainability, regulation and jobs will all be issues in AI deployment 00:31:05 – With HPC, many users built bespoke systems and that’s a problem for AI 00:33:45 – How will businesses “industrialise” their AI projects? 00:36:46 – Storage density will help resolve the operational issues of AI storage 00:38:19 – SSD vendors’ main market is 2TB consumer SSDs 00:39:32 – 300TB drives are great, but how will software manage the hardware? 00:41:51 – Pure Storage DFMs will grow exponentially in capacity 00:42:43 – Hardware engineering is cool again! 00:45:15 – How will the hyper-scalers deal with massive storage growth? 00:51:30 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs Storage Unpacked 257 – The Future of Data Storage in the Enterprise Storage Unpacked 252 – A Vision of Storage Future with Coz from Pure Storage Storage Unpacked 245 – Design Strategies for 300TB Flash Drives with Shawn Rosemarin from Pure Storage Dude, Here’s Your 300TB Flash Drive! Copyright (c) 2016-2024 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #xs2w

In this episode, Chris talks to Infinidat CMO, Eric Herzog. Infinidat has announced one of the biggest upgrades in eight years, with the release of InfiniBox and InfiniBox SSA G4, the fourth generation of enterprise-class storage. Accompanying the new hardware is an upgrade to InfuzeOS, the Infinidat storage operating system, and a new feature for InfiniSafe – Automated Cyber Protection, or ACP. Infinidat has upgraded both the InfiniBox and InfiniBox SSA platforms with a generation 4 release that includes a switch to AMD processors. Using the EPYC 9554P enables Infinidat to use a single-socket design, while gaining from the move to DDR5 system memory and PCIe 5.0 I/O. The savings to the customer are space, power and cooling. The AMD move also enables Infinidat to release new hardware configurations, including a 14U rack-mount solution for edge data centres, rather than just the custom rack used to ship existing products. InfuzeOS gains an upgrade to version 8, with support for InfuzeOS in the public cloud on Microsoft Azure (AWS was announced last year). The new hardware and software improvements result in a 2x performance gain for customers. One final announcement covers InfiniSafe and the ability to automate snapshots through the integration of cyber-detection technology with InfiniBox and InfiniBox SSA. Customers can now automate the creation of immutable snapshots if their SIEM or SOAR platform detects malicious activity. This capability reduces the size of the threat window and the potential volume of data needing recovery, should a breach occur. There’s a lot more detail in the podcast, so go ahead and listen! For more information on any of the announcements in this podcast episode, visit https://www.infinidat.com/. Elapsed Time: 00:47:27 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:00 – What’s new with Infinidat? G4 hardware, InfuzeOS updates and InfiniSafe ACP 00:01:40 – G4 -new platform, both hybrid & all-flash, using AMD processors 00:02:50 – Processor choice is available, but software is the key 00:04:00 – InfuzeOS 8.0 is compatible with previous hardware generations 00:04:40 – How has the physical specification of systems changed? 00:07:15 – 14U option now available for use in standard racks 00:10:00 – Why new form factor? Increased TAM 00:11:00 – New controller upgrade programme introduced – Mobius 00:12:15 – In-place upgrades are more practical with flash systems 00:15:29 – What is InfiniVerse? 00:18:25 – Fleet Management is now table stakes – and a differentiator 00:20:17 – InfuzeOS is now available in AWS and Azure 00:24:45 – Why use a cloud SDS solution – portability 00:27:09 – InfiniSafe – what is Automated Cyber Protection? 00:29:02 – Guaranteed immutable snapshots & recovery times 00:33:39 – Dynamic snapshots based on threat identification reduces threat windows 00:37:00 – ACP provides an holistic approach to data security 00:40:41 – InfiniSafe cyber-protection now scans VMware virtual machine datastores 00:44:00 – What is the availability of all the new offerings? 00:45:30 – Live demos and Webinars are coming over the next few months 00:46:42 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs Storage Unpacked 250 – Infinidat announces SSA Express and higher capacity SSA II Storage Unpacked 247 – Infinidat announces InfuzeOS Cloud Edition and InfiniSafe Cyber Detection #231 – Introducing Infinidat InfiniBox SSA II #227 – Infinidat InfiniGuard Enhancements with Eric Herzog Infinidat Microsite Infinidat adds customer value with SSA Express and improved SSA capacity The Quiet Success of Infinidat Copyright (c) 2016-2024 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #xs2w

In this sponsored episode, Chris talks to Fred Lherault and Larry Touchette from Pure Storage on the evolution of storage in the enterprise and the impacts on storage administration. The conversation is divided into three areas focusing on the customer, the administrator and the business. From the customer’s perspective, the requirements of on-premises data centre storage have changed significantly. Users expect resources to be deployed on demand, using APIs, CLIs or a GUI, without the intervention of a storage administrator. The self-service aspect is also aligned with 100% availability, an expectation that has evolved from the public cloud. End users have less interest in the hardware itself, but instead focus on metrics (IOPS, latency, throughput) and see storage as an endpoint to be consumed. The role of the storage administrator has evolved to be one similar to that of a product manager. The administration role is much more focused on ensuring storage is available and operating efficiently, rather than on the mundane task of provisioning resources. This means keeping close control on capacity growth, upgrades and patching. For the business, costs and efficient consumption models are key. With 30-40% annual growth in consumed terabytes, year-on-year costs need to decline, while systems must become more power, space and cooling efficient. Pure Storage has introduced Pure1 and Fusion, tools for the business and administrators to ensure that the storage infrastructure operates efficiently and meets the SLAs expected by internal customers. During the discussion, we highlight Pure Storage’s annual user conference, Accelerate, which will take place in Las Vegas between June 18th and 21st. Here is a list of some useful related content that discusses the evolution of storage in the data centre. Storage Unpacked 252 – A Vision of Storage Future with Coz from Pure Storage Storage Unpacked 251 – Modernising Storage as a Service with Prakash Darji from Pure Storage Storage Unpacked 248 – FlashArray R4 Announcements From Pure Accelerate 2023 Storage Unpacked 245 – Design Strategies for 300TB Flash Drives with Shawn Rosemarin from Pure Storage The Great Cloud Repatriation Debate – Data Storage Pure Storage announces Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service, SLA guarantees and operational cost rebates Delivering True Storage-as-a-Service Pure//Launch – Pure Storage Announces Fusion and Portworx Data Services Elapsed time: 00:49:53 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:02:25 – How has storage management changed over the last two decades? 00:03:07 – What are the modern storage requirements of enterprise customers? 00:04:32 – The speed and agility of the public cloud is driving on-premises expectations 00:06:40 – There is a mix of customer maturity in the enterprise 00:09:48 – Customers expect less focus on hardware and more on metrics of delivery 00:12:00 – Sustainability – including power costs – are increasingly important to customers 00:13:05 – Automation – via GUI, API and CLI is expected, to reduce delivery times 00:14:51 – Businesses expect 100% uptime, with no downtime requirement for upgrades 00:17:01 – Storage “arrays” are now virtual, as data outlives the hardware 00:18:46 – Do storage administrators now have an easier job? 00:20:33 – Pure Storage takes some of the admin burden off the customer 00:22:13 – Admins need to manage infrastructure, while providing access to the technology 00:24:52 – How do businesses manage the financial demands of growing storage needs? 00:27:27 – Modern consumption models are driven by architectural features 00:29:16 – Pure Storage has operational processes to manage customer on-demand consumption 00:33:15 – Efficient resource management is analogous to retail stock control 00:34:00 – Pure1 and analytics tools provide the capability to efficiently model workload placement 00:36:53 – Modern storage has many internal management functions that need AI/ML planning 00:39:00 – So what should storage vendors be delivering, as minimum functional requirements? 00:40:39 – Pure hardware and software is intrinsically linked 00:41:45 – As flash improves, vendors like Pure can address many more performance & cost use cases 00:45:00 – Pure systems started at 5.5TB, now into multi-petabytes 00:48:10 – Wrap Up Copyright (c) 2016-2024 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #khv9.

In this episode, Chris chats to Rick Kutcipal, “At-Large Director” with the SCSI Trade Association. The topic of conversation is the adoption of SAS media (both HDDs and SSDs) by hyper-scale customers that include public cloud vendors and companies such as Meta. Market perception implies that NVMe-based drives are taking over the world, but that’s far from the truth. As Rick explains, some 90% of exabytes shipped on SSDs and HDDs are still using the SAS interface. SAS scales much better (in terms of drives in systems) than NVMe, while offering a competitive price point when looking at “slot cost”. There’s a lot of detail to digest in this discussion. It touches on some novel features of HDDs, for example, including Depop and Command Duration Limits. What is clear from the conversation is the longevity of SAS into the future, even as the transition to flash-based media continues. To learn more about the SCSI Trade Association, check out their website at https://www.snia.org/groups/sta-forum. You can also find them on Linkedin – here. Elapsed Time: 00:33:09 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:30 – Hyper-scalers are big users of SAS devices 00:02:55 – Refresher – What are SAS and SATA? 00:04:55 – What are storage requirements for Hyper-scalers? 00:05:40 – Requirements differ by area (engineers, operations and architects) 00:07:15 – Small percentage savings make a big difference to Hyper-scalers 00:08:45 – SAS scales to thousands of drives, with built-in management 00:10:00 – Certain features have been added specifically for Hyper-scalers 00:12:10 – I/O density continues to decline with HDD capacity increases 00:13:55 – Drive systems can be a mix of NVMe and SAS/SATA drives 00:15:30 – Reliability is critical, to avoid data centre interventions 00:18:15 – Scale is only achievable with SAS 00:19:35 – The supplanting of HDDs by SSDs is debatable 00:21:30 – Large-scale SSDs are seeing the same issue as large HDDs 00:23:30 – Tiering will continue to be important within the storage industry 00:25:00 – Exabytes shipped still shows 90% remains behind SAS infrastructure 00:27:50 – Power comparisons between SSD and HDD are not clear cut 00:29:35 – Hyper-scalers focus on “slot cost” 00:30:30 – What businesses are using SAS solutions – Meta 00:31:55 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs #238 – SAS 24GB+ Updates with Rick Kutcipal #74 – All About Serial Attached SCSI with Rick Kutcipal Copyright (c) 2016-2024 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #fr3a.

In this episode, Chris is in conversation with Ryan Farris (VP Product and Product Marketing) and Brandon Whitelaw (VP Cloud and Strategic Partnerships) at Qumulo. As the IT world becomes ever more focused on a hybrid cloud model, file storage becomes increasingly important, due to the legacy of applications and data already written to work with file servers. However, file storage in the public cloud doesn’t have the same features and flexibility as native object or block storage solutions. Most solutions operate and feel like on-premises infrastructure, lifted and shifted to the public cloud. So, what should file storage look like in a hybrid cloud world? Listen to find out! As we were recording this podcast, Qumulo was planning a big product announcement of the “Scale Anywhere” platform. New features include native support on Microsoft Azure and distributed file system capabilities. Check out the details here – https://qumulo.com/a-new-era-for-cloud-file-storage/ Elapsed Time: 00:39:29 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:22 – How are customers moving their around the enterprise today? 00:03:11 – How is data workflow changing? 00:05:52 – Is most new data unstructured? 00:07:30 – Unstructured data has become mission critical content 00:08:50 – Where is new data being created? 00:11:58 – File is becoming more important for cloud apps, but are they all useful? 00:14:55 – Re-writing to an object store is not a cost efficient plan 00:16:49 – Enterprises could have hundreds of apps writing to a central NAS platform 00:18:55 – Object storage users expect worse latency than file systems 00:20:40 – What data mobility solutions and requirements are we going to see? 00:24:10 – NAS for hybrid cloud needs a new set of requirements 00:27:05 – Requirements, presentation layer, endpoint capability, data moving capability 00:30:15 – How does Qumulo deliver to these requirements? 00:35:37 – What has Qumulo just announced? 00:38:45 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs #189 – The Quiet Success of Software-Defined Storage Data Mobility – Global/Scale-out Data Platforms Copyright (c) 2016-2023 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #d3ee.

In this live episode, recorded at Hitachi Exchange in Paris, Chris chats to Gary Lyng, VP of Products and Solutions at Hitachi Vantara. The company recently announced the VSP One platform, plus some organisational changes that will take Hitachi Vantara back to a focus on core infrastructure. This recording dives into the strategy behind VSP One, before new products and services follow in 2024. We covered the VSP One announcement and reorganisation details in a blog post, available here – https://www.architecting.it/blog/hitachi-vsp-one/ More information on Hitachi Vantara is available through our X-Ray eBook (subscription required). Elapsed Time: 00:31:37 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:50 – The 100% availability guarantee is 20+ years old 00:02:40 – What is the VSP One announcement? 00:04:10 – With many silos, infrastructure has become complex 00:07:05 – The current announcement is a strategy, products due in 2024 00:08:10 – Modern storage requirements have evolved 00:09:55 – Reliability, consistency and availability are key attributes of modern systems 00:13:30 – GenAI and analytics are driving data volumes 00:14:55 – Can data be culled or at least tidied? 00:15:50 – Humans like to keep “stuff” 00:19:45 – Modern IT systems can never be offline 00:21:20 – Cloud now has high performance instances that can build virtual SANs 00:24:20 – DLM is back, but in a new way, as data value can increase over time 00:25:05 – Keeping data “forever” doesn’t really mean forever 00:27:00 – Hitachi Vantara has restructured to move capabilities to Hitachi Digital Services 00:30:50 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs Hitachi Vantara reorganises and announces the VSP One platform #160 – Updates on Hitachi Ops Center with Stan Stevens #154 – Hitachi Vantara VSP E990 NVMe Midrange Appliance Copyright (c) 2016-2023 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #r4dx.

In this episode, Chris chats with Abel Gordon, Chief System Architect at Lightbits Labs, discussing the challenges and benefits of building a virtual storage area network (SAN) on public cloud infrastructure. Lightbits originally developed the NVMe/TCP protocol and uses this feature to build virtual SANs using public cloud instances. This is a topic we first looked at in episode #210, so it’s good to get a practitioner’s experience. Modern public cloud now features fast networking, low-latency NVMe and high-performance virtual and physical instances. Unfortunately, NVMe devices are ephemeral and any provisioned storage in the cloud is charged at full capacity. For users of on-premises SANs, the lack of thin provisioning may be an unwelcome surprise. Why build a virtual SAN, other than to save storage costs? There’s a lot more involved, including delivering resiliency, scalability, targeted performance and capacity. Abel discusses the benefits, then goes on to enumerate the challenges involved when building on vendor-owned infrastructure. Finally, the discussion moves on to how Lightbits’ software is deployed and operated, including the managed application capability in Microsoft Azure. For more information on Lightbits Labs, visit the company website at https://www.lightbitslabs.com/ As Abel, suggests you can contact him on LinkedIn or email him directly at abel@lightbitslabs.com. Elapsed Time: 00:51:15 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:02:07 – Why build a virtual SAN in the public cloud 00:04:30 – SANs balance out and fully exploit available performance resources 00:06:36 – Public cloud charges for performance and capacity 00:08:12 – On-premises SANs offered full flexibility to manage all metrics 00:09:25 – Cloud autoscaling combined with software gives much more flexible storage 00:13:27 – The on-demand nature of cloud works well for scaling SANs 00:14:40 – New cloud features – NVMe, fast networking and NVMe/TCP have enabled solutions 00:17:19 – What is NVMe/TCP? 00:20:50 – What challenges are there in delivering a SAN on public cloud instances? 00:24:03 – Cloud providers optimise for their system, not for your application 00:25:02 – What operating system issues exist when building a virtual SAN? 00:28:27 – Userspace operation requires a different programming strategy 00:31:00 – NUMA awareness is essential, even in the public cloud 00:32:46 – Each new instance type requires retesting and validation 00:35:53 – What is the Lightbits solution and how is it deployed? 00:37:00 – NVMe cloud drives are ephemeral 00:41:35 – Snapshots work differently in the public cloud 00:44:12 – Is Lightbits dedicated or HCI? 00:46:32 – How is the solution consumed? 00:47:29 – Azure offers management application capability 00:50:36 – Wrap up Related Podcasts & Blogs Is the Public Cloud Becoming More Reliable? Zesty Optimises AWS EC2 EBS Storage Storage QoS In The Cloud #97 – Building Storage Using NVMe/TCP with Kam Eshghi from Lightbits Labs #121 – NVMe 1.4 Deep Dive Part II with J Metz #210 – Building SANs in the Cloud Copyright (c) 2016-2023 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #cv54.

In this episode, Chris meets with Pure Storage co-founder John Colgrove (aka Coz) to discuss where the future of data storage lies in the enterprise. This recording was made at the October 2023 Pure//Accelerate event in London and has a little bit of microphone noise at the beginning (apologies!). However, keep listening for some great insights. In this conversation, Coz explains how Pure Storage has put efficiency at the core of design and product evolution. However, this doesn’t just mean an increase in media capacity, but a vastly improved density and power consumption story. Gains are also being made in software, with continuous improvements in erasure coding overhead and data reduction techniques like compression. Where will the future lie? NAND flash has many years to go yet, replacing the HDD entirely in the enterprise, if Pure Storage is to be believed. In the meantime, materials science improvements will continue to drive costs down and capacities up. Exactly how far those trends will continue remains to be seen, but we can guarantee that vendors like Pure Storage will be focused on continuous delivery of value to customers. Elapsed Time: 00:20:36 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:02:55 – Change is in place in the storage industry 00:03:22 – Power budgets are determining technology choices 00:06:02 – Customers want greater efficiency 00:08:35 – New chassis will allow more modules in the same physical space 00:09:54 – A modern SSD has the capability of an entire rack of storage from 2000 00:11:31 – Can we envisage an 11PB flash module? 00:12:24 – Gains aren’t always about increases, but about reductions 00:13:02 – Pure Storage merges engineering, software and commercials 00:15:44 – Materials science is driving the improvements in computing 00:17:39 – New technologies will appear to replace flash 00:18:20 – Optane was killed off by economics 00:20:03 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs Storage Unpacked 251 – Modernising Storage as a Service with Prakash Darji Storage Unpacked 248 – FlashArray R4 Announcements from Pure Accelerate 2023 Storage Unpacked 245 – Design Strategies fro 300TB Flash Drives with Shawn Rosemarin Pure Storage announces Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service, SLA guarantees and operational cost rebates Pure Storage: No New Hard Drives WIll be Sold by 2028 – Really? Copyright (c) 2016-2023 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #swqa

In this episode, Chris is in conversation with Prakash Darji, VP and GM of the Digital Experience Business Unit at Pure Storage. The company has just announced a new Paid Power & Rack Space offering, new SLAs for service delivery and Pure Protect //DRaaS a new disaster recovery solution delivered as a service. New customers of Pure Storage with Evergreen//One and Evergreen//Flex will be eligible for rebates on power and rack space costs over the term of their subscription. This is returned as cash or a discount on future purchases. New SLAs have been introduced that cover data durability (Zero Data Loss) and no forklift upgrades (No Data Migration). Pure Protect //DRaaS is a new offering that provides disaster recovery as a service, from on-premises VMware vSphere deployments to the AWS public cloud and back again. The overall message is the transformation of Pure Storage’s business to be more service-focused and encompass all aspects of storage and data. Elapsed Time: 00:36:17 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:15 – Announcements – Paid Power & Rack Space 00:02:00 – New SLAs, Zero Data Loss, No Data Migration 00:02:25 – New DR as a Service – Pure Protect //DRaaS 00:03:00 – What is Pure’s SaaS Strategy? 00:04:30 – Hardware tends to age (and get worse) over time 00:04:45 – Pure offers both Hardware as a Service and Software as a Service 00:05:30 – Legacy storage deployments are like a phoenix reborn 00:08:10 – Why would Pure Storage pay customers’ data centre bills? 00:11:00 – Costs were estimated with partners (Equinix, Digital Realty) and the IEA 00:13:45 – Infrastructure TCO is important today, due to power costs 00:15:00 – New SLAs – No Data Migration Guarantee – No Forklift Upgrades 00:23:30 – Pure Protect //DRaaS – a slight diversion for Pure Storage 00:26:15 – //DRaaS will protect VMware instances to AWS (and back) 00:27:45 – DR used to be based on physical storage replication 00:29:30 – Future Pure Protect solutions could use storage natively 00:31:15 – Storage DR was never about the storage replication! 00:33:00 – Pure1 is solidifying as the focus of Pure Storage solutions 00:34:30 – When will the new features be available? 00:35:30 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs Pure Storage Announces Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service, SLA guarantees and operational cost rebates X-Ray: Pure Storage, Inc. Pure Storage Introduces a Revamped Evergreen Programme #185 – Pure-as-a-Service 2.0 Copyright (c) 2016-2023 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #l4re

In this episode Chris gets an update on new announcements from Infinidat, including SSA Express and higher-capacity SSA II systems. SSA Express is a new feature of the InfiniBox “classic” platform that allows customers to implement what looks like a virtual SSA (all-flash array) within a hybrid InfiniBox. The solution effectively pins volumes in SSD rather than allowing the data to cascade to the HDD layer, with the benefit of SSA performance for no additional cost on 95% of hardware in the field. Infinidat has also introduced a new SSA II, the F4316T with up to 6.6PB of effective capacity, doubling the previous maximum. The F4304T has been discontinued, so to meet the requirements of customers to scale from small to large systems, the existing F4308T and new F4316T can be initially deployed at 60%, 80% and 100% full. This scale-up option gives customers choice on how to deploy and extend all-flash implementations. More information on the new offerings can be found at https://www.infinidat.com/ and more details on Infinidat at our Infinidat Microsite. Elapsed Time: 00:33:51 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:00 – Quick update on announcements this year 00:03:30 – Vendors need to be offering value-add 00:04:25 – SSA Express is a software upgrade to add an embedded all-flash array 00:05:30 – SSA gains expansion and scale-up capabilities 00:06:40 – What is the SSA (and SSA II)? 00:08:45 – SSA Express is a free software upgrade 00:10:55 – SSA Express is similar to pinned volumes 00:13:20 – Infinidat will validate the suitability for SSA Express 00:14:50 – Most vendors don’t retro-fit a feature across all historical platforms 00:16:55 – InfiniBox is generally deployed fully configured 00:18:20 – SSA now offers double capacity with F4316T 00:24:05 – The new scalability allows customers to grow capacity more easily 00:25:35 – Partially populated SSA II still runs at 100% performance 00:28:10 – Value add for the customer is important in the current market 00:31:35 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs Storage Unpacked 247 – Infinidat announces InfuzeOS Cloud Edition and InfiniSafe Cyber Detection Storage Unpacked 231 – Introducing Infinidat InfiniBox SSA II Storage Unpacked 227 – Infinidat InfiniGuard Enhancements with Eric Herzog Infinidat Microsite The Quiet Success of Infinidat Copyright (c) 2016-2023 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #nf34

In this episode, Chris talks to Derek Dicker, CEO at Nyriad about the UltraIO storage array. Nyriad has developed a new storage architecture using GPUs that accelerate the calculations needed to store data using erasure coding. This enables UltraIO to implement system-wide data protection using erasure coding at the block level. In contrast to most storage vendors in the market today, the UltraIO platform uses hard disk drives, with a GPU to process data ingested by the system, while data is presented back through the CPU route. This dual processor architecture enables Nyriad to deliver a product with 20GB/s of throughput, scale to multiple petabytes of capacity and provide dynamic data protection defined by the customer. Nyriad sees UltraIO being used across four industries – HPC, Media & Entertainment, Backup and Recovery, and Active Archive. Essentially the solution excels at handling large volumes of unstructured data that needs high throughput processing. Learn more about Nyriad, the origins of the solution with the Square Kilometre Array and customer examples at https://www.nyriad.io/ Elapsed Time: 00:32:28 Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:01:40 – UltraIO was introduced in 2022 00:02:25 – Why is UltraIO different to traditional storage systems? 00:03:30 – GPUs can be used within data storage systems 00:04:10 – The Square Kilometre Array was an early customer 00:06:15 – UltraIO fits a specific set of requirements around data ingestion throughput 00:06:55 – UltraIO uses hard disk drives and erasure coding 00:08:00 – Ingested data is processed via GPU, then accessed by CPU 00:10:00 – Erasure coding allows customer-based resiliency settings 00:12:00 – The hardware for UltraIO uses standardised off the shelf hardware 00:14:50 – What markets does UltraIO fit? (HPC, M&E, Backup/Recovery & Active Archive) 00:16:15 – The UltraIO architecture has strong sustainability characteristics 00:18:45 – Most vendors have moved away from HDDs 00:23:00 – Digital Image replaced three systems with an UltraIO 00:24:20 – Don’t keep data forever! 00:26:35 – UltraIO helped Digital Glue deliver a media asset management solution 00:27:30 – System capacities are from one to three petabytes raw 00:29:15 – Nyriad works through the channel 00:31:00 – Wrap Up Copyright (c) 2016-2023 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #3erd

In this episode, Chris talks to Dan Kogan, VP of Product Management for FlashArray at Pure Storage. At Pure Accelerate 2023 in Las Vegas, Pure Storage announced upgraded FlashArray//X and FlashArray//C systems with fourth generation (R4) hardware. There is also a new platform, FlashArray//E, the sibling to the FlashBlade//E announced earlier in the year. The R4 upgrades to the //X and //C models implement the latest Intel processors (Sapphire Rapids), DDR5 memory and PCIe 4.0. This combination claims to provide a 40% performance improvement over R3 systems. The FlashArray//E is the “eco” version of FlashArray, with the same goals as the FlashBlade//E, to replace legacy HDD systems. This new platform scales from 1-4PB in capacity, overlapping with FlashBlade//E, which scales from 4PB to around 20PB. The new systems introduce 75TB QLC and 36TB TLC DFMs (DirectFlash Modules), moving Pure Storage closer to the goal of delivering 300TB DFMs by 2026. Elapsed Time: 00:32:13 You can find lots of background information on FlashArray and other Pure Storage announcements through our dedicated Pure Storage Microsite (or see some of the links below). Pure Accelerate is taking place in Las Vegas between 14-16 June 2023. Timeline 00:00:00 – Intros 00:00:40 – What are the new FlashArray announcements? 00:02:35 – What are current challenges for enterprise customers? 00:04:20 – Environmental factors and human factors affect modern storage management 00:06:10 – The FlashArray family now supports a broad range of requirements 00:07:44 – Data mobility is now also a factor to realign data on platforms 00:10:19 – New R4 systems deliver 40% performance improvements 00:12:34 – Customers with subscriptions gain inclusive significant improvements 00:14:32 – What are the new model capacities? 00:18:13 – FlashArray//E is the block equivalent of FlashBlade//E 00:20:56 – FlashArray//E scales 1-4PB, then FlashBlade//E takes over 00:23:30 – DFMs now deliver 75TB (QLC) and 36TB (TLC) 00:28:00 – The new solutions integrate into Pure1, Fusion and Evergreen 00:30:49 – Are the new products available now? 00:31:20 – Wrap Up Related Podcasts & Blogs #245 – Design Strategies for 300TB Flash Drives with Shawn Rosemarin from Pure Storage #243 – Introducing FlashBlade//E #234 – Introducing Pure Storage FlashBlade//S with CTO Rob Lee #232 – Building Power-Efficient Storage Systems with Justin Emerson from Pure Storage #133 – FlashArray//C Deeper Dive with Pete Kirkpatrick Pure Storage Natively Unified Block and File Protocols on FlashArray Pure Storage adds a SmartNIC to FlashArray//XL Pure Storage Introduces FlashArray//XL Pure Storage FlashArray//C Copyright (c) 2016-2023 Unpacked Network. No reproduction or re-use without permission. Podcast episode #pst4